"THAT BAD BEVERAGE, BEER" 



By ADRIAN J. BROWN 



Professor of Brewing in the University of Birmingham 



Although the use of beer in one form or another has been 

 common among us for many generations, there is a persistent 

 recurrence of interest in its manufacture and ingredients, due 

 on the one hand to the efforts of those who regard it as an 

 entirely pernicious drink, capable of inflicting untold harm on the 

 community, on the other hand of those who take a less rigorous 

 attitude but are still eager to profess their anxiety lest a drink so 

 popular should fall below a standard of purity which they 

 conceive to be attainable only by the use of malt and hops. 

 Between the two parties, who may be described respectively 

 as " No Beerites " and " Pure Beerites," there is a wide gulf 

 fixed ; but their united voices are sufficient to keep the public 

 mind on the alert and to make it worth while to consider the 

 matter of beer-making from the standpoint of science. 



Although the word " beer" occurs in various forms in several 

 languages, such as biere in French, bier in German, and beor in 

 Anglo-Saxon, its etymology is obscure. It probably shares the 

 origin of the word " brew " and is always used in the sense of 

 implying a beverage fermented by artificial means. This mode 

 of preparation serves to distinguish it from any variety of wine 

 which is produced by the natural or self-fermentation of the 

 juice of the grape or vine fruit. The use of the word " beer," as 

 implying an artificially-fermented beverage, is seen in names 

 such as " spruce beer," " ginger beer," etc., whilst the term 

 " beer," used alone, is customarily employed to indicate a fer- 

 mented beverage obtained by the use of some form of malted 

 cereal or other saccharine substance in conjunction with 

 hops. As will presently be seen, the process of artificial 

 fermentation is of great antiquity ; but it is certain that the 

 preparation of wine is a process of yet earlier origin. When 

 primitive man was engaged in harnessing Nature to his needs, 

 he would find the making of some sort of wine a simple task. 

 It may well be supposed that he stumbled upon the process by 

 accident, since it is easy to imagine that a vessel containing 



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