INSTITUTE AND COLLEGE, PUSA, fruit 1013-14. 89 



numerous species of ferments, and in the rice beer itself 

 there may be deleterious substances derived from the same 

 source. It is thought that the manufacture of the Bakhar 

 or yeast might with advantage be controlled in order to 

 provide brewers with a reliable ferment of uniform com- 

 position and action, and examination of samples of this 

 material from various sources shows that the fermenting 

 organisms present differ widely in character and effect. 



The fermentation of rice differs from that of barley in 

 one important respect, in that the rice as a consequence of 

 husking loses its power of germination, and with it is also 

 lost the natural change from starch to sugar produced by the 

 enzymes formed during this process ; this change m the case 

 of barley is characteristic of the operation known as malt- 

 ing, which results in the change of the starch of the grain 

 into sugar, a necessary antecedent to fermentation by yeast. 

 In the case of rice it is therefore necessary to produce the 

 change of starch into sugar known as saccharihcation, by 

 the addition of some form of saccharifying ferment which 

 will provide the enzyme diastase by which this change 

 may be brought about. Bariey grain on germination pro- 

 duces diastase which under suitable conditions converts 

 the starch of the grain into sugar, the grain thus altered in 

 composition being known as malt; the same result is 

 obtained with rice by the addition of Bakhar which con- 

 tains various fungi or moulds whose natural growth on a 

 starchy medium is accompanied by the secretion of dias- 

 tase. The efficiency of a sample of Bakhar (which is made 

 up and sold in the form of small greyish white cakes of 

 about one ounce in weight) will therefore depend hrstly 

 upon its containing an efficient diastase-producing fungus, 

 and examination has shown that the samples collected from 

 various sources differ widely in respect to the kinds of 

 fungi present and their correlated diastasic power with 

 regard to rice starch. When the Bakhar cake is powdered 

 and mixed with rice which has been prepared by moisten- 

 ing, the fungi present form mycelial growth which involves 

 the rice grains and gradually converts their starch into 



