Beer mug

“ Not that there is much virtue in either apple or toast, the excellence of the drink being due to the spices, sack, and quality of the ale. It can easily be understood that when ale was for the most part brewed without hops, and consequently rather insipid in taste, many people would have a craving for something more highly flavoured, and would put nutmeg, ginger and other spices into their liquor. It is not unlikely that the introduction of hops was the cause which ultimately led to beer cups going out of fashion. At the present day they are but rarely compounded, even at the Universities. ”

“ Don’t be frightened; there is absolutely no danger. Put into a silver mug, or jug, previously heated, two wine-glassfuls of overproof (or proof) Scotch whisky, and one wine-glassful of boiling water. Set the liquor on fire, and pass the blazing liquor into another mug, also well heated. Pass to and fro, and serve in a tumbler, with a lump of sugar and a little thin lemon peel. Be very particular not to drop any of the blazer on the cat, or the hearth-rug, or the youngest child. ”

“ The air in the cylinder should be drawn from a pure source, by means of a tube, if necessary, leading to the open air. The air in a cellar or even a close apartment is rarely pure, and would have a decidedly unwholesome effect on the beer.
26. Bottled Beer should be kept in a cool place or in a refrigerator, not in contact with the ice. The bottles ought to stand upright, so that any sediment will settle to the bottom. It is, therefore, not advisable to pour the last dregs of the bottle into the glass. ”

“ When such drugs as cocculus Indicus, opium, tobacco, &c. &c. are used for giving a stupifying quality to the beer, every brewer using them must know, that besides subjecting himself to heavy penalties, he is doing gross injustice to the public.
It is generally supposed that the finest ale cannot be brewed without flavouring matter. This, however, is quite a mistake. The flavour of the finest Burton, Scotch, and other ales, proceeds chiefly from the care taken in selecting the best malt and hops, and the high gravities of the worts. ”

“ Stone mugs of double the size of the common glasses are used, perhaps to save servants' labor in drawing, which is no small matter, as a barrel of beer lasts not more than ten minutes at the height of the drinking-time of the evening.
None of the drinking-places in the city are filled until evening. In the afternoon many take their walks into the suburbs, and turn aside where a glass may be had. On all holidays the whole city is adrift, much of it in the surrounding country, and most of this drift lodges against the suburban beer-houses. ”

“ Be careful to use clean and dried bottles; leave them unstopped for twelve hours, and then cork them as closely as possible with good and sound new corks; put a bit of lump sugar as big as a nutmeg into each bottle: the beer will be ripe, i. e. fine and sparkling, in about four or five weeks: if the weather is cold, to put it up the day before it is drunk, place it in a room where there is a fire.
Remember there is a sediment, &c. at the bottom of the bottles, which you must carefully avoid disturbing; so pour it off at once, leaving a wine-glassful at the bottom. ”

“ If you want to hasten your beer for drinking, put the hops into the casks when they are warm; if your beer is for a long standing, put the hops in your casks when they are cold, giving them a stir to separate them in the beer.
Take care not to be under the necessity of tapping your ale or small beer before it has actually done working, for by so doing you will prevent it from becoming fine: new beer may be classed with new bread; for the newer you draw your beer the more there will be consumed; new beer is not so satisfying as it is when come to a more mature age. ”

“ As the law now stands, a brewer may use hops, quassia, wormwood, gentian, or any other simple bitter; but he is forbidden to use any substitute for malt, such as unmalted grain, sugar in a liquid state, molasses, or any substance which would give pungency or intoxicating properties to the beer, such as cocculus indicus, grains of paradise, tobacco, &c. It is a well-known and authenticated fact, that beer is commonly and sometimes dangerously adulterated. ”

“ This pre-eminence is attributed to the quality of the water, which seems peculiarly fitted for brewing purposes, and the fact that the large brewers there located use none but the finest malt and hops procurable. There is an old saying, that wherever an Englishman has trodden, and where has he not? there may be found an empty beer bottle. And, truly, he does carry the taste for his natural beverage wherever he goes, and the export trade is enormous, every ship wanting freight, filling up with bottled beer, as a safe thing. ”

