The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1890-12-11
TEMPERANCE NOTES.
CONCERNING BEER.

=
rhs Eatirs Process Of Making the stun
Il Exesed,ngly Filthy.
Suppose We take look into brewery.
What We wish to learn is what brewers
do and why they do it II We were go
ing to make beer We should need to
do every thing-in short, to enter as
apprentices hope none Of my pupils
will ever do that. We do not propose
to make beer, but to expose its badness
We can learn much by looking.
You would not expect to find =
brewery . very clean place. There is
too much dirty work done there. too
much straining and fermenting and
waste A vast amount Of good grain is
spoiled there. At the Centennial Ex-
position of 1870 in Philadelphia we
were told that We could see tho entire
process Of beer-making at the Brewers
Hall; so party Of Temperance people
went around there one day. A nice
large room contained great variety Of
new utensils and machinery, all duly
labeled, but none of it in operation.
When VIC asked to see the promised
process of beer making, the workmen
simply ran some discolored water
through the mash tub. Why did they
not keep their promise? Because there
IS too much dirty work about beer max
ing, and they wished to mako US think
it was all very clean and sweet
We soon found, however, that the
beer cellar was expected to be the
great attraction. Even the workmen
watched for the opening of the door
into that so that they might dodge in
and get drink. We declined the
privilege, but when they assured US we
would not be urged to drink, we walked
in and looked around the cold dark
damp room, and saw people with glasses
in their hands going around to get
drinks from great gloomy:looking hogs
heads. Much pains were taken to keep
this clean also. but there was nothing
cherry nor attractive aboutit And there
was very little to learn, excepting the
strength of the appetite created by beer
drinking
In the real brewery we will also re-
TO avoid the moldy utensils, and to
keep our foe ting on the Shiny floors.
Let US look first at the mash tub, where
the crushed grain is washed out in hot
water. Men keep stirring it up by ma.
chinery or with long poles, so that the
liquid can pass through the perforated
bottom. This liquid iscalled the ''sweet
WORT" because it is not yet fermented.
When it is drawn off from the mash tub
it is run into the boilers. Where are
they? All built up in ranges with
brick-work. Beneath them are the
places to build the fires. Over each
boiler is the machinery that turns the
handle of a rake, which reaches into
the boiler and stirs up the sediment at
the bottom. Hops are now put into the
liquid, to make the beer bitter and
more Supplying, and to hide the nau-
seous taste of the decayed grain.
The boiling goes on for some hours,
partly to get all the strength out of the
hops and partly to curdle some nutri-
tious parts of the grain that still re-
main in the wort. These are all strained
out after the boiling is finished, and
the brew is poured out on the floor of a
large room to cool.
This word brew at first meant to boil,
and it was applied to beer-making on
account of this boiling, but now ie is
applied to the whole process of beer
making. No alcohol is developed yet,
but careful preparations have been
made by removing from the wort nearly
all parts of the grain but the sugar.
When the wort has cooled it is run
into large watts that hold hogshead or
two, and the yeast is put in, about one
gallon to one hundred gallons of the
wort Within a few hours the sugar
begins to decay, and the alcohol is form
ing. That is the way in which all
alcohol is formed, by the decay of the
sugar in a sweet liquid: and here we
have seen how it is done in beer-mak-
ing. This is the great object, to pro-
duce this alcohol. Without this the
beer would not sell. No one would
drink it.
The entire process is filthy. Very
filthy water is often used to make the
wort. The fermenting watts look filthy,
with the dirty foam piled up so high
that the workmen call it rocks" The
odor of decay is in the air. You can
smell that and the hops throughout all
che neighborhood. The workmen look
filthy, too. They are usually lovers of
beer. and they get all they want to
drink
William Lill, a brewer of Chicago,
whose buildings were burned down in
the famous fire, said he should not re.
build. because he could not keep his
workmen sober. He said the curse be-
gan in the brewery itself, where every
workman was a beer barrel in the morn
ing and barrel of beer at sight. The
stuff that comes from the brewery is no
better for other people than it is for the
workmen. We wish all the brewers
were as sensible as Mr.. ILL, but so long
as people will have beer somebody will
be found filthy enough to make it,
Temperance Teacher:
DRINKING WOMEN.