Huntington acquires Louis Pasteur’s notes on brewing beer

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SAN MARINO, Calif. (AP) β€” People interested in what kind of beer the guy who invented pasteurization kicked back with will want to pay a visit to San Marino’s Huntington Library.

The Huntington, whose treasures include a First Folio edition of Shakespeare’s plays, announced Tuesday it has acquired French scientist Louis Pasteur’s beer-brewing notes.

The extensive writings from the 1870s were acquired earlier this month, along with such other items as a collection of unpublished letters and poems from Jane Austen’s family.

Huntington science history curator Melissa Lo says Pasteur’s notes show he was not only trying to develop a better beer, but working on concepts he would also apply to such scientific breakthroughs as disease-preventing vaccinations.

His most famous accomplishment, developing pasteurization, kills disease-causing microbes in substances like milk.