“ Yet an American physician, who certainly has no national prejudice in favor of beer, gravely argues with me that it is the most simple, refreshing, and healthful beverage, and points to the physique of the Germans in proof that it does them no injury. Perhaps used in moderation, it may not. But certainly no argument will convince me that drinking it in such quantities as some do—eight, ten, or a dozen quart mugs a day!—is not injurious. When a man thus swills beer—there is no other word to express it—he seems to me like a pig at the trough. ”

“ As the vapor passes through the tube, it cools and drops out at the end into the worm-tub, changed into a liquid stronger in alcohol than that from which it was drawn or distilled.
In this way gin is made from beer, brandy from wine, and rum from fermented molasses. These are very strong drinks, and only hard drinkers like them. But very few people begin by taking these; they first learn to like alcohol by drinking cider, beer, or wine, and end with gin, whiskey, or rum when they have become drunkards. ”

“ It will, no doubt, have been noted ere this that between mulled ale and the majority of hot beer-cups the distinction is rather in name than composition, and the various receipts for mulling ale so closely resemble the Wassail Bowl, Flip, &c., that it is quite unnecessary to quote any of {392} them. A word or two on cup making. Cups are easily made and easily marred. All the ingredients must be of good quality, and the vessels used sweet and clean. ”

“ Among the many receipts given in old works for “recovering” ale or beer when it has turned sour, is one directing the housewife to put a handful or two of ground malt into the beer, stir it well together, which will make the beer work and become good again. In another receipt the brewer is directed to put a handful of oatmeal into a barrel of beer when first laid into the cellar, which will cause it to carry with it a quick and lively taste. The root of flower-de-luce or iris suspended in ale is said to be a specific against sourness. ”

“ It may be suggested that in these cases prevention is better than cure—drink your beer while it is good, and do not give it an opportunity of getting sour. An old receipt for preserving small beer without the help of hops, is to mix a small quantity of treacle with a handful of wheat and bean flour and a little ginger, to knead the mixture to a due consistence, and put it into the barrel. ”

“ In bottles, which are the staple production, almost every variety are manufactured in large quantities both in the patented vitreous stone, and white glazed, varieties of ink-bottles of every shape and size are made by thousands weekly, as are also ale, porter, ginger-beer, blacking, fruit, and every other kind of bottles. Spirit and other liquor bottles, with handles, up to a very large size, are also made. ”

“ Many glasses, drawn, bell, or waisted-bell shape in bowl and baluster, plain round, air spiral, cotton-white spiral, or cut in stem, exist, which appear to have been used for the very strong ale then brewed; often these are engraved with representations of hops and barley.
Large vessels, perhaps used for “small beer,” exist, from 9 to 16 inches tall, and proportionately capacious: the biggest of the kind I ever saw was engraved with [61] Jacobite emblems. The smaller examples of this class may have been used daily ”

“ Pale ale is manufactured from the finest and lightest dried malt, and the choicest hops, the latter in excess. Mild ale differs from pale ale in being sweeter, stronger, and almost free from the flavour of the hop. Bitter ale or BITTER BEER has, as a rule, less body than pale ale, and is more highly hopped. Table beer is a weak liquor commonly containing three or four times the proportion of water usually present in ordinary beer or ale. Porter differs from ale chiefly in its being artificially coloured by the use of roasted malt, which also imparts to it a peculiar bitter flavour. ”

“ In his directions to the butler, he tells him, “If any one {277} desires a glass of bottled ale, first shake the bottle, to see if anything be in it; then taste it, to see what liquor it is, that you may not be mistaken; and, lastly, wipe the mouth of the bottle with the palm of your hand, to show your cleanliness.
“If any one calls for small beer towards the end of the dinner, do not give yourself the trouble of going down to the cellar, but gather the droppings and leavings out of the several cups and glasses and salvers into one ”

