BEER, AND THE TEMPERANCE PROBLEM. 



259 



brewer's process is rich in sugars and allied 

 bodies, readily convertible into alcohol and car- 

 bonic acid in the subsequent process of fermen- 

 tation. Though the English brewer is permitted 

 by law to use cane-sugar, and sugar made from 

 maize, rice, or other starch-yielding materials, he 

 is yet forbidden the use of unmalted grain, 

 whether highly dried on the kiln or not, and is 

 therefore unable to employ materials yielding a 

 greater proportion of dextrine than he can obtain 

 from malt. It is true that the law allows the 

 conversion of raw grain into dextrine, dextrine- 

 maltose, and grape-sugar, but the brewer is for- 

 bidden such latitude of manufacture, and, as the 

 chief expense of the process consists in evapo- 

 rating the dilute saccharine liquid so as to render 

 it solid, it follows that the brewer in purchasing 

 such starch-sugars, and in again dissolving them 

 in water is put to a great and wasteful expendi- 

 ture in undoing what the excise laws have caused 

 to be done. 



The brewers of England must associate them- 

 selves together in order to obtain the repeal of 

 the present antiquated laws regulating the de- 

 tails of manufacture, and in place of a tax on 

 malt they should propose that the tax should be 

 levied on the weight of saccharine or amylaceous 

 materials employed in the tun. Thus free to use 

 the materials at their command to the best ad- 

 vantage, they would be enabled to employ, in 

 conjunction with malt, barleys which are unfit 

 for the malting process. These could readily be 

 converted by simple chemical means into dex- 

 trine-sugars or into glucose, or by simple torre- 

 faction into dextrine, as in the process for pre- 

 paring British gum. By such an alteration in 

 the law not only would the farmer benefit, by be- 

 ing able to grow barley on heavy land, but also 

 by being enabled to produce malt for his cattle — 

 a benefit, however, which I am bound to ac- 

 knowledge to be problematical. The great gain- 

 er, however, would be the working-man, inasmuch 

 as he would obtain a cheaper and more dextri- 

 nous ale. 



The German brewer is allowed to use unmalt- 

 ed grain, and is thus enabled to prepare a more 

 dextrinous beer. The chief method employed in 

 Germany to obtain such dextrinous beer is, how- 

 ever, by the system of mashing. The Bavarian 

 brewer mixes malt and water at a temperature 

 of 37° C., and allows the infusion process to go 

 on for a short time. A portion of the solid and 

 liquid contents of the tun is then pumped into 

 the boiler, where the mixture, not unlike gruel, 

 is boiled for half an hour, after which it is run 



back into the tun, the temperature of the whole 

 mash being thereby raised to about 50° C. After 

 a time another thick mash {Dickmaisch) is drawn 

 off and boiled, and again run into the tun, the 

 temperature of the contents being now raised to 

 60° C. The next process is to draw off a thin 

 mash (Lautermaiseh), which is boiled and re- 

 placed in the mash-tun, the temperature of the 

 whole contents of which is thereby raised to 75° 

 C. Without pursuing this interesting technical 

 process further, and without noticing the various 

 modifications followed in Bavaria, in Bohemia, 

 and in North Germany, it will suffice to state 

 that by this method of boiling a portion of the 

 malt some of the diastase is destroyed as a fer- 

 ment at each repetition of the process, and hence 

 the final product is richer in dextrine-sugars than 

 the corresponding product of the English infusion 

 system. This method of obtaining a highly-dex- 

 trinous infusion was invented by the Bavarians 

 long ago, and consequently before our present 

 chemical knowledge was at the brewer's com- 

 mand. It is needlessly laborious and expensive, 

 nor are the dextrine-sugars obtained of so stable 

 a character as may be produced by methods 

 based on our existing scientific knowledge ; the 

 application of which knowledge, however, is for- 

 bidden to the Eoglish brewer. 



Reverting to the English brewery, let us fol- 

 low the remaining stages of the manufacture of 

 beer. The infusion process being finished, the 

 wort — as the liquid containing the infusion prod- 

 ucts of the malt is termed — is then drawn off 

 from the insoluble residue, or grains, and boiled 

 in another vessel with hops, the quantity of this 

 valuable agent of preservation depending on the 

 character of the ale, and on the length of time 

 it is to be kept before consumption. Simple 

 boiling produces the coagulation of some of the 

 albuminous matters, a further portion being pre- 

 cipitated by the tannin of the hops. The boiled 

 wort is afterward cooled and placed in the fer- 

 menting vessels, and yeast added. The English 

 brewer commences the fermentation at a tem- 

 perature varying from 14° C. to 18° C., and as 

 the decomposition of the sugar by the yeast or- 

 ganism is attended with the production of heat, 

 the temperature rises rapidly unless precautions 

 be taken to prevent this. Some English brewers 

 allow the temperature to rise to 25° C., and even 

 higher, with great gain so far as rapidity of pro- 

 duction is concerned, but to the serious loss of 

 flavor, soundness, and wholesomeness, of the prod- 

 uct. Now, high and rapid fermentation not 

 merely produces an inferior product as regards 



