Lager beer

“ The refreshing qualities and flavor of Lager beer depend very largely on the manner of keeping and handling. Casks or kegs containing it should be kept at a temperature of about 40°. Lager is always in its best condition when it comes from the brewer’s ice-house. When carted through the streets on a hot summer’s day, the temperature is quickly increased, and it must then be stored in a refrigerator for three or four days in order to reduce it to a proper temperature before using. ”

“ Beers of the German type are less heavily hopped and more peptonized than English beers, and more highly charged with carbonic acid, which, owing to the low fermentation and storing temperatures, is retained for a comparatively long time and keeps the beer in condition. On the other hand, infusion beers are of a more stable and stimulating character. It is impossible to keep “lager” beer on draught in the ordinary sense of the term in England. ”

“ The principal consumption is in the north, the people of southern France inclining more to wines. The same is the case in Italy, where a light, highly-fermented beer is produced, and a considerable quantity is imported from Austria; but no beer is used south of Naples. The manufacture and consumption of beer are increasing very rapidly in Russia, and a great deal is imported into that country from Austria and England. In Sweden and Norway nearly every man brews his own beer at home. No lager-beer was made in the United States forty years ago. ”

“ The Braunschweiger, Einbeker, Göttinger, Bremer, and Hamburger beer, as well as the breweries of the cities of Würzen, Zwickau, Torgau, Merseburg, and Goslar, were far and wide celebrated. Bavarian beer has long made the tour of the world. Bock beer from Bavaria and from the Erzgebirge is exported to Java and China.
German lager beer, as a healthy and lightly stimulating beverage, is welcome in both hot and cold countries. It is liked as well by the Russians and Scandinavians as by the inhabitants of the tropics. ”

“ Buchanan, of Manchester, speaks of English mechanics of the "better class" who take a glass of gin with every meal; and I am sure of understating the truth if I say that in the larger cities of Germany and North America every popular beer-shop has among its customers dozens of "regulars" who drink the year round a daily minimum of two gallons of lager-beer. ”

“ One of the chief objections to which certain inferior varieties of American lager beer are open is that they are not allowed to “age” properly. The apparent gain to the brewer of such beer consists in an economy of time and ice; he is also enabled to turn over his invested capital sooner than the more scrupulous manufacturer, who is thus placed in a disadvantageous position so far as trade competition is concerned. It is stated that some of the beer made in the neighbourhood of New York is sent out for consumption two weeks after its brewing. ”

“ The production of Great Britain increased from 7,670,100 barrels in 1830 to 25,336,811 barrels in 1870. It consists chiefly of the ancient amber-colored ale and the modern dark-brown porter. The Belgian beers are the mars, a thin beer; the lambic, a strong and light-colored drink; and the faro, which the retailer himself prepares by mixing the other two kinds. The production of France has more than doubled since 1842. A strong lager-beer and a weaker small-beer are most in favor, and the foreign beers are in common use. ”

“ No other female has ever been made a “Freemason.”
Lager Beer. The German “lager bier” is simply stock beer, the liquor being kept in a lager, or cellar, until it is sufficiently ripened for consumption. All over the United States the demand for “Lager” is enormous.
Laid on the Shelf. A phrase implying that one’s period of usefulness has been passed. The allusion is to books read and clothes laid aside as of no further use. ”

“ The Britisher is the greatest beer-drinker in the world; for the thin and insipid lager of Germany is only a mockery of the generous full-flavoured brew of Bass, Guinness, or the competitors who produce liquor quite as good as that of those old-established houses. To judge from the ascendancy of England it would appear to be possible to trace some affinity between malt and muscle, in spite of the jeremiads of the total abstinence party, so long as the brewer is a master of his art and plays no tricks by putting a chemical infusion into his vat. ”