“ The spirit may be stated, upon an average, to be 4,50 per cent. in porter retailed at the publicans; the solid matter, is from twenty-one to twenty-three pounds per barrel of thirty-six gallons. The country-brewed porter is seldom well fermented, and seldom contains so large a quantity of spirit; it usually abounds in mucilage; hence it becomes turbid when mixed with alcohol. [Pg 126] Such beer cannot keep, without becoming sour. ”

“ The famous Hypocras, for instance, was flavoured with an infusion of brandy, pepper, ginger, cloves, grains of paradise, ambergris, and musk. A Duchess of St. Albans has left us a receipt for making “The Ale of health and strength,” which, it sufficeth to say, was a {385} decoction of nearly all the herbs in the garden (agreeable and otherwise) boiled up in small beer. Old worthies, when induced to give up their receipts for the public good, described these drinks under the head of “Kitchen physic.” ”

“ Refrigerators and ice-making machines are, it need hardly be said, of the greatest assistance to the modern brewer, who without them could only brew in the cold months. Some firms have spent as much as £8,000 on their ice-making machines. The beer, which at present is a teetotal drink devoid of alcohol, having been cooled, is turned into large tubs or square boxes, and yeast is added to it. Fermentation now sets in, and by various ingenious contrivances the froth as it rises to the top is skimmed off or carried away. ”

“ All these, when obtained genuine, are excellent, and I believe wholesome, but they should be used very sparingly indeed when wine is taken. Dr. Paris tells us that the most useful quality in the beer comes from the hop. “Independently,” says he, “of the flavour and tonic virtues which hops [264] communicate, they precipitate by means of their astringent principle the vegetable mucilage, and thus remove from the beer the active principle of fermentation; without hops, therefore, we must either drink our malt liquors new and ropy, or old and sour.” ”

“ The strength of all kinds of beer, like that of wine, depends on the quantity of spirit contained in a given bulk of the liquor.
The reader need scarcely be told, that of no article there are more varieties than of porter. This, no doubt, arises from the different mode of manufacturing the beer, although the ingredients are the same. This difference is more striking in the porter manufactured among country brewers, than it is in the beer brewed by the eminent London porter brewers. ”

“ We have heard brewers, who thought themselves no fools, assert that the hops alone give the ale its flavour; and that the difference between pale and high dried malt is only in colour. They might as well have argued that the lemon gives all the flavour to punch! We, Christopher North, aver, that upon the degree of dryness which has been given to the malt, the distinguishing flavour of malt liquor mainly depends. The bitter principle of the hop is only the ground or substratum upon which the skilful brewer builds his peculiar flavour of beer. ”

“ See Malt, Hops, Brewing, &c.
Purity. The leading characteristics of good beer are transparency, a fine colour, an agreeable semi-vinous flavour, and the property of remaining for several hours exposed in a glass or cup without becoming ‘flat’ or insipid. If the materials used were good, if the brewing was skilfully conducted, if the liquor has been carefully stowed in perfectly sweet casks or vessels, in a suitable cellar, for a sufficient time, and has not been tampered with, this will almost always be the case. ”

“ To impart to porter this property of frothing when poured from one vessel into [Pg 134] another, or to produce what is also termed a cauliflower head, the mixture called beer-heading, composed of common green vitriol (sulphate of iron,) alum, and salt, is added. This addition to the beer is generally made by the publicans. [61] It is unnecessary to genuine beer, which of itself possesses the property of bearing a strong white froth, without these additions; and it is only in consequence of table beer being mixed with strong beer, that the frothing property of the porter is lost. ”

“ There is no production of the brewery more important to society than good table beer, whether it be considered as a diluent to animal food, or a diet drink in fever cases, even of the most malignant kind, where, to my knowledge, it has been preferred to all others, and that with the greatest success, sanctioned by the advice of some of the most eminent physicians. This justifies my recommending it, and giving several processes for making this useful liquor. ”