12 STUDIES ON FERMENTATION. 



In the manufacture of " high beer " we find none of these 

 complications, nor have we in that manufacture any similar 

 difficulty of working or expense of construction to contend 

 against. The whole process of brewing, including the delivery 

 of the beer, does not take more than eight days. Why should 

 a mode of brewing so simple, so rapid, and comparatively so 

 inexpensive, have been abandoned by the greater part of Europe 

 in favour of a system disadvantageous to the brewer in so many 

 respects ? It would be a mistake to supj)ose that the sole reason 

 for such a change might be found in the superior quality of 

 "low beer.'^ That such a superiority does exist is admitted as a 

 fact by the majority of beer drinkers ; but taken by itself, this 

 fact is not sufficient to account for the radical transformation 

 that has taken place in the manufacture of beer, as is proved 

 by the example of England, which, we believe, does not possess 

 as yet one single "low beer" brewery, from which circumstance 

 we may fairly suppose that the English liave a decided pre- 

 ference for "high beer." 



The principal advantage of working at a low temperature 

 lies in the fact that " low beer " is less liable to deterioration, 

 and is less prone to contract diseases than " high beer," especially 

 whilst it remains in the brewery — a circumstance that places 

 the brewer in a position vastly superior to that which he 

 occupied in former times. With the help of ice the brewer 

 can manufacture beer during winter and the early part of 

 spring, for consumption in summer.* "High beer," on the 



* It should, however, bo borne in mind that these remarks on the 

 relative preservative powers of the two beers hold true on account of 

 three things — differences in the respective modes of brewing, artificial 

 cooling during the process of fermentation, and the storing of the ' ' low 

 beer" in ice-cellars. In itself, perhaps, "low beer" is more liable to 

 change than " high beer ; " that this does not actually take place, is due 

 to the employment of artificial cooling. A brewery which has an average 

 annual production of 10,000 hect. will use cS,000 cwt. of ice. If 

 we add to this the ice used during the retail of the beer, which is 

 best di'unk at 12" C. (54° F.), we shall arrive at the total of 100 kilos, 

 per hectolitre. 



