306 BEER 



lation of the albuminous matter. Those principles indicate tho true mode of conducting 

 the mashing process, but different kinds of malt require a different treatment; pale and 

 slightly kilned malt requires a somewhat lower heat than malt highly kilned, because 

 the former is more ready to become pasty, and, for the same reason, needs a more 

 leisurely infusion than the latter ; and this is still more applicable to the case of a 

 mixture of raw grain with malt, for it requires still gentler heats and more cautious 

 treatment. 



It is quite practicable to obtain from 1 part of malt and 8 parts of barley, a wort 

 precisely similar to that procured from 9 parts of pure malt alone. But, of course, 

 this could not be done without modifying considerably the process of mashing ; and 

 it happens, unfortunately, that the practice of the present day, amongst brewers, is to 

 maintain, as closely as possible, one uniform system of mashing, whatever may be the 

 nature or quality of the malt employed. Thus a difference in the malt is made to 

 produce a difference in the wort, and all the energy and skill of the practical brewer 

 are sometimes insufficient to compensate for the alterations which this difference 

 induces in tho subsequent working of the beer. With a regular and certain com- 

 position, as to the constituents of his wort, the operations of the brewer would assume 

 a fixed and definite character, which, at present, they are very far indeed from pos- 

 sessing ; and by which he not unfrequently suffers the most severe pecuniary loss and 

 mental anxiety. With the exception of a trifling quantity of vegetable albumen, tho 

 only solid ingredients of beer-wort are dextrine and sugar ; the latter of which fer- 

 ments with great ease and rapidity, whilst the dextrine, though capable of fermenta- 

 tion, enters into the process only with difficulty, and requires, for its successful 

 termination, not only much more yeast, but also a much higher temperature in the 

 fermenting vat. At the same time, it is this very sluggishness in the fermentative 

 quality of dextrine which is essential to the production of good beer ; for, with sugar 

 alone, the fermentation cannot be checked at ordinary temperatures, until the full 

 measure of its decomposition has taken place, and it has become either a vapid admixture 

 of alcohol and water, or, by the absorption of oxygen, is resolved into vinegar. It is 

 indeed a notorious fact, that beer made with sugar will not keep so well as that made 

 from malt; though, for rapid consumption, the use of sugaris, under some circumstances, 

 to be commended, more especially on the small scale and in cold weather. The pecu- 

 liarity of dextrine is, however, as we have stated, to undergo fermentation only with 

 difficulty and by slow degrees ; hence its decomposition spreads over a long space of 

 time, and, in very cold weather, amounts to nothing; so that for months, or even years, 

 after all the sugar of the wort has been destroyed, the evolution of carbonic acid gas 

 from the still fermenting dextrine, keeps up a briskness and vitality in the beer ; and, 

 by excluding oxygen, all chance of acidification is shut off. A perfect beer-wort should 

 therefore have reference to the period of its consumption : if this be speedy and pressing, 

 the proportion of sugar ought to be large ; if remote, the dextrine should greatly 

 predominate. Under the first condition, the attenuation would proceed quickly, and, 

 provided the temperature of tho fermenting vat was not allowed to exceed 78, the beer 

 would soon cleanse and become ripe and bright ; under the second, the attenuation in 

 the vat would be slow and trifling, and require, perhaps, several years for its completion 

 in the cask. Nevertheless, if the attenuation in the vat had gone on to the complete 

 destruction of all the sugar, this kind of beer would prove in the end both the better and 

 more healthy beverage of the two ; for by the mode of its formation the presence of 

 oenanthic ether or fusel oil is avoided. The importance therefore of placing in the 

 hands of the brewer a means of determining the relative amounts of sugar and dextrine 

 in his wort is sufficiently obvious. Now, this may be done in two ways : either by 

 ascertaining, in wort of a determinate strength, the proportion of the one or the other 

 of these substances. The dextrine is easier of calculation than the sugar, in a rough 

 or approximate way ; but tho sugar can be determined with much more minute 

 accuracy than tho dextrine. Yet, in practice, the former plan is preferable, from its 

 simplicity, as we shall proceed to show. If, to a certain volume of strong wort (say 

 of 30 Ibs. per barrel), we add an equal amount of alcohol or spirits of wine, the whole 

 of the dextrine will precipitate as a dense coagulum ; and by examining the bulk of 

 this deposit in the tube, its weight may be inferred pretty nearly if the tube has been 

 previously graduated, so as to indicate, from actual experiment, the weight of the dif- 

 ferent measures of tho coagulated dextrine. With weaker wort, more alcohol must 

 be used, and with a denser wort, less alcohol, the relations of which to each other 

 may easily be kept recorded on a small card or scale affixed to the tube. This in- 

 strument is very easy of application, and has been found extremely useful to more 

 than one practical brewer of the present day ; and the accompanying record of 

 brewing operations has reference to this mode of analysing wort. The determina- 

 tion of sugar in wort is best effected by boiling 100 grains of it with about half a 

 pint of the following solution, and collecting and weighing the red-coloured pre- 



