BEER

( Bière , Fr. Bier , Germ.) The fermented infusion of malted barley, flavoured with hops, constitutes the best species of beer; but there are many beverages of inferior quality to which this name is given, such as spruce beer, ginger beer, mola es beer, .; all of which consist of a saccharine liquor, partially advanced into the vinous fermentation, and flavoured with peculiar substances. The ancients were acquainted with beer, and the Romans gave it the appropriate name of Cerevisia (quasi Ceresia ), as being the product of corn, the gift of Ceres. The most celebrated liquor of this kind in the old time, was the Pelusian potation, so called from the town where it was prepared at the mouth of the Nile. Aristotle speaks of the intoxication caused by beer; and Theophrastus very justly denominated it the wine of barley . We may, indeed, infer from the notices found in historians, that drinks analogous to our beer were in use among the ancient Gauls, Germans, and in fact almost every people of our temperate zone; and they are still the universal beverage in every land where the vine is not an object of rustic husbandry. The manufacture of beer, or the art of brewing, may be conveniently considered under five heads :— 1. An examination of the natural productions which enter into its composition; or of barley and hops. 2. The changes which barley must undergo to fit it for making beer; or the proce es of malting and mashing. 3. The formation of a proper wort from the mashed malt and hops. 4. The fermentation of that wort; and 5. The fining, ripening, and preservation of the beer. I. Of the materials. 1. Barley, wheat, maize, and several other kinds of corn are capable of undergoing those fermentative changes, by which beer may be made; but the first substance is by far the fittest. There are two species of barley, the hordeum vulgare or common barley, having two seeds arranged in a row on its spikes; and the hordeum hexastichon , in which three seeds spring from one point, so that its double row has apparently six seeds. The former is the proper barley, and is much the larger sized grain; the latter is little known in England, but is much cultivated in Scotland under the name of bear or big ; being a hardy plant adapted to a colder country. The finer the climate in which barley grows the denser and larger its seed, and the thinner its husk; thus the Norfolk and Suffolk barley is distinguished in these respects from that of Aberdeen shire. Big is a le compact grain than barley; the weight of a Winchester bushel (2150·42 cubic inches) of the former is only about 47 libs, while that of a bushel of the latter is nearly 51 libs. Their constituents, however, bear much the same proportion to each other. The quality of barley is proved not only by its density when dry, but by the increase of volume which it acquires when steeped in water. Thus, | 100 | measures | of | average | English barley thereby | swell into | 124. | | 100 | — | of | — | Scotch | ditto, | | 121. | | 100 | — | of | — | — | bigg or bear, | | 118. | | Nay, | 100 | of very fine Suffolk barley have swollen into | 183. | | While | 100 | of an inferior Scotch bigg became no more than | 109. | This circumstance indicates so nearly the probable yield of malt, that it is carefully attended to by the officers of excise, who gauge the steep cistern, and levy their duty in conformity with the largest volume, 100 pounds of good barley become almost one half heavier by the absorption of moisture; and weigh upon an average 147 pounds; the best of course taking up most water. By chemical analysis barley flour seems to consist of 67·18 parts of hordeine, or starch and gluten intimately combined, 7·29 of vegetable fibre, 1·15 of coagulated albumen, 3·52 parts of gluten, 5·21 of sugar, 4·62 of gum, 0·24 of phosphate of lime, and 9·37 of water. The lo amounted to 1·42. To these principles should be added a peculiar volatile oil of a concrete nature, which is obtained during the proce of distilling fermented malt wash. (See Whiskey .) It may also be extracted from barley flour, by the solvent action of alcohol; and never amounts to more than a few parts in the you sand. The husk also contains some of that fetid oil. Proust thought that he had discovered in barley a peculiar principle, to which he gave the name of hordeine , and which he separated from starch by the action of both cold and boiling water. He found that by treating barley meal succe ively with water, he obtained from 89 to 90 parts of a farinaceous substance, composed of from 32 to 33 of starch, and from 57 to 58 of hordeine . Einhof obtained from barley seeds, 70·05 of flour, 18·75 of husks or bran, and 11·20 of water. According to Proust hordeine is a yellowish powder, not unlike fine saw-dust. It contains no azote, for it affords no ammonia by distillation, and is therefore very di imilar to gluten. In the germination of barley, which constitutes the proce of malting, the proportion of hordeine is greatly diminished by its conversion into sugar and starch. Other chemists suppose that the hordeine of Proust is merely a mixture of the bran of the barley with starch and gluten. It is obvious that the subject stands in need of new chemical researches. In barley the husk constitutes from one fourth to one fifth of the whole weight; in oats it constitutes one third; and in wheat, one tenth. From the analysis of barley flour recently made, it appears to consist in 1000 parts: of water, 100; albumine, 22·3; sugar, 56; gum or mucilage, 50; gluten, 37·6; starch, 720; phosphate of lime, 2·5. 