THE QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF SCIENCE. JULY, 1870. I. BEER, SCIENTIFICALLY AND SOCIALLY By JAMES SAMUELSON, Editor. DURING a visit which I paid last year to Germany, the Tyrol, and Switzerland, I was greatly struck with the fact that in countries where beer is the national beverage, the humbler classes are comparatively sober; whilst in those parts where wine, even the thin wine of the country, and ardent spirits usurp the place of the milder beverage, there is a nearer approximation to the habits of our own people-in other words, there is a large amount of drunkenness. In publishing elsewhere a short account of my observations,* I ventured to express the opinion that the man who should succeed in introducing into Britain and bringing into general consumption a mild, brisk, sparkling beverage such as one gets abroad, would be a greater benefactor to his people than the most self-denying devoted advocate of teetotalism, and some of the most influential organs in the country, and notably three,† have more or less emphatically endorsed this view in their criticisms. What is still more satisfactory, I have received inquiries concerning the difference between the processes of manufacture of the English and German beer, from persons who have the will and ability to carry out my suggestion, whilst German beer is daily more sought after, and in our large towns, such as London, Manchester, and Liverpool, it may readily be procured, though the cost is rather high owing to the limited consumption. Instead, therefore, of having over-estimated the importance of the beer question, I find that it is far more deserving of consideration than I had imagined, and after having directed my attention to it, and inquired further into its scientific and social aspects, I have arrived at the conclusion that there are few subjects of greater national importance to us as Englishmen. One of the journals to which reference has been made,‡ has gone so far as to say that "wholesome beer and wholesome recreation *The German Working Man.' Longmans. The Illustrated London News,' January 1; The Pall Mall Gazette,' January 8; The Gardener's Chronicle,' March 19. The Pall Mall Gazette.' VOL. VII. Y are, for the most part, beyond the reach of our working men ;" and although much of the blame rests with the operatives themselves, who prefer to give 6d. per quart for bad beer at a public-house, rather than the same price for the finest Burton ale, which they could easily procure by combination, yet it is perfectly true that a large proportion of the beer now sold to the masses is totally unfit for consumption. If any of my readers are disposed to doubt this, let them read the following paragraph which I have extracted from the proceedings of the Liverpool Select Vestry, as reported in the Liverpool 'Daily Post' of January last :— "POISONOUS BEER AND LUNACY: A BREWER'S TESTIMONY.” "A conversation as to the cost of pauper lunatics arose, and Mr. Glover, addressing the committee, said he thought that, with regard to lunacy, they began at the wrong end. He had visited the lunatic asylums in Lancashire within the last three or four months, and he had asked the masters of the institutions what was the cause of the increase in pauper lunatics? The answer was drunkenness, and he (Mr. Glover) believed that that was the case. He thought the health committee ought to be asked to appoint some sort of an inspector to look after the quality of the drink sold. They appointed inspectors of meat and fish, and they condemned bad fruit, but bad drink was ten times worse than all of them. There was a law which, if put in force, punished people for using poisonous ingredients in the making of beer-preventing them from using grains of paradise, nux-vomica, oil of vitriol, ammonia, and other things that were used in making beer. That was in addition to malt and hops, but if only malt and hops were used there would be no lunatics from drink. His impression was that all a working man could spend in honestly brewed beer would not kill him or drive him mad, if the beer were good. There were some dishonest publicans as well as dishonest brewers; and there were some publicans who rode handsome chargers, and their wives were driven about in splendid equipages, and they were doing great injury to people and filling the workhouses. He believed the drink they sold was not honest drink, but contained some of the things he had described. When a brewer had beer that would not keep long, he said to his customer, when it got a little sour, that he would change it. It was taken back to the brewery when sour, and then the dishonest publican bought it for 10s. or 17. a barrel. He then went to the druggist's shop, and got something that neutralized the acid; and, was not the poor creature who afterwards drank the beer likely to go mad? If a man had a pint or two of good honest beer, he would never go mad. The health committee ought to attend to the matter, and see that good beer was given to the people," We shall presently have an opportunity to consider scientifically the character of those precious ingredients, grains of paradise, cocculus indicus, and other substances not mentioned by the candid brewer whose remarks I have just quoted, with which the poor man's beer is drugged; but before doing so, I propose to give a short account of the materials which ought to be used in the production of wholesome beer, of the scientific