STUDIES ON FERMENTATION. 13 



other hand, must be consumed within a short time of its pro- 

 duction. The brewer is thus compelled to manufacture it as 

 it is wanted, and as orders are sent in, the demand for it being 

 in a great measure dependent upon the state of the weather. 



Conditions so unfavourable as these must necessarily operate 

 prejudicially against trade. Industry requires more stability 

 and uniformity, both in the production and the sale of its goods. 

 " Low beer '' can be brewed in large quantities at any time to 

 be delivered at any other time, according to requirements ; its 

 manufacture, therefore, is unattended by the inconveniences 

 which we have just noticed.* 



How is it that the use of ice and yeast operating at a low 

 temperature so greatly facilitates the preservation of our beer 



* [In connection with the comparison here instituted by M. Pasteur 

 between the drinking and keej^ing qualities of the two kinds of beer, it 

 may be useful to draw the reader's attention to a review by Dr. Charles 

 Graham of the French edition of this work, published in Nature for 

 January 11th, 1877, page 216. At the same time we must remark that 

 Dr. Graham appears to have overlooked M. Pasteur's footnote, page 12, 

 English edition: — "His assertion, that by bottom fermentation store 

 beers can be produced, whereas those produced by top fermentation must 

 be consumed at once and cannot be transported, are certainly strange to 

 an Englishman. So far from these unfavourable comparisons being true 

 in all cases, the exact opposite is generally the case. Bavarian and 

 other bottom fermentation beers are in fact those which can neither be 

 preserved nor transported without the liberal employment of ice ; even 

 that sent from Vienna to London must be kept cold artificially, in order 

 to avoid rapid destruction. As regards flavour, there are many who 

 think a glass of Burton pale ale, or of good old College rent ale, to be 

 superior to any Bavarian beer. The chief cause of the decline in the 

 production of top fermentation beers on the Continent has been the 

 want of attention in the fermentation process ; whereas the English 

 brewer, especially the brewer of high-class ales, has been unremitting in 

 his attention to the temperature in fermentation and to the perfect 

 cleansing of the ale. Now, where such attention is given, it is not 

 difficult to obtain ales which will keep a few years. "While objecting to 

 oui- EngHsh produce being so hastily depreciated by M. Pasteur, our 

 brewers will be the first to avail themselves of his biological researches, 

 in order to render their produce more stable and better flavoured, 

 without having recourse to the general adoption of the vastly more 

 costly system of bottom fermentation."— D. C. E.] 



