228 "DISEASES" OF BEER, 



Similar experiments have been recently carried out by 

 Mr. A. Petersen, who is at the head of the laboratory of the 

 Old Carlsberg brewery, and these have led to the same 

 result; and the same may be said of Professor Gronlund's 

 investigations at New Carlsberg. Further, Director Alfred 

 Jorgensen has also informed me that several hundred samples 

 of sick beer are sent in the course of a year to his laboratory 

 for examination, but that in no case have either he or his 

 associates detected Mycoderma cerevisice as the cause of dis- 

 ease. The same result has been arrived at by him and his 

 associates in their investigations on the irregularities in the 

 brewery itself. 



The beers of Old and New Carlsberg are amongst the 

 stronger beers, the lager beer wort having an extract of about 

 14 per cent, and the export beer wort about 1 6 per cent. 

 Balling. Most of the beers examined in Mr. Jorgensen's 

 laboratory belong to the same class. It might be imagined 

 that the reason why the Mycoderma cells had produced no 

 disease in the beer in which they were found, was due to the 

 high extract of the wort. On the other hand, it was also 

 conceivable that the cause was quite a different one namely, 

 that the species or races occurring in the two above- 

 mentioned great breweries are not at all capable of producing 

 any appreciable injury or sickness in the beer. As we shall 

 see in the following pages, both these views have found 

 supporters. 



If we regard the growths of Mycoderma cerevisice which 

 occur normally in the Copenhagen beers as essentially of a 

 harmless nature, this naturally only applies on the assump- 

 tion that the beer has not been subjected to any unfavourable 

 treatment. However, if it is left for any length of time in a 

 warm place, in imperfectly closed casks or badly corked 

 bottles, the surface will rapidly become coated with a film of 

 Mycoderma cerevisia, and under such conditions this growth 

 will be sufficient to completely spoil the beer. 



