Michael Edward Ash

Michael Edward Ash (17 December 1927 – 30 April 2016)[1] was a British mathematician and brewer. Ash led a team that invented a nitrogenated dispense system for Guinness stout, which evolved to become the beer now sold globally as Draught Guinness. As the manager in charge of the Easy Serve project, Ash is credited as the inventor of nitrogenated beer[2] (sometimes known as "nitro beer" colloquially).[3] He was Managing Director of Crooks Laboratories (1962–1972) where he was responsible for securing the license for an early anti-depressant in the UK, Prothiaden.

Education and early life

Born in Calcutta, India to a civil engineer father and mother Maud (née Harper) Ash attended two prep schools in the UK, The old Ride School & then Yarlet Hall. He then went on to Canford School, Wimborne, Dorset, and was further educated at Trinity College, Cambridge from 1945-1948. At Trinity, he read mathematics, received a first in the Mathematical Tripos, won the Rouse Ball prize, and the Senior Wrangler Title[4] for 1948.

Ash's father, Wilfred Cracroft Ash was a successful civil engineer in British India who also made a large engineering contribution to the 1939-1945 War against the Nazis. He was a co-founder of the construction company Gilbert-Ash and is noted for technological inventions in prestressed concrete. His brother was Maurice Ash the environmentalist, writer and planner. He also had a sister, Marjorie Ash.

Career

Following graduation from Cambridge, Ash lectured in mathematics at The Bedford College for women for three years before joining Guinness & Co. at their London Brewery in Park Royal in January 1951.

After training as a brewer by 1954 Ash also had experience of running two departments (Brewing and Forwarding) and in 1955 he was given his own department the 'Sample Room', which had facilities for experimentation. The 'Draught problem' was given to Ash as part of his briefing from the managing Director, Hugh Beaver. At the time, Guinness used a convoluted draught system in which highly conditioned beer was blended with aged, nearly still beer.[5] It was a slow, arduous process that limited the ability of draught dispense to reach a more global market.

Guinness had for years been looking for a system in which a barman with no special training could pour a glass of draught in a matter of seconds to settle quickly with a head (3/8" in a normal ½ pint glass).

Ash realized the solution lay in the use of a blend of nitrogen and carbon dioxide (beer typically just uses the latter), but it took years to figure out a mechanism to dispense nitrogenated beer. Inside Guinness, Ash’s quest was regarded as quixotic, and other brewers chided it as “daft Guinness” and the “Ash Can.” Eventually, working with a keg designer, Ash hit on a revolutionary, self-contained two-part keg, with one chamber full of beer and the other full of mixed gas under pressure, and the introduction of nitrogen.[6] Nitrogen is less soluble than carbon dioxide, which allows the beer to be put under high pressure without making it fizzy. The high pressure of dissolved gas is required to enable very small bubbles to be formed by forcing the draught beer through fine holes in a plate in the tap, which causes the characteristic 'surge'.

Ultimately called the "easy serve system," it began to replace the old "high and low" taps used in Ireland and spread to Great Britain and beyond beginning in the 1960s. The invention, which made for a smoother, less characterful beer, was not without controversy, and for years a minority of Irish drinkers complained about the change. Eventually, nitrogrenated stout became a standard, not just at Guinness but among all Irish makers of stout.

Ash left the brewing side of Guinness in 1962 to become managing director of Crooks Laboratories in Park Royal (owned by Guinness). Crooks moved to Basingstoke in 1965. At Crooks Ash was responsible for acquiring the licence for the anti-depressant Prothiaden (Dosulepin) in 1967. From 1970 onwards Ash followed various interests including business education and was a founding governor of Templeton College Oxford.

Personal life

Ash met his first wife, Dulcie Joan Orme (Canadian) in 1950 at a party in Hampstead London; in May 1951 they married in London. They had four children: Lionel Michael Ash, born 1953 (died as an infant in 1953); Lucinda (known as Lucy) Jane Orme, born 1955; Frances Mildred, born 1958; and (Michael) Edward Cracroft. born 1960 (all in London). In 1975 Ash divorced and married his second wife Gillian Issobel Little; she died in 2007. He lived the last part of his life in Painscastle, in Powys, Wales, and died on April 30, 2016.[7]

Publications

His publications include -

References

  1. ↑ "| News | Brecon & Radnor Express". Brecon-radnor.co.uk. 2016-06-02. Retrieved 2016-10-24.
  2. ↑ "Good Beer Gas: Nitro Beers Explained". CraftBeer.com. 2016-07-15. Retrieved 2016-10-24.
  3. ↑ "The man who created the nitro stout", Morning Advertiser, 17 May 2016.
  4. ↑ "Making Guinness Guinness - Michael Ash (1945)". The Fountain Issue 23. Trinity College, Cambridge. Retrieved 2017-03-26. Michael’s mathematical ability was similarly evident as he became Senior Wrangler during his studies.
  5. ↑ Cornell, Martyn (2011-11-08). Amber, Gold and Black: The History of Britain's Great Beers. History Press. ISBN 9780752475943.
  6. ↑ "The Man Who Invented Nitro". 2016-05-25. Retrieved 2016-10-03.
  7. ↑ "The remarkable story of the Guinness pioneer who settled in Powys", The Brecon & Radnor Express, 2 June 2016.

Bibliography

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