MALT LIQUORS. 275 



COMPOSITION OF MALT LIQUORS. 



The composition of malt liquors varies greatly according to the mate- 

 rials used, the method of brewing, the season, and the use for which it 

 is intended. 



Malt liquors, properly so called, should be made only of malted bar- 

 ley, hops, yeast, and water, but the use of other materials as substi- 

 tutes for the first three ingredients has extended so greatly in countries 

 where their use is not prohibited that it is difficult to define what a 

 beer really is. 



Modern beer has been defined as a " fermented saccharine infusion 

 to which some wholesome bitter has been added." 



Its chemical composition is very complex, the principal constituents 

 being alcohol, various sugars and carbohydrates, nitrogenous matter, 

 carbonic, acetic, succinic, lactic, malic, and tanuic acids, bitter and res- 

 inous extractive matter from the hops, glycerine, and various mineral 

 constituents, consisting mainly of phosphates of the alkalies and alkali 

 earths. 



VARIETIES. 



The names given to different kinds of malt liquors relate to various 

 attributes, as the country where they were produced, as English, Ger- 

 man, Bavarian beer, &c., or to the peculiarities in the method of brew- 

 ing, &c. Thus, porter is simply a beer of high percentage of alcohol, 

 and made from malt dried at a somewhat high temperature, which 

 gives its dark color ; ale is a pale beer, likewise of high attenuation and 

 made of pale malt, with more hop extract than porter. Stout has less 

 alcohol and more extract and still less hops than porter. These terms 

 are used chiefly with reference to English malt liquors. The terms 

 used for German beers, such as Edanger, M'dnchener, &c., are for the 

 most part naines'of places and are applied to beers made in imitation 

 of the beers originally brewed in those cities. Export beer is beer that 

 is specially prepared with a view to long-keeping qualities. 



The following table gives some recently published and very complete 

 analyses of beers made by G. Graham : 1 



1 Jour. Soc. Cbem. Ind. 



