MALT LIQUORS. 31 1 



soda used iu our breweries is 1 ounce to a half barrel, and the difference in the effect 

 of that addition is a very remarkable one, the beer tasting slightly acid. 



There cannot be any doubt that large quantities of bicarbonate of soda regularly 

 introduced into the stomach are detrimental to the health. Inasmuch as the lager 

 beer is used as a food by many people, it would be greatly appreciated by intelligent 

 beer brewers and beer-drinkers if the use of bicarbonate of soda could be regulated 

 by the authorities, or, if possible, entirely abolished. By such regulations the un- 

 clean brewer would be compelled to either keep his brewery clean, or go out of the 

 business altogether. Such regulations should also be extended to the quality of the 

 metals of the apparatus used in the different brewing processes, so that to the Amer- 

 ican lager beer the same name can be given as to the German beer, which Justus von 

 Liebig called " liquid brerd." 



There are several rather misleading statements in the above. Dr. 

 Grothe says in the first place that "the public wants a perfectly neutral 

 beverage," which is open to considerable doubt ; and again, " the small- 

 est quantity of bicarbonate of soda used is one ounce to a half of a bar- 

 rel, and the difference in the effects of that addition is a very remarkable 

 one, the beer tasting slightly acid." If this latter statement is taken in 

 a strictly chemical sense, it is rather paradoxical, for a bicarbonate added 

 to a liquid of course tends to make it alkaline. What is meant bv its 

 tasting slightly acid doubtless is that it acquired a pungency to the 

 taste on account of the liberation of carbonic acid gas from the bicarbon- 

 ate by the free acid existing in the beer. One of the beers I examined 

 (No. 4810) was actually alkaline in reaction from excess of added bicar- 

 bonate, and the taste was far from being agreeable. 



I would hardly take so decided a stand as Dr. Grothe in regard to the 

 injury done to the health of the beer-drinker by bicarbonate of soda 

 per sc. It may be necessary to explain to a non-scientific reader that the 

 bicarbonate does not remain in the beer as bicarbonate, unless there is 

 an amount added in excess of the quantity of free acid present in the 

 beer. This free acid (mostly acetic in soured beers, but due chiefly to 

 acid phosphates in normal beers) combines with the bicarbonate, set- 

 ting free carbonic acid, and forming acetate of soda and basic phosphate^ 

 which remain in solution. The reaction is very similar to that which 

 takes place in using baking powders for cooking purposes, except that 

 in the latter case tartrate of soda and potash (Eochelle salts) is left in- 

 stead of acetate and phosphate of soda. Where bitartrate of potash is 

 added to the beer along with the soda (as sometimes occurs according 

 to the Brooklyn report) the reaction is precisely the same. In these 

 days of the almost universal consumption of baking powders there is 

 doubtless enough alkaline salts thrown into a man's stomach with his 

 food without pumping them in with his drinks as well. At all events 

 there can be but little question of the propriety of prohibiting the use 

 of bicarbonate of soda in beer. It is entirely unnecessary and foreign to 

 the production or preservation of pure beer. Moreover, its use serves 

 to cover up and hide the effects of poor brewing and improper storing or 

 refrigerating, and should be prohibited from this cause alone if there 

 were no other. 



