Am.  Jour.  Pharrti. 
July,  1896. 
Malt  Extracts. 
387 
IT  IS  ASSERTED  THAT  MANY  OF  THE  SO-CALLED  MALT 
EXTRACTS  SOLD  ARE  LITTLE  OR  NOTHING  MORE 
THAN  A  STRONG  BEER.  TO  WHAT  EXTENT  IS  THIS 
TRUE  P1 
By  Louis  Emantjei,. 
An  answer  to  the  above  query  leads  one  to  ask:  (1)  What  is 
beer  ?  (2)  What  are  the  properties  of  beer  ?  (3)  What  are  the 
properties  of  liquid  malt  extract  ? 
Beer  should  be  a  fermented  infusion  of  hops  and  barley  malt. 
Good  lager  beer  should  have  a  specific  gravity  of  1-0159,  contain  3-5 
per  cent,  of  alcohol  and  5-5  percent,  of  extractive.  According  to  a 
German  authority,  the  extractive  consists  of  the  soluble  part  of 
malt  and  hops,  partly  unchanged  and  partly  converted  into  decom- 
position products  ;  among  the  former  are  maltose,  gum,  dextrin,  pep- 
tone, hop  resin  and  alkaloidal  substances;  among  the  latter,  glycerin 
and  fatty  acids.  It  will  be  observed  that  diastase  is  not  mentioned. 
One  of  the  most  important  properties  which  a  malt  extract  should 
have  is  the  power  of  converting  starch  into  sugar.  F.  Eisner,  in 
his  "  Hiiifsbuch  fiir  Chemiker,  Apotheker  und  Gesundheitbeamte," 
says :  "  A  good  malt  extract  should  be  able  to  convert  its  own 
weight  of  starch  into  sugar,  at  a  temperature  of  550  C,  in  not  more 
than  fifteen  minutes." 
Six  of  the  most  popular  malt  extracts  were  examined,  a  sample  of 
beer,  also  an  infusion  of  malt.  The  following  table  will  show  com- 
parisons : 
Liquid  Malt 
Extract. 
Specific 
Gravity. 
Alcohol. 
Extrac- 
tive. 
Diastatic 
Power. 
Quantity. 
Cost. 
Per  Cent. 
Per  Cent. 

c.c. 
No.  1  
1*046 
13" 
None. 
300 
$0.25 
1*042 
3*5 
II" 
320 
•25 
1-030 
6- 
10-5 
320 
.11 
No.  4  
1-038 
175 
8- 
360 
•  17 
No.  5  
3"5 
13"5 
340 
.17 
No.  6   
1-064 
175 
19- 
360 
.19 
io- 
30  minutes. 
1-016 
5' 
None. 
500 
•05 
1  Read  before  the  meeting  of  the  Pennsylvania  Pharmaceutical  Association, 
Tune  18,  1896,  in  answer  to  query  79. 
