Brown started work at the
Worthington Brewery in 1866. His focus was to solve practical
brewing problems by employing and developing fundamental scientific principles. His research work considered
barley germination,
beer microbiology, water composition,
oxygen and
fermentation, beer
haze formation,
wort composition and beer analysis. A true
polymath, he left his mark on virtually all areas of science as applied to brewing, in a career which lasted over 50 years. His earliest work concerned treatment of
sewage and analyses of the
Burton waters. Later he took up study of
geology, being led to it by pressing requirements in connection with the water supply of Burton. This entailed a good deal of field surveying, which was embodied in a paper on the
Permian Rocks of the Leicestershire Coalfield. He was elected a
Fellow of the Royal Society in 1889. From 1890 onward studied the assimilation of
Carbon dioxide in plants. He also established the
Guinness Research Laboratory in
Dublin in 1901. He died at 5 Evelyn Gardens, Kensington. ==Awards==