The Republican., 1890-12-12
TEMPERANCE NOTES.
FACTS ABOUT BEER.
The Entire Process of Making the stuR
Is Exceedingly Filthy.


Suppose We take look into a brewery,
What we wish to learn is what brewers
do and why they do it. If we were GO
ing to make beer VIC should need to
do every thing-in short, to enter as
apprentices. l hope none of my pupils
will ever do that. We do not propose
to make beer, but to expose its badncsa
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. vast amount of good grain is
spoiled there. At the Centennial Ex-
position of 1876 in Philadelphia we
were told that we could see the 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 we 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 make us think
1T was all very clean and sweet.
We soon found, however, that the
beer cellar was expected to be tho
great attraction. Even the workmen
watched for the opening of the door
into that, SO that they might dodge in
and get a 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-
fuse the drink; and we will be careful
to avoid the moldy utensils, and to
keep our footing on the Shiny floors.
Let tus 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 is called the sweet
wort" because it is not yet fermented.
When it is drawn off from the mash tub
1t is run into tho boilers. Where are
they? All built up in ranges with
brickworll. Beneath them are the
places to build the fires. Over each
boiler is tho machinery that turns the
handle of 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 stupefying, and to hide the nau-
Beous 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 tho wort. These are all strained
out after the boiling is finished, and
the brew is poured out on the floor of
largo room to cool.
This word 6re,o at first meant to boil,
and it was applied to beer-makinS on
account of this boiling, but now iG 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 a hogshead or
two, and tho yeast is put in, about one
gallon to one hundred gallons of the
wort Within 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 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 vats 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
the neigh borhood. The workmen look
filthy, too. They are usually lovers Of
beer, and they get all they want to
drink.
William Lill, 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 beer barrel in the morn
ing and barrel of beer at night. 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.. Lill, but SO long
as people will have beer somebody will
be found filthy enough to make it.
Temperance Teacher.