306 Beer, Scientifically and Socially Considered. [July, 



plant, the cells of which multiply with incredible rapidity, fermen- 

 tation is set up, the chemical effect of which is to convert the sugar 

 contained in the " wort," into carbonic acid and alcohol. 



The brewer takes care, however, to stop the fermentation at a 

 certain stage, so that a portion of the sugar may remain uncon- 

 verted, and the chemical change is then completed in the cask or 

 bottle, the carbonic acid being held in solution until the beer is drawn 

 or otherwise exposed to atmospheric action. This gives to good beer 

 its brisk sparkling appearance and puts a head upon it : in no case 

 is the effect so conspicuous as in the bottled German beer and Eng- 

 lish and Scotch pale ales, which continue to effervesce and sparkle 

 like champagne, long after the liquid is poured into a tumbler. 



Passing now from the theory to the practice of brewing, I pro- 

 pose to conduct my readers through some portions of the magnifi- 

 cent establishment of Messrs. Allsopp and Sons, of Burton-on-Trent, 

 where all that science and skill can accomplish has been done to 

 perfect the process. Let us commence with the malting ; and the 

 reader must imagine himself in a large chamber (one of several 

 devoted to this purpose), one end of which is partitioned off for the 

 steeping process. This side of the room, which forms an elongated 

 trough, is divided into squares, and partly floored with a number 

 of perforated tiles, which serve to drain off the water ; and when 

 the barley is sufficiently steeped, it is turned out upon the chamber 

 floor, close to the trough. Here it is kept within certain limits, by 

 means of a removable partition consisting of boards, which can be 

 fixed between the columns that run across the chamber parallel to 

 the steeping-trough, or removed at pleasure ; and the barley is then 

 said to be in the " couch," where it is gauged by the Excise. After 

 gauging, the partitions are removed and the steeped barley is spread 

 evenly over the chamber floor to germinate : the germination having 

 reached the proper stage (as already described), it is conveyed to 

 the kiln to dry. But at Allsopps' the transfer of the barley from 

 the germinating floor to the kiln is only the passage from one chamber 

 to another immediately adjoining ; and unless his attention is directed 

 to the floor, the uninitiated visitor would observe nothing in this second 

 chamber to denote its function. The floor is paved with perforated 

 tiles, and in the kiln pit underneath, which is the same size as the 

 upper chamber, there stand a series of open furnaces, or gigantic 

 braziers, in which coke fires are lighted when the kiln is in use. Over 

 the fires there is a contrivance called a disperser, by which the heat 

 rising from these furnaces is equalized over the whole surface ; and 

 when the spectator looks up at this disperser, he perceives plainly 

 the perforations in the tiles of the kiln floor above, and which 

 allow the heat to penetrate to the malt. After kiln-drying, the 

 barley, or as it is then called, malt, is subjected to one more process, 

 namely, screening. This consists in allowing it to run over an ob- 



