328 BEER, BAVARIAN 



vith a white froth from one quarter to ono half an inch thick, during which it must 

 be well covered up. Tho largo fermenting tun must in like manner be kept covered 

 oven in the vault. The colder the worts, the more yoast must be used. For the above 

 quantity, at 



From 57 to 59 F 6 Maas of Unterhefe. 



53 to 55 . . . .8 ' 



48 to 50 . . . . 10 

 41 to 43 .... 12 



Some recommend that wort for this kind of fermentation (the tintergahrung') should 

 be set with the yeast at from 48 to 57 ; but the general practice at Munich is to set 

 the summer or Lagerbier at from 41 to 43 F. 



By following the preceding directions, the wort in the tun should, in the course of 

 from 12 to 24 hours, exhibit a white froth round the rim, and even a slight whiteness 

 in the middle. After another 12 to 24 hours, the froth should appear in curls ; and, 

 in a third like period, these curls should be changed into a still higher frothy brownish 

 mass. In from 24 to 48 hours more, the barm should have fallen down in portions 

 through the beer, so as to allow it to be seen in certain points. In this case it may be 

 turned over into the smaller ripening tuns in the course of other five or six days. 

 But when the worts have been set to ferment at from 41 to 43 F., they require from 

 eight to nine days. The beer is transferred, after being freed from the top yeast by a 

 skimmer, by means of the stopcock near the bottom of the large tun. It is either 

 first run into an intermediate vessel, in order that the top and bottom portions may be 

 well mixed, or into each of the Layer casks, in a numbered series, like quantities of the 

 top and bottom portions are introduced. In the ripening cellars the temperature can- 

 not be too low. The best keeping beer can never be brewed unless the temperature of 

 the worts at setting, and of course the fermenting vault, be as low as 50 F. In 

 Bavaria, where this manufacture is carried on under Government inspectors, a brewing 

 period is prescribed by law, which is, for the under-fermenting Lagerbier, from Michael- 

 mas (29th September) to St. George (23rd April). From the latter to the former period 

 the ordinary top-barm beer alone is to bo made. The ripening casks must not be 

 quite full, and they are to be closed merely with a loose bung, in order to allow of the 

 working over of the ferment. But should the fermentation appear too languid, after 

 six or eight days, a little briskly fermenting Lagerbier may be introduced. The store 

 Lagerbier tuns are not to be quite filled, so as to prevent all the yeasty particles from 

 being discharged in the ripening fermentation ; but the pot Lagerbier tuns must be made 

 quite full, as this beverage is intended for speedy sale within a few weeks of its being 

 made. 



As soon as the summer-beer vaults are charged with their ripening casks and with 

 ice-cold air, they are closed air-tight with triple doors, having small intervals between, 

 so that one may be entered and shut again before the next is opened. These vaults 

 are sometimes made in ranges radiating from a centre, and at others in rooms set off 

 at right angles to a main gallery, so that in either case, when the external opening is 

 well secured with triple air-tight doors, it may be entered at any time, in order to in- 

 spect the interior without the admission of warm air to the beer-barrels. The wooden 

 bungs for loosely stopping them must be coated with the proper pitch, to prevent the 

 possibility of their imparting any acetous ferment. 



The Government has taken great pains to improve this national beverage, by en- 

 couraging the growth of the best qualities of hops and barley. The vaults in which 

 the beer is fermented, ripened, and kept, are all under ground, and mostly in stony 

 excavations called Felsenkelkr, or rock-cellars. The beer is divided into two sorts, 

 called summer and winter. The latter is light, and, being intended for immediate retail 

 in tankards, is termed Schenkbier. The other, or the Lagerbier, very sensibly increases 

 in vinous strength in proportion as it decreases in sweetness, by the judicious manage- 

 ment of the Naohg'dhrung, or fermentation in the casks. In several parts of Germany 

 a keeping quality is communicated to beers by burning sulphur in the casks before 

 filling them, or by the introduction of sulphite of lime ; but the flavour thus imparted 

 is disliked in Munich, Bayreuth, Eegensburg, Nurnberg, Hof, and the other chief 

 towns of Bavaria, instead of which a preservative virtue is sought for in an aromatic 

 mineral, or Tyrol pitch, with which the inside of the casks are carefully coated, and 

 in which the ripe beer is kept and exported. In December and January, after the 

 casks are charged with the summer or store beer, the double doors of the cellars are 

 closed, and lumps of ice are piled up against them, to prevent all access of warm air. 

 The cellar is not opened till next August, in order to take out the beer for consump- 

 tion. In these circumstances the beer becomes transparent like champagne wine ; and, 

 since but little carbonic acid gas has been disengaged, little or none of the additionally 

 generated alcohol is lost by evaporation. 



