New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1881-08-28

beer in winter and summerW
"There is not much more than one-third of the |
eer drank in winter that is consumed in summer |
But the brewers prefer that kind Of trade which
they can employ all the year round. That is why
Coney Island is of very little advantage to brewer
These large establishments have to be run all
winter and the men to be paid their wages Beer
brewing in the Southern States has not been a
success account of the cost of ice, which does
not form in that climate. You must keep your
beer at low temperatures in order to destroy certain
diseased ferments which would spoil it and which
only develop above certain temperature. That
would make the beer sour"
"What is yeast 7"
swell, here's chemist. He will tell you that
yeast is probably the lowest form of organized life
1t is plant spore. invisible, but floating in the
atmosphere Here is a photograph of some yeast
magpiiied thousands of times You that it is
apparently little clusters of eggs, like the of q
shad. Now look at it through the microscope and
each of those little eggs becomes half as big
a pea There is cavity at the middle, as if there
stomach there. Brewers yeast in prefer
ence to several fernents they might use. The re-
fuse yeast is given away. Other brewers often
| come to borrow Yeast, wishing to change their
yeast, tley say 1t is like breeding with certain
animals which finally lose their mettle and you
introduce blood from your neighbours stock.
So it is with yeast As it is organized life, you want
| to quicken it from another brewery. We use about
one gallon of yeast to a barrel of beer When it
has fenepted the beer to the best of its ability.
the yeast settles down upon shavngs of clean beech
put in the bottoms of the big tuDs. There it perches
like chickens going to roost, and there is man-hole
in each of those tuns casks big enough to let
a man put his head and shoulders inside. He re-
moves the yeast and the shavings, and thoroughly
ceanses the cask, and then the beer is let into
it by hose"
IN berry DEPTHS.
The brewer then took me into place under
ground and protected by air-tght DOORS where
| they were filling beer casks. What beer spilled
over caught in another vessel and at times
empted. 1t took two minutes to fill each quarter
of barrel. A big elevator took the kegs upstairs
where wagons waiting at the sidewalk for
| Them From this room we entered u series of
vaults about twelve feet high and 90 feet square,
| dark and with enormous casks of beer in rows on
each of which n card telling the quantity time
| of brewing, etc, and also Thermometer. The
largest of these casks contain nearly 100 barrels
| and cost 800. little gimet peg allowed the
beer to be tasted by the brewer TO how we'll it
had matured. The lee and snow were within few
| feet of heads. Going down several steps we
saw an enormous cylinder of masonry crossing
| through, which the sewer of the street above
| our heads. BY the action of the brewery engine
whatever water yeast, etc, collected IN the vaults
was forced into this above and went OFF like
matter from the upper world.
We walked half n block under ground to
another great series of vaults and there the ice and
| snow were thlckly encrusted by the
| action of the same distant machine. We climbed
UP the ladders to the huge tubs of beer in different
processes of solution fermentation. In the first
| stage it is merely malt tea IA decoction of malt
| and water. Further on. when the yeast has been
added, it becomes frothy The top where the gums
| ana resins have assembled IL seemed 80 that
there several acres of beer IN various forms
under the ground, and some of the hue casks had
| been there twenty years.
"The only difficulty with Ncw-ior., beer sad
| my friend 4" il that in the hot weather when there
is an immense demand for it, it is furnished too
| new. Beer ought To be kept three months. aud we
try to keep 1t that long. But with four i've
hundred trade customers and a thirsty city. they
draw on the beer mcrcessly III July and August.
The yeast ought to bc thoroughly out OF the beer
before il is drunk. There is only about per cent
of alcohol in beer and about 80 per cent OF alcoho
| in whskcy. That accounts for the popularity of
lager beer. 1t is fair compromise between total
abstinence and alcohol. 1t especially TO suit
the zone of temperature corresponding 10 our
Western and Middle States"
When we camo out to the surface aud looked mt
! the clean copper kettle carefully washed aft.r
| every brew. | took up some of the barley already
| matted and said:
"Why do you use this barley instead OF wheatgr
| p" Any grain will make beer said the brewer
Wheat Will make weiss beer. We use barley
| because we find IL not only the cheapest grain bnt
| 1t develops into diastaste and starch most
| thoroughly. This grain of barley you sec now i,
nothing but starch and very little diaStaste The
dastaste attacks the starch and turns it into SUGAR
Then the yeast has such gluttouy for sugar that it
makes carbonic acid gas and alcohol of it. The
hops are merely put into the beer to give il the
! tonic qualities. Hops now cost about 20 cents "A
pound and we use exclusively American hops.
which are profitable TO the producer if he gets II
cents pound for them. We are now the greatest
hop producing country in tho world and send
enormous quantities of hops TO England. Quite nm
| item in the brewers list is horses and wagons A
good pair of brewers horses come from Ohio and
| have some .NormHn or Flemish stock IN them and
cost about $500. Our drivers and brewers are gem
orally Bayarians, though Americans are coming into
the business since it has become sucl n prominent
feature OF trade. Myself and my partner were
originally produce mercl ants. TIE leading brewers
of New-1ork arrived in this country poor men,
| RESUME.
| "Now," said |, " let run over these points and
see II know them! Beer is barley sugar fermented
| by yeast and made bitter and tonicy by hops The
yeast settles and is thrown away; the mash after
iniusing the boiling water, is drawn Off and sold
for manure. The carbonc acid released by the ac-
ton of the yeast the sugar is what makes the
beer lively. The cold required in the rIpenpp of the
beer is to keep down poisonous fernens which have
a tendency to develop. Hops do not make Yeast
but yeast has to from n seed and 10 propnp,tc
| by the malt il feeds on"
| "Nearly correct" spoke up the chemist and LET
me tell you while they assailiug the chemist
| that he is slowly moving the world Mustard is now
made articially. SO is indigo. Chemistry is a