2. The hop, humulus lupulus , the female flowers of the plant. Ives first directed attention to a yellow pulverulent substance which invests the scales of the catkins, amounting to about one eighth of their weight; and referred to it the valuable properties which hops impart to beer. We may obtain this substance by drying the hops at a temperature of 86° F., introducing them into a coarse canva bag, and shaking it so that the yellow powder shall pa through the pores of the canva . This powder bears some resemblance to lycopodium. Of the 13 parts in 100 of this powder, 4 parts are foreign matters, derived from the scales of the cones; leaving 9 parts of a peculiar granular substance. When distilled with water, this substance affords two per cent. of its weight ( 2 ⁄ 10 for 100 times the weight of hops) of a volatile colourle oil, to which the plant owes its peculiar aroma. This oil di olves in water in considerable quantity. It appears to contain sulphur (for it blackens solutions of silver), and also acetate of ammonia. No le than 65 per cent. of the yellow dust is soluble in alcohol. This solution, treated with water and distilled, leaves a resin, which amounts to 52·5 per cent. It has no bitter taste, and is soluble in alcohol and ether. The watery solution from which the resin was separated contains the bitter substance which has been called lupuline by Payen and Cheval lier, mixed with a little tannin and malic acid. To obtain this in a state of purity, the free acid must be saturated with lime, the solution evaporated to dryne , and the residuum must be treated with ether, which removes a little resin; after which the lupuline is di olved out by alcohol, which leaves the malate of lime. On evaporating away the alcohol, the lupuline remains, weighing from 8·3 to 12·5 per cent. It is sometimes white, or slightly yellowish, and opaque, sometimes orange yellow, and transparent. At ordinary temperatures it is inodorous, but when heated strongly it emits the smell of hops. It po e es the characteristic taste and bitterne of the hop. Water di olves it only in the proportion of 5 per cent., but it thereby acquires a pale yellow colour. Lupuline is neither acid nor alkaline; it is acted upon neither by the dilute acids nor alkalies, nor by the solutions of the metallic salts: it is quite soluble in alcohol, but hardly in ether. It contains apparently no azote, for it affords no ammonia by destructive distillation; but only an empyreumatic oil. The yellow dust of hops contains, moreover, traces of a fatty matter, gum, a small quantity of an azotised substance, and several saline combinations in minute quantity. Boiling water di olves from 19 to 31 per cent., of the contents of the dust, of which a large proportion is resin. Ives thought that the scales of the catkins of hops, when freed from the yellow powder, contained no principles analogous to it; but Payen and Cheval lier have proved the contrary. The cones of hop give up to boiling alcohol 36 per cent. of soluble matter; while the same cones, stripped of their yellow powder, yield only 26 per cent.; and further, these chemists found the same principles in the different parts of the hop, but in different proportions. The packing of the hop catkins or cones is one of the most important operations towards the preservation of this plant; and is probably the cause of the enormous difference in value between the English and French hops after a few years’ keeping. The former, at the end of six years, po e still great value, and may be sold as an article only two or three years old; while the latter have lost the greater part of their value in three years, and are no more saleable at the end of four. In France, it is packed merely by tramping it with the feet in sacks. Under this slight pre ure, large interstitial spaces are left amid the ma of the hops, through which the air freely circulates, carrying off the e ential oil, and oxygenating some of the other proximate principles, so as to render them inert. By the English method, on the contrary, the hops, after being well rammed into strong sacks hung in frames, are next subjected to the action of a hydraulic pre . The valuable yellow powder thus inclosed on every side by innumerable compact scales, is completely screened from the contact of the atmosphere, and from all its vici itudes of humidity. Its e ential oil, in particular the basis of its flavour, is preserved without decay. According to the experiments of Cheval lier and Payen upon the hops of England, Flanders, the Netherlands, and the department of the Vosges, those of the county of Kent afforded the largest cones, and were most productive in useful secreted and soluble matters. Next to them were the hops of Alost. The best hops have a golden yellow colour, large cones, an agreeable aroma; when rubbed between the hands, they leave yellow traces, powerfully odoriferous, without any broken portions of the plant, such as leaves, stems, and scaly fragments. When alcohol is digested on good hops, from 9 to 12 per cent. of soluble yellow matter may be obtained by evaporating it to dryne . This is a good test of their quality. The best-flavoured and palest hops are packed in sacks of fine canva , which are called pockets, and weigh about 1 1 ⁄ 2 cwt. each. These are bought by the ale brewer. The stronger-flavoured and darker-coloured hops are packed in bags of a very coarse texture like door-mats, called hop bags: these contain generally about 3 cwt., and are sold to the porter and beer brewers. After the end of a year or two, hops are reckoned to have lost much of their marketable value, and are then sold to the second-rate porter brewers, under the name of old hops. The finest hops are grown in the neighbourhood of Canterbury; but those of Worcester have an agreeable mildne of flavour, greatly admired by many ale drinkers. When the bitter and aromatic principles disappear, the hops are no better than so much chaff; therefore, an accurate chemical criterion of their principles would be a great benefit to the brewer.