MALT 



LIQUORS 



INDIAN BREWING 



of active germination during malting, and must not have germinated 

 before reaching the brewery. Damaged grain will rot during malting, 

 and thus lower very greatly the value of the material. [Cf. D.E.P., v., 128.] 

 The grain must be thoroughly screened and winnowed before it is 

 placed in the steeping- vats. It is now conveyed to the malting-floor, 

 where it softens and germinates. Simultaneous and uniform malting 

 is essential. When malting is completed, the grain is again screened to 

 remove the rootlets, then crushed, infused with water and hops added. 

 The infusion is next fermented, and shortly after the liquor is ready 

 for bottling and casking. 



Indian Indigenous Brewing. No one has hitherto attempted to produce a 

 definite statement of the art of brewing and of the beverages produced for the 

 whole, v of India. In the Excise Reports issued anmially by the various Provincial 

 Indian Beer. Governments, brief paragraphs now and again deal with what appear to be 

 beverages akin to beer and ale. As already explained, pachwai is made from 

 fermented grain, mostly rice ; it is thus a form of beer, but when distilled it 

 becomes a kind of spirit or whisky, and in that case is called phatika or madira. 

 On the other hand, toddy or tari (palm juice) fermented, but not distilled, 

 Indian Me. corresponds very closely with the theoretic definition of ale, and when distilled 



becomes the spirit generally called arak. But palm juice is often drunk without 

 being fermented, and is then spoken of as " sweet tari." For this purpose the 

 law requires that a private person tapping his own trees must wash the interior 

 of the collecting vessels with lime-water so as to prevent fermentation taking 

 place. ^ Similarly a sweet drink or fermented ale is often prepared from mahua 

 flowers. 



Pachwai. In the Excise Reports for both Bengal and Assam, pachwai and tari are 



mentioned. (See Oryza (Revenue), p. 840. ) The licenses granted for home-brewing 

 of pachwai are explained : these are issued (mostly to hill tribes) without limit as 

 to quantity, but at a fixed annual fee. The beverage cannot, however, be sold. 

 Tari. In the Central Provinces the revenue from tari consists of license fees paid for 



the right to manufacture and to vend. But pachwai and sagda are in these 

 provinces spoken of as " Native Beer." [Cf. Hooper, Rept Labor. Ind. Mus. 

 (Indust. Sec.), 1903-4, 35.] In the reports of the United Provinces reference is 

 given to tari (the juice of Sornssus), to sendhi (the juice of Flux-nix), to boza, a fer- 

 mented liquor made from rice, and to darbahra, a fermented beverage from 

 various herbs (not known). Of Madras, mention is made of both sweet and fer- 

 mented " toddy " collected from the cocoanut, sago, palmyra and date palms, also 

 from a palm not previously recorded as affording the juice, namely the dadasal 

 or dadsel (.irenn trigtitu). Of Bombay toddy, it is said the revenue in 

 1903-4 came to Rs. 15,52,000. This was raised both by a tree tax and a vendor's 

 license. The chief trees tapped are the date palm, the brab (J*wlmy>a) and the 

 cocoanut. The total number of trees tapped in 1903-4 was 231,245. Unlike 

 Madras, tree-tapping for sweet toddy is not permitted, as fermentation is said to be 

 set up immediately the juice is drawn from the stem. In a special experiment 

 separately reported, thirty-two brab trees yielded in Salsette during the month 

 February 16 to March 15, 1904 a total of 176 gallons of toddy. The Burmese 

 reports speak of " fermented " liquors under two headings (a) other than 

 tari, and (b) tari. The consumption of fresh tari is allowed without being 

 subject to a tax, and the owners of trees may sell the juice obtained from 

 their trees to professional tari makers without paying any fees. Of the non-tori 

 beverages, mention is made of kaung, seinye, hlawza and seye. These are said to 

 Yeast. be manufactured from rice, fermentation being procured by yeast. It would seem 



that a mistake may have been made regarding both the grain and the ferment. 

 Coix is certainly largely employed by the hill tribes, but the ferment need not 

 be yeast as understood in Europe. (See Bassia, pp. 118-9; Borassus, pp. 170-1; 

 Caryota, p. 286 ; Cocos, pp . 361-2 ; Phoenix, p. 886 ; Setaria, p. 988 ; Spirits, p. 1047.) 

 Anglo-Indians. European Beer. Turning now to Indian beer brewed after the European 



method. In the writings of the early European visitors to that country, frequent 

 mention is made of "beer" or of "country ale," but whether these were malted 

 beers or merely the various sweet-liquor beverages already indicated, under the 

 name toddy or tari, it would be difficult to say. The English word "toddy" 

 comes, of course, from the Indian tari, and was originally, and in India is to-day, 



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