STUDIES ON FEKMENTATION. 



CHAPTER I. 



On the Intimate Relation existing between the Detkrio- 

 RATiON OF Beer, or the Wort from which it is Made, 

 AND the Process of Brewing. 



At the outset of these " Studies," let us briefly consider the 

 nature of beer and the methods of its manufacture. 



Beer is a beverage which has been known from the earliest 

 times. It may be described as an infusion of germinated 

 barley and hops, which has been caused to ferment after having 

 been cooled, and which, by means of "settling" and racking, 

 has ultimately been brought to a high state of clarification. It 

 is an alcoholic beverage, vegetable in its origin — a barley wine, 

 as it is sometimes rightly termed.* 



Beer and wine, however, differ widely in their composition. 

 Beer is less acid and less alcoholic than wine ; it holds more 

 ingredients in solution, and the nature of these ingredients is 

 by no means similar to that of those which are found in wine. 



These differences in the component parts of wine and beer give 

 rise to corresponding differences in the keeping qualities of the 



* This expression is found for the first time, it would appear, in Theo- 

 phrastus, B.C. 371. [See, however, Herodotus, Bk. II., chap. 77. Speak- 

 ing of some Egyptians he says, " They drink a kind of wine made from 

 barley (oww 8' eK Kpidtav 7re7ro6r;/xei/a)), for the grape does not grow in that 

 part of the country." Herodotus wrote about 450 B.C. ^schylus 

 (48Q B.C.) has a similar expression, Suppl. 953. — D. C. E.] 