“ Juleps and cobblers, and the p. 9“one thousand and one American fancy drinks,” were not as yet invented, and men drank themselves unto the devil quite as easily on rum or brandy straight, peach and honey, madeira and punch, as they now do on more varied temptations. Lager beer was not as yet in the land. I remember drinking it in after years in New Street, where a German known as der dicke Georg first dealt it in 1848 to our American public. Maize-whisky could then be bought for fifteen cents a gallon; even good “old rye” was not much dearer ”

“ The system of fermentation is very similar to the continental “lager” system, and the beer obtained bears some resemblance to the German product. To the English palate it is somewhat flavourless, but it is always retailed in exceedingly brilliant condition and at a proper temperature. There can be little doubt that every nation evolves a type of beer most suited to its climate and the temperament of the people, and in this respect the modern American beer is no exception. ”

“ In regard to plant and mechanical arrangements generally, the modern American breweries may serve as an object-lesson to the European brewer, although there are certainly a number of breweries in the United Kingdom which need not fear comparison with the best American plants.
It is a sign of the times and further evidence as to the growing taste for a lighter type of beer, that lager brewing in its most modern form has now fairly taken root in Great Britain, and in this connexion the process introduced by Messrs Allsopp exhibits many features of interest. ”

“ Every white man, however, is given one litre of red wine each day as a ration and there seems to be no limit to the amount of beer which may be drunk, except its great price, for a bottle of lager costs 3 francs at Leopoldville and twice that amount higher up the river. ”

“ A certain quantity of strong beer—such as heavy stouts and “stock” and “Scotch” ales—is still brewed nowadays, but it is not an increasing one. The demand is almost entirely for medium beers such as mild ale, light stout, and the better class of “bitter” beers, and light beers such as the light “family ales,” “dinner ales” and lager.
The general run of beers contain from 3 to 6% of alcohol and 4 to 7% of solids, the remainder being water and certain flavouring and preservative matters derived from the malt, hops and other materials employed in their manufacture. The solid, i.e. ”

“ Not only has the practice of domestic brewing much declined, but from the same causes there has been of late years an extraordinary and lamentable decrease in the numbers of small country brewers.
Although the name of home-brew carries with it many old associations and sentiments which we abandon with regret—memories of bright March beer and mellow old October, of snug ingle-nooks and raftered ceilings, and of kind, if homely, welcome—we cannot but admit, as on a hot day we drain our tankard of Burton bitter, or of world-famed London stout, that life has still its compensations. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The practice is a bad one. The genuine, old, or entire beer, of the honest brewer, is quite a different compound; it has a rich, generous, full-bodied taste, without being acid, and a vinous odour: but it may, perhaps, not be generally known that this kind of beer always affords a less proportion of alcohol than is produced from mild beer. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ It is the poetry of beer; it is to all other brewings what Shakespeare is to the drama; what the Coliseum is to other antiquities. None of the beer is exported or sold; it is all drunk on the spot, and when it gives out no other brewery can supply a drop comparable with it. The Parisians, who have heaped every luxury, from the poles to the tropics, in their capital of the world, have not enough money in the Bank of France to purchase a cask of it. It is said that Maximilian II. resolved that the best beer in the world should be made at the royal brewery in Munich. ”

“ The burly butcher, seated outside the inn with no fear of the Sheriff in his heart, quaffs his pewter mug of foaming ale, and casts now and again an eye on the artist who is repainting the signboard. The sturdy smith, the drayman, the porter and the fishwife—all are well clad and prosperous. Houses are being built, others are being repaired, and health and wealth are visible on every side.
Beer! happy produce of our isle, Can sinewy strength impart, And wearied with fatigue and toil, Can cheer each manly heart. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Brewers’ grains are greedily eaten by most kinds of freshwater fish, and are used by anglers as groundbait for bream, roach, and carp in the Eastern counties.
In a work entitled Practical Economy, published in 1821, persons desirous of fattening their fowls quickly are recommended to feed them on ground-rice, milk and sugar, made into a paste, and to let them drink beer.
The ladies who preside over the culinary department of our households do not, so far as we know, make any use of ale other than as a drink, excepting the occasional use of beer in the preparation of Welsh rare-bits. ”