288 FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE 



low fermentation, ten, fifteen, even twenty days are found 

 necessary. Vast quantities of ice, moreover, are consumed 

 in the process of low fermentation. In the single brewery 

 of Dreher, of Vienna, a hundred million pounds of ice are 

 consumed annually in cooling the wort and beer. Not- 

 withstanding these obvious and weighty drawbacks, the 

 low fermentation is rapidly displacing the high upon 

 the Continent. Here are some statistics which show the 

 number of breweries of both kinds existing in Bohemia 

 in 1860, 1865, and 1870: 



1800 



High Fermentation *281 



Low Fermentation 135 



Thus in ten years the number of high-fermentation 

 breweries fell from 281 to 18, while the number of low- 

 fermentation breweries rose from 135 to 881. The sole 

 reason for this vast change — a change which involves a 

 great expenditure of ' time, labor and money — is the addi- 

 tional command which it gives the brewer over the for- 

 tuitous ferments of disease. These ferments, which, it 

 is to be remembered, are living organisms, have their ac- 

 tivity suspended by temperatures below 10° C, and as 

 long as they are reduced to torpor the beer remains un- 

 tainted either by acidity or putrefaction. The beer of low 

 fermentation is brewed in winter, and kept in cool cellars; 

 the brewer being thus enabled to dispose of it at his 

 leisure, instead of forcing its consumption to avoid the 

 loss involved in its alteration if kept too long. Hops, 

 it may be remarked, act to some extent as an antiseptic 

 to beer. The essential oil of the hop is bactericidal : hence 

 the strong impregnation with hop juice of all beer intended 

 for exportation. 



