Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-09-21
THOUSANDS OF BARRELS OF BEER
The Annual Consumption in This City
Of the Product Of the Brewers.

laOCSANDSO Vi BAkkELS OF BEER
The Annual Consumption in This CITY
Of the Product Of the Brewers.
"Ths amount Il beer gotten away with an
nually BY the oiv of Washington is something
| appalling when yen come TO figure il up" said
large retail dispenser Of the cooling beverage
| TO SrAR reporter enc day this week The
local demand 10 not at all supplied by the
10000 barrels produced yearly by our own
breweries, and 90 outside manufacturers are
drawn upon for about 900 barrels more. OF
western beer one concern sends nearly IA 900
barrels of its product every twelvemunth to
the national capital The demand for this
brand scents to be growing very rapidly"
How is the beer from other cities brought
to Washington
I'm barrels always Of 81 gallons each. The
big western brewing companies have specially
constructed cars of their own for summer
transportation, with a double felt-lined shell to
serve as non-eonductor. In these the barrels
OF beer are shipped. with ice on top, and are
mus brought thousands of miles without any
appreciable variation of temperature. And
the precautlon is very necessary, for you see
II beer gets warm and cool again two OF
be kept at a certain degree Of cold always, from
the time it leaves the brewery to
the moment when it is poured into
the glass fV drinking: After lsav-
ing the refrigerator cars at this Washington
freight station the barrels must be placed in
store houses and their contents kept down to a
point not much above freezing by evaporated
ammonia pumped through pipes. As it is
wanted the beer is drawn of into bottles or
quarter-barrel kegs OF ~ gallons each, for
sale. keg Of this size originally holds full
gallons, but every two or three months il must
be coated inside with pitch and rosin and the
hoops hammered down tighter, SO that the re-
cePtacle becomes gradually little smaller"
KEEPING BEER FROM FREEZING.
docs not the beer sometimes freeze in
transit during the winter months"
1T happens sometimes, notwithstanding
every precsution, such ~ packing the barrels
IN hay and stable manure. Beer once frozen
Is spoiled. though l have heard il contendsd
that by thawing it very slowly, the operation
extending over two or three days, its quality
could De saved IT, however, while en- route a
carload Is thoroughly CONCEALED, half-thawed
and frozen again il Is dead loss beyond per-
adventure. Two-thirds Of the beer shipped to
tins city from elsewhere is drunk from bottles,
most OF 1t over the bars. The politicians always
take 1t that way and rarely on draught 1t
might be worth mentioning, incide utally, that
one OF the biggest brewsriss in Washington
mas been practically boycottsd by the Irish
people here, owing to the report that it has
cate"
HOW IT Is MADE.
"How is beer made?
ut is rather complicated process to be
summed up in few words However, malt
and hops are the chief ingredients. Malt is
barley cooked in kilns and ground ND The
more II IL cooked the darker will be the color
OF the beer The ground malt goes into a
mash-tuD and Is worked with hot water for
thrA h,1tr Ill Al. A
tracted from 1t. Then the liquid Is run off
INTO huge kettle and the hops are added The
nnest hops come from Bohemia and Bavaria:
III this country the vines grow too fast for the
quanty OF the product. OF the hops grown In
the United States the best are cultivated in
New York. But as 1 was saying, the malt
liquor and the hops are cooked together for
three hours more, and the resulting solution
ID permitted to flow into great iron
vat, where the hops settle to the bottom Now
the beer Is drawn off into a cooler and thence
INTO fermentlng watts, where yeast Is put with
1t and 1t Is allowed to stand for eighteen days
perhaps. At the end of this time it goes into
casks In the cellar, where it remains for two
or three months, while any foreign matter
works up and out of the upper bunghols and
such particles OF the hops have not been dis
posed of sink and attach themselves to the
wood shavlngs put in for that purpose Finally
the casks are bunged up for few days to give
the beer life and the beverage is drawn off
into barrels ready for market. 1t is this storing
process through which it goes that gives it the
name lager, or stored beer. The barrels
are shipped to agents in various cities, and in
this way reach the consumer"
GERMAN AND AMERICAN BEER
SIS the best German beer better than the
best Americana"
Opinions differ on that question. Nv own
opinion Is that 1t is no better I have known
Germans who said that better beer was made
In this country than in the fatherland. On the
other hand, many people here will drink MOTH
ing but the imported German beer. But it is
not fair to compare the domestic beers with
TINS imported article, because the latter is
brewed expressly for export and is stronger
and better, with more hops in it.
than the product of the same brew
cries intended for consumption in Ger
many. The German export beer brings a
bigger price. and they can afford to make it
theirs. for the reason that labor is SO much
dearer here, and We must import the hops.
There are many ways of making beer for sx-
port to keep. One big Washington brewer
steams it after il is bottled. but Is gives the
beer peculiar taste that every one does not
like"
What is the best method Of keeping beer
cool behind the bar-puttlng the kegs in big
ice boxes while they are being drawn from or
pumping it up from the cellar through coils of
block-tin pipes with ice on top of the coils?'
Neither me thod Is perfect, though prefer
the ics-box plan, for the reason that the beer
is apt to get stale in the pipes between drinks
and it leaves deposit in the coils that is very
unpleasant and may faint the beer drawn
through them. On the other hand the pipe
coils keep the beer at more steady cold than
the ice box. You can have the pipe system put
in for about $35, and it is an enormous saving
in ice. No, it is not true that brewers allow
the men they employ to drink ali the beer they
can. Nest of them give their hands an allow
ance OF 50 or 100 glasses each per day. Others,
like Heurich, permit them to drink all they
wish SO long az they do not become intoxi-
Gated"
Saturday Smiles.
Carpets are bought by the yard and soled by
the foot.-Rch,aond Recorder.
As Adam remarked to Eve as they sat out