Brewing industry

“ It is only by employing the most up-to-date machinery and expert knowledge that the modern brewer can hope to produce good beer in the short time which competition and high taxation, &c., have forced upon him. Under these conditions the small brewer tends to extinction, and the public are ultimately the gainers. The relatively non-alcoholic, lightly hopped and bright modern beers, which the small brewer has not the means of producing, are a great advance on the muddy, highly hopped and alcoholized beverages to which our ancestors were accustomed. ”

“ Brewing, in every country, whose soil and climate are congenial to the production of the raw materials, should be ranked among the first objects of its domestic and political economy. If any person doubt the truth of this position, I have only to request him to cast an eye on England, where the brewing capital is estimated at more than fifteen millions sterling; and the gross annual revenue, arising from this capital, at seven million five hundred thousand pounds sterling, including the hop, malt, and extract duties. ”

“ It has already been stated that a brewer, on going from one brewhouse to another, often finds it impossible to produce beer which is equally good in his new situation. This has been found to be the case even when all the materials have been furnished from the same stock. ”

“ In some Parts of the North, they take one or more Cinders red hot and throw some Salt on them to overcome the Sulphur of the Coal, and then directly thrust it into the fresh Malt or Goods, where it lies till all the water is laded over and the Brewing done, for there is only one or two mashings or stirrings at most necessary in a Brewing: Others that Brew with Wood will quench one or more Brands ends of Ash in a Copper of wort, to mellow the Drink as a burnt Toast of Bread does a Pot of Beer ”

“ The author informs those persons who may feel disposed to engage in the brewing and malting trades, that he can furnish them with ground plans, and sections of elevation, both of breweries and malt houses, on different scales, whether intended to be erected together, or separately, as will be found to unite, economy, convenience, and effect, joined to a considerable saving to those who are not themselves judges of such erections, or how they should be disposed. ”

“ If we find that in one brewhouse, constructed in a certain way, every thing succeeds, while in others, differently constructed, nothing will succeed, have we not a right to suppose that this must be owing to the different construction of the said brewhouses? and that, therefore, the process of brewing must be pursued with reference to the proper chemical laws, in every respect the same as in producing the nicest chemical compounds. ”

“ The brewer has found also that brewing operations are simplified and accelerated by the use of a certain proportion of substitutes, and that he is thereby enabled appreciably to increase his turn-over, i.e. he can make more beer in a given time from the same plant. Certain classes of substitutes, too, are somewhat cheaper than malt, and in view of the keenness of modern competition it is not to be wondered at that the brewer should resort to every legitimate means at his disposal to keep down costs. ”

“ For the seller can afford his Corn at a reasonable rate. And the buyer need not be at any other charges in brewing good and wholsome Ale at any time of the Year save only the hire of one man that may prepare or sit the Juices, and Hops, and Water for the boiling, and set it a-working or fermenting and pour it into the Vessels. Whereas on the contrary in the common brewing of Ale there needs many mens help, huge Coppers, and wooden Flats and a great deal of room to brew in, and store of Fire which is sufficiently dear in some Countries ”

“ Brewing is generally left to the care of servants, particularly in farm houses, who frequently have at the same time other business to perform, which too frequently causes the brewing to be neglected, particularly in its first stage. The mash in this first stage determines the whole of the brewing, for the malt ought to be well mixed up with the water, which will cause some time and labour ”

“ The intent of every brewer, when he forms his drink, is to extract the fermentable parts of the malt, in the most perfect manner; to add hops, in such proportion as experience teaches him will preserve and ameliorate the beer; and to employ just so much yeast as is sufficient to obtain a complete fermentation. ”

“ Even now, however, with the assistance of all these new inventions, summer brewing is found to be very uncertain and precarious; and no one thinks of brewing more than may be absolutely necessary for immediate draught. The more speedily the whole process can be carried through at this season, the greater probability of success. The taps or worts should never be allowed to remain in the under-back, but should immediately be run into the copper for the purpose of gaining heat. ”

“ Almost all grain can be turned into malt. Malting is a very simple process; and if when the malt is made, the brewing is successfully carried out, I am sure the value of the beer to its owners will more than compensate them for any inconvenience that they may suffer from being suddenly deprived of their usual means of selling their wheat. If the brewing is a success, the wheat-growers will be able to exchange the beer for the best of everything that we all produce. ”

“ The decadence of the art of domestic brewing is, for some reasons, a matter for regret. The causes are not far to seek. The improved machinery of the modern brewer, which enables him to make an uniformly excellent beer, and to sell it at a low price; and the railways which now traverse every part of the country, carrying his single, double, or treble X, as the case may be, to places where half a century back no one dreamt of purchasing ale for home consumption—to these great changes is undoubtedly due the partial downfall of home-brew that has taken {47} place. ”

“ The goodness of the beer will depend on the quality of the malt from which it is made; on the peculiar properties of the water with which it is infused; on the degree of heat applied in the mashing; on the length of time the fusion is continued; on the due manner of boiling the wort, together with the quantity and quality of the hops employed; and on the proper degree of fermentation: to ascertain all which particulars, with precision, constitutes the great mystery of brewing, and can only be learnt by experience and repeated observation. ”

