Nashville union and dispatch. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1866-1868, 1867-07-24
1tniaa aud 9ispatth.
.argest circnIation in eity and SAC.
NATIONAL BEVERAGES.
SOMETHING ABOUT ALE-MAKING
IN THE UNITED STATES.
Description Of its Manufacture,
THE MAGNIFICENT BREWERY OF
WALKER d 90.


From the Cincinnati Enquirer, 10th.
We reproduce from the Cincinnati Ga
| zstte, Of the 18th instant, the following Dor
tons Of an elaborate and interesting article
on national beverages and their influence
upon the character and habits of the peo-
ple.| That portion which we publish fully
describes the various processes employed
infhe Manufacture Of this popular stimu-
lating tonic, giving us, also an insight into
the workings Of the business as carried on
by our snterprising feliow-townsmen, the
Messrs. Walker Brothers. Their estab-
ment is indeed, in all respects, model one
aud from its thrifty extent reflects credit
upon their business sagacity and foresight
We commend lis careful reading to the
public.
As now used, ale signifies a
kind Of beer distinguished chiefly by its
strength aud the quantity 81 saccharine
matter remaining undecomposed. While
common beer contains only one per cent. of
alcohol, the finer qualities of ale, distin-
guished by their yinous flavor, contain as
high as six or eight per cent. Pale and
amber-colored malt are used in brewing
the lighter varieties, while darker malt is
used in making sweet ale, and q very dark
kind in the preparation Of porter. The
material Of this malt is generally barley,
though wheat and other grains may be,
and sometimes are, employed. In other
countries 4 great variety of vegetable pro-
ducts are used in the manufacture Of all
kinds Of ale or beer. In South America
the Indians used beer prepared from In
dian corn, and called chicd, long before the
Spanish conquest. The process of making
chiod was almost identical with that of Eng
lish housewives in making 'home brewed"
ale at the present day. Chica was also
sometimes made from barley, rice, manioc,
and pine-apples. The Grim Tartars pre-
pare a beer from unlicensed, which they
call lOuz0. The Sikhs and the tribes on
the southern slopes of the Himmalayas pre-
pare a beer from the same seed, as do also
the Arabians, Abyssinians, and many
tribes Of Africans The Russians make
beer from rye, aud call il guass. The Tar
tars ferment milk into k0umiss and the
Turks have a beer similarly prepared,
called yd0urt The South Sea Islanders
make beer called ara, from the root of the
intoxicating long pepper In Mexico
beer called puiq1is is made from the agave.
In fact, there is scarcely a people on the
globe who have not, in some shape.
rudely-prepared equivalent for our ale or
beer.
Ale is favorite tonic, often prescribed
by physicians in England and America,
the lighter varieties having qualities con
sidered superior in that respect to wine,
and being at once nutritious and slightly
stimulating English Legislators have long
recognized the valuable properties, and
have encouraged the manufacture and cor
sumption Of ale among the people BY open
ing the trade 10 all, at merely nOminal rates
of license. Ia 1866 there were 10000. $50
bushels of malt brewed in the United King
dom, equal to 73O,9l7, 1896 gallons of ale
over twenty gallons for every man, woman
and child in the empire.
In the United States the manufacture of
ale is an immense and rapidly growing
business To what extent it is carried we
have not the statistics at hand 10 show. In
deed, until within a year OF two, there be-
ing no excise upon the manufacture, there
were, Of course, absolutely no data in ex.
istence to afford even an approximate esti-
mate of the amount of ale brewed in the
country. And even now the excise ma
chinery of the government is not. so far
perfected as 10 afford an infallble indica-
lion of the manufacture and consumption
Of ale in the United States.
That il will rise to a vast aggregate, will
be readily believed by those who have had
an opportunity of inspecting the operations
of any one of the great establishments,
scattered all over the land, which are en-
gagged in brewing. One Of these,
WALKERS BREWERY ON SYCAMORE STREET,
we had the pleasure of walking through
the other day. The enterprising proprie-
tors, four brothers, are thorough experts in
every detail Of the business, and are able,
as matter of course, to supervise intelli-
gently every department of their brewery,
which has few equals, either in this country
or in the world, in extent and in the per
fiction Of all appliances and appointments
used in the art and mystery of brewing ale.
1t is, indeed, a splendid establishment We
have not the facts before us, but our inn
preston IL that this concern is the largest
west of the mountains certainly, it has no
rival IN this State.