principles involved in the art of brewing, and of the most approved methods adopted at respectable breweries at home and abroad. * It would occupy too much space to enter fully into the history of beer, but it may interest some of my readers to know that its use is well authenticated in the days of ancient Rome, and according to Tacitus, the old Teutons had already acquired that taste for "Lager," which has been transmitted to their descendants in our time, for that author mentions it as their common drink. Pliny, too, states that it was consumed in Spain and Gaul, and that it was made from various kinds of grain, whilst a recent writer on the history of Burton-on-Trent, tells us that the brewing of ale in that town is unquestionably coeval with the Abbey, it being a beverage of much repute with the Saxons, so that there can be little doubt of its having been drunk all over Europe in very early times. Mr. Molyneux, the author referred to, tells us, however, that the brewing trade of Burton-on-Trent is comparatively recent, and the credit of having originated it is accorded to one Benjamin Printon who lived in the early part of the last century, whilst at the close of that century there seem to have been only nine brewers in Burton, amongst whom appear the names of Bass and Worthington, but not yet that of Allsopp, whose ancestor, Mr. Benjamin Wilson, was however doing a large business in 1748.† Such of my readers as are curious on these matters, will do well to peruse Mr. Molyneux's interesting little treatise, where they will also find a variety of information concerning the geology, &c., of the Burton district: but we must now proceed to consider the materials which enter into the manufacture of beer. Those are, or should be, water, malt (barley), hops, and yeast, and these substances possess not only a practical value for the brewer, but many special points of interest for the chemist and the student of botany. There has long been, to the uninitiated, a mystery connected with the water of Burton-on-Trent, the prevalent notion being that it is the river water which possesses some special virtue for brewing purposes. The fact is, however, that it is the spring-water of the district which is so well adapted for the manufacture of beer, and, although the effect is not yet clearly understood, * Burton-on-Trent; its History, its Waters, and its Breweries.' By William Molyneux, F.G.S. Trübner and Co. + Burton and its Bitter Beer.' By Dr. Bushnan. W. S. Orr and Co. the cause has long been well known to chemists. It arises from the presence in the water of "earthy sulphates and carbonates," and the absence of organic matter which is fatal to the brewing process. Analysis has shown the Burton water to contain nearly 19 grains of sulphate and 15 grains of carbonate of lime to the imperial gallon (besides sulphates of potassa and magnesia), and the theory is that these alkalies combine with the acid of the malt extract, and, in the form of insoluble salts, are precipitated and carry down with them the nitrogenous substances which it is desirable to get rid of in the brewing process; so, for the same reason that the presence of salts of lime and potash in the Burton water is advantageous, that of organic matter would be injurious, and the freedom of the water from the latter is therefore very advantageous to the brewer. Should any of my readers desire further information on this subject for practical purposes, they may obtain it in the able article on "Beer," in Dr. Muspratt's Dictionary of Chemistry,' or in those on the same subject in Ure's 'Dictionary of Arts,' and Watts's Dictionary of Chemistry; while Mr. Molyneux's work, already named, also contains an excellent chapter on the "Waters of Burton," and the effect upon them of the strata through which they percolate. There Malt, as every one knows, is barley steeped and dried. are various kinds of malt, known as pale, amber, brown, and black, of which the first-named is employed in brewing pale ale, and the last (which is roasted like coffee) is used for colouring porter. Barley undergoes two kinds of change during its conversion into malt, the one morphological, that is to say, in its plant life, the other chemical. In order to effect the conversion it is steeped for two or three days in water, then spread out upon a floor to germi 1. FIGS. 2. 3. nate, and when it has sprouted to a certain length it is taken to the kiln to dry, and in the subsequent handling "the radicles" which have shot forth during germination, are broken off and the grain assumes to a great extent its original appearance. The annexed woodcuts will render the morphological change apparent to the eye; Fig. 1 being a grain of barley with the husk removed to show the embryo; Figs. 2 and 3 the same after germination.* But a chemical change, not so easily understood, also takes place in the malting process, and I will endeavour in a few sentences to make it as clear as possible. For our purposes, the barley may *These woodcuts, and some others in this article, have been copied, with the permission of the publishers, from the plates in a beautiful and interesting volume On Strong Drink and Tobacco Smoke,' by the late H. P. Prescott, F.L.S., just published by Messrs. Macmillan and Co. Frequent references will be made to this work. Mr. Prescott died recently of consumption, and his book has been passed through the press, and edited, with much good feeling, by Professor Huxley. |