“ James’ Gate Brewery, and owing to the position held by the firm it seems almost unnecessary to say that every modern improvement of the Engineer and the Scientist, whether for facilitating the operations of Brewing or for ensuring the safety and welfare of those employed, has been carefully investigated and judiciously applied. ”

“ Fermentation is undoubtedly as delicate a process, and perhaps as little understood, as any other connected with chemistry; but upon a regular and successful fermentation, or the contrary, must depend the good or bad quality of the beer. Such trifling causes, however, affect this process, that a brewer must not only have a distinct and extensive knowledge of chemistry, but also be what is termed a good manipulator, with great skill in the operative department of the business, before he can reasonably expect to brew uniformly good beer. ”

“ Any fermented liquor, that, in distillation, yields an inflammable spirit miscible with water, may be called wine, whatever vegetable matter it is produced from.—As beer and ales contain a spirit exactly answerable to this definition, brewing may justly be called the art of making wines from corn. Those, indeed, which are the produce of the grape, have a particular claim to the name, either because they are the most ancient and the most universal, or that a great part of their previous preparation is owing to the care of nature itself. ”

“ If it be made of barley malt, it enclineth more to cold, for barley is cold. And if it be made of barley and otes together it is yet more temperate and of less nourishment.” In the reign of Edward VI. even beans were used in brewing, for the Brewers’ Company, in a petition to the Common Council asking for a revision of the prices of ale and beer, complain that the articles they use in brewing, viz., “wheate, malte, oates, beanes, hoppes . . . . . . at these days are comen unto greate and exceeding pryces.” ”

“ In brewing the finer kinds of ales, pale malt and the best hops of the current season’s growth are always employed; and when it is desired to produce a liquor possessing little color, very great attention is paid to their selection. With the same object, the boiling is conducted with more than the usual precautions, and the fermentation is carried on at a somewhat lower temperature than that commonly allowed for other varieties of beer. ”

“ I trust I may be excused in drawing the attention of the meeting of the British Association to a short notice of the injurious influence which electricity exerts on the fermentation of the worts of the brewer and the wash of the distiller. The powerful and injurious effects produced by this agent in the manufacture of beer, I endeavoured to point out, in a little work, lately published, on Brewing; which, although it has excited some notice among a few practical men, yet the subject has not received that attention which its great importance deserves. ”

“ Brewing, fermenting, distilling, &c., are branches of commercial chemistry, that generally challenge the attention and secure the protection of those governments that constitute them sources of revenue and trade. ”

“ The brewer should carefully avoid purchasing hops that are slack bagged, or kept in a moist place, or malt that has been sprinkled with water soon after it was taken from the kiln. By means of the moisture, an internal agitation is raised in the corn, which agitation, though soon stopped, for want of a sufficient quantity of air, yet, the heat thereby generated remaining, every adventitious seed, fallen from the air, and resting on the corn, begins to grow, and forms a moss, which dies, and leaves a putrid musty taste behind, always prevailing, more or less, in beer made from such grain. ”

“ 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. ”

“ In making certain colours, a bright sky and a dry atmosphere are best adapted for producing brilliancy. The want of these auxiliaries in this country is so influential that we are seldom able to rival the colours made in Italy, or in other countries possessing these important advantages. We find, however, that in countries possessing the necessary requisites for making colours, the process of brewing beer is seldom successful. This proceed from a different state of the atmosphere producing acidity in the worts, more readily than in our more northern climates. ”

“ In the country districts there is little or none. The brewers have been long in the habit of purchasing all the public-houses in their neighbourhood, and these houses being limited in number, the labouring classes are prevented from selecting their own beverage, and have no choice but to drink that of the proprietors of the public-houses, who are also the brewers. Most of such beers are very imperfectly manufactured, and are usually foul and yeast-bitten, and have a very disagreeble, rank bitter, derived from the yeast left in the beer, instead of its being thrown out by a proper process. ”

“ We trust, however, that other brewers, by following a more healthy process, and thus producing a better and more healthy beverage, will be able to convince those who follow the above-mentioned unwholesome and erroneous mode of fermentation, that a more scientific process must be adopted. ”

“ When cool, ferment according to the directions accompanying the brewing machine. The quantity of water used may be varied at the discretion of the person brewing. By diminishing the water, he may increase the strength of the liquor, or by increasing it, diminish the strength. Thus with the hops he may vary the quantity to suit his palate in the degree of bitter flavour that may be most agreeable.—For fomenting, a cask with one head taken out, will answer the same purpose as the machine boiler. ”

“ Strange to say, however, in some instances, such brewers succeed better than those who follow a more scientific system. This may be accounted for on principles which have no reference to any scientific knowledge of brewing. It is possible that their brew-houses may have been, by mere chance, so constructed, as to render their operations less liable to the electro-chemical fluctuations which are constantly going on in the earth and atmosphere, or which are caused by an injudicious mixture of metals connected with their gyle tuns or other utensils. ”

“ I have taken the liberty to admonish the retailer of common brewer's beer, because, from their inattention in managing the beer after it comes into their stock or possession, the blame, if any, is imputed to the brewer but I am fully convinced to the contrary, from the almost daily practice of the common brewer, and their malt being of the first quality, as country brewers generally make their own malt, and that from the best barley, together with the conveniency of their utensils, enables them to have the advantage of most private families that brew their own beer ”