Ginger beer

“ Even the popular ginger beer and ginger ale are not unimpeachable. Ginger is a drug injurious to the coating of the stomach; and in some modern brands the more poisonous capsicum is employed as a cheaper substitute.
But on general grounds, we think this encouragement of temperance drinks is altogether a judicious move. The public-house exists for the benefit and use of all classes and sections of the community; the teetotaller has as much right there as anybody else, and it is desirable that he should exercise that right as frequently as possible. ”

“ A SUPERIOR GINGER BEER Take of sugar 10 lbs., lemon juice 9 oz., honey 1/2 lb., bruised ginger root 11 oz., water 9 galls., yeast 3 pints, boil the ginger in the water until the strength is all extracted, which you may tell be tasting the root, then pour it into a tub, throwing the roots away, let it stand until nearly luke warm, then put in all the rest of the ingredients, stir well until all dissolved, cover it over with a cloth, and if it be in the evening, let it remain until next morning, then strain through cloth, and bottle it, and in a short time it will be fit for use. ”

“ Another excellent tipple for warm weather is concocted by mixing brown-stout or bitter ale with ginger-beer, the foam of which stirs up the heavier liquor from its depths, forming a compound of singular vivacity and sufficient body. But of all things ever brewed from malt, (unless it be the Trinity Ale of Cambridge, which I drank long afterwards, and which Barry Cornwall has celebrated in immortal verse,) commend me to the Archdeacon, as the Oxford scholars call it, in honor of the jovial dignitary who first taught these erudite worthies how to brew their favorite nectar. ”

“ Supper was at nine. There were cakes, buns, sandwiches, tea and coffee, all free; but if you wanted mineral water you had to pay for it. Gallantry often led young men to offer the ladies ginger beer, but common decency made them refuse. Miss Bennett was very fond of ginger beer, and she drank two and sometimes three bottles during the evening; but she insisted on paying for them herself. The men liked her for that. ”

“ Some persons put in a very little piece of the peel of cucumber, but this must be used sparingly, as the flavour is strong.
Ginger Beer.
Boil 14 lbs. lump sugar in 11⁄2 gallon of water, with 2 oz. ginger, bruised, one hour; then add the whites of 8 eggs, well beaten; boil a little longer, and take off the scum as it rises; strain into a tub, and let it stand till cold; put it into a cask with the peel of 14 lemons cut thin, also the juice, a pint of brandy, and half a spoonful of ale-yeast at the top. ”

“ A cup of good tea is one of the most wholesome beverages one can take in warm weather. It exhilarates, it cools, and while it cools the body it calms the mind.
Lime or lemon juice and water make a good drink. It should be sipped.
Ginger beer is somewhat too gassy for a delicate stomach. Raspberry syrup in water, acidulated to taste with a little citric acid, is very refreshing, and the same may be said of many other of the fruit syrups.
Raspberry vinegar is made by placing three pounds of the picked fruit into a glass vessel and pouring over them a pint and a half of white wine vinegar. ”

“ And was the little boy allowed to eat the apple afterwards?
Master Tommy's Receipts.— (Household ginger beer.) —Empty the kitchen spice-box, two pounds of washing soda, a pint of petroleum, and all the wine left in the dining-room decanters over night, into the cistern, and stir freely in the dark with a mop from the staircase window. When the water comes in in the morning, the whole household will be supplied from every tap for four-and-twenty hours with capital ginger beer.
In Distress.—Mummy! Mummy! Come back! I'm frightened. Here's a horrid dog staring at me with his teeth. ”

“ Ginger-pop beer is it that you scoff? Verily, you do an unconsidered deed. When one remembers all the liquids, medicinal, soporific, insipid, poisonous, which flood the throat of humanity, one may deem himself a favorite of Fortune to be placed so high in the catalogue. ”

“ Claret is the favourite wine for picnics, as being light and refreshing. Ginger ale is excellent and cheap and 256 compact. "Champagne," says Walter Besant in his novel "By Celia's Arbour" is a wine as Catholic as the Athanasian Creed, because it goes well with chicken and with the more elaborate pâté de foie gras.
Some men prefer sherry with their lunch, some take beer. If you have room and a plentiful cellar, take all these things. But tea and coffee and ginger ale will do for any one, anywhere. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Ginger beer is a favorite and wholesome drink in this climate. I was surprised to see no cider. I wonder some Yankee from below has not thought to send it up. Yankee clocks abound, and are worth from ten to twenty dollars. 255
December 26.—I had requested the commandante-militar to furnish me with a few more Tapuios, and he had promised to send out an expedition to catch me some. He now says there are none to be had; but I suspect he gave himself no trouble about it. Many persons go down the river with only two rowers and a steersman ”

