The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1890-06-21
A KEG OF BEER.
HOW TT IS MADE AND WHAT
COMPOSED OF.
A VISIT 70 TIE BREWERY
How to Get There-The First Move.
AT the Great Cauldr0n-In the Gels
lcrs The Ice-MaIsing PIant-Eiectric
Light-A New Road House.

Nothing in summer is more pallta'
BILE than q glass OF good cool beer.
1t is refreshing and health giving,
and puts the roses into pallid checks,
the sparkle into dull eyes and sets the
slow tongue waggins.
Roanoke now has brewery of her
own, and visit to it is most interest
ing. The making of u glass OF beer is
a very complicated process and it re-
quires good many men 10 do it, and
lots of money to establish Il plant.
TO reach the virginia Brewing
Company's plant, you take the
dummy at the foot OF jefferson street
and are whirled in jiiy down Ral l.
road avenue, past the cool shades OF
Woodland Park, with its loafers
lying prone under the trees, aid in
two or three minutes you find yourself
standing in front of the Office which is
situated directly on the line of the
road.
Behind the rail you will be apt to
find President Hermann CrueSer and
more than apt TO see Charles f. Mand-
Ter. the efficient secretary of the COM
pany. Both have had long experience
in the business and know it thor
oughly.
III the brewery proper Louis a.
Scholz, the general manager, reiSns
supreme and what he doesn't know
about brewing wouldn't take many
columns in the TIMES to tell. With
him as u guide the reporter traced
the making Of a glass of beer from the
time it ceased TO be malt hops and
pure cold water until it became the
exhilirating drink that is daily quaf-
fed by thousands.
In the second story of the building
is an immense copper cauldron, hold
ing over hundred barrels, and here
the malt after being ground is mixed
with water and boiled until the
mass has reached the required tenn
perature. Then the hops are mixed
in and a white foam spreads itself
over the surface. The boiling mass
has to be carefully watched
and tended or it may run over.
Much depends on the quality Of
the hops and the chemical properties
of the water. The stronger the beer
the more hops is required. The boil
ing is continued until the hops have
yielded their bitter and arimatre
principles, and then the liquor is
drawn Oft, cooled by being run over
pipes filled with cold air, and finds its
way 70 the huge watts in the cellar.
Button up your coat, y said Mama
ger Scholz, as the reporter prepared
to follow him into the cellar. And
the warming was not without cause,
Tor going out of the warm June at
mosphere into the cellers, was like
leaving the Everglades of Florida for
the shadows of Greenland's icy noun
Gains.
In the cellers were great watts filled
with beer in process OF fermentation.
Thick caulillower like heads Of froth
had formed in the beer. The process
of cooling is most important one, for
if it is not done with great rapidity,
the sugar in the beer becomes partly
converted into acrtie and the
task of the product made un-
pleasant. Sixty days, at least. must
elapse before the beer is ready for the
market, and it is better if kept longer.
About the first of August, the COM
pany will put its product on the
market, and already they have assur-
ances of a very large patronage.
They will make their own ice and
will use about five tons q day. The
machines are now being completed.
They will also have their own electric
light plant, and two-horse power
engine is now being put in. This will
also furnish power for the bottling
works.
Just across road from the brewery a
large house, with porches and gables
and picturesque air,is going up. This
is 70 be called the Wayside Inn, and
neing immediately Oh enc of the most
popular drives about Tue environs OF
Roanoke, it will lie 6 great conven-
jence TO the Jrayele; who likes a
luncheon and a good fresh glass OF
beer