“ The dried roots of this plant are either white, from the lime employed to prevent their destruction by vermin; or blueish, brown, or black, according to the soil in which they have been cultivated: they are of eminent use, both for culinary and medical purposes, affording one of the most wholesome and agreeable spices. Hence ginger in entire pieces is often boiled in beer, and drunk by persons who are obliged to spend part of their time in cold, open air. It is more immediately serviceable in cold flatulent colics ”

“ Evelyn says that ale and beer, “brewed with these berries, being ripe, is an incomparable drink.”
Maize, beet-root, potatoes, parsnips, and other vegetables have each and all been used in the making of beer, but it seems very doubtful whether any combination of ingredients will ever equal the time-honoured partnership of malt and hops.
A writer in the Gentleman’s Magazine in 1758 says: “In many parts of the Kingdom, a beer is made of treacle—thus: to eight quarts of boiling water put a pound of treacle, a quarter of an ounce of ginger, and two bay leaves. ”

“ The first day I worked in the bowling alley, the barkeeper, according to custom, called us boys up to have a drink after we had been setting up pins for several hours. The others asked for beer. I said I'd take ginger ale. The boys snickered, and I noticed the barkeeper favoured me with a strange, searching scrutiny. Nevertheless, he opened a bottle of ginger ale. Afterward, back in the alleys, in the pauses between games, the boys enlightened me. I had offended the barkeeper. A bottle of ginger ale cost the saloon ever so much more than a glass of steam beer ”

“ 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.” ”

“ 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. ”

“ But we must add to it a second explanation of beer, which is applied to a fermented extract, not from any farinaceous grain, but from the roots and other parts of various plants, as ginger, spruce-sap, beet, molasses, and many more. The scientific inquirer may learn the mysteries of malting and brewing, which are very nearly distinct trades, in the many treatises on beer-making which have adorned the literature of this and other countries. In these he may read as much as he wills of the steeping of the barley, its extension, its absorption of water, and the time occupied in this process ”

“ Put one peck of Elder berries to the quantity of halfe a hogshead of Ale 2 penny worth of Ginger sliced 2 nutmegs and a penny worth of Cloves & mace bruise all your Spices boyle all together with the berrys till they breake, then strain them through a Straining Sive and when tis coole as your usuall wort put barm to it as to beer, there must some hops be boyl’d in it. And when fitt to bottle, bottle it with a lumpe of loave Sugar it will drink much ye more Lively. ”

“ Thus, in England a great deal of malt spirit is made from a kind of wort brought into fermentation, and then set directly to distil, without first making ale or beer of it. Gin is a spirituous liquor also got from corn, and flavoured with juniper berries. Even potatoes, carrots, and turnips, may be made to afford spirits, by first fermenting their juices. In the West Indies, rum is distilled from the dregs of the sugarcanes, washed out by water and fermented. But brandy is distilled from the fermented juice of the grape, and is made in the wine countries. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ East-India Ale or Pale Ale, for exportation, is brewed from worts of a sp. gr. of from 1·063 to 1·070. For the best varieties, 15 to 16 lbs. of the finest East Kent hops are used to every quarter of pure malt. The pale ale or bitter beer of the publicans is commonly a very weak liquor (mere table beer) , highly bittered with the hop, and too often with quassia, wormwood, and other still more objectionable substances. The process now adopted by the great brewers of pale ale at Burton-on-Trent combines all the most admirable points of both the Bavarian and Scotch systems of brewing. ”

“ The secretary asked for iced tea. Endymion, more ruthless, ordered ginger ale. When the ginger ale came, Lawton, still waggish, observed the label, which was one of the many imitations of a well-known brand. "The man who invented the diamond-shaped label," said Lawton, "was certainly a pathfinder in the wilderness of the ginger ale business. This ginger ale," said Lawton, tasting it, "is carefully warmed, like old claret."
The club sought to keep their host's mind off the painful topic of viands. "Sitting here makes one feel as though he ought to be going to take a train somewhere," said one. ”

“ 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.” ”

“ Beat up well the yolks of eight eggs with refined sugar pulverized, and a nutmeg grated; then extract the juice from the rind of a lemon by rubbing loaf sugar upon it, and put the sugar, with a piece of cinnamon and a quart of strong home-brewed beer, into a saucepan, place it on the fire, and when it boils take it off, then add a single glass of gin, or this may be left out, put the liquor into a spouted jug, and pour it gradually among the yolks of eggs, etc. All must be kept well stirred with a spoon while the liquor is being poured in. ”

“ Of true British growth is the Nectar we boast, The homely companion of plain boiled and roast, most truly wrote an Oxford poet, whose name has not been handed down to posterity.
Almost every inhabitant of this country has tasted beer of some kind or another, but on the subject of brewing the great majority have ideas both vague and curious. About one person out of ten imagines that pale ale consists solely of hops and water; indeed, more credit is given by most persons to the hop than to the malt. ”