The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-01-11
Z GLASS OF BE sR.
- travels from the Field to the Bar
room.
ZOE a ~ York 81

--.ff-1uS. WHO unity aASh AOA a lass VI UcCE
-. the least idea how it is made, the vast
-'rital behind the manufacture, aud the
.,,,.snls who are dependent on its demand
- livelihood. He who trudges or
-s-,nters past the fields of waving barley
nod their bearded heads to and fro in
- breeze. or bow in low waves resem-
w W bi. lowed sea of pale gold, seldom, if
thinks OF all that must be gone
ssr71gh with that tiny graf before it
,isf5| its hidden virtues to the brewer, let
I'm he ever so faithful disciple of John
BarleycOrn.
From its very quaintness a hop garden
o+rrscts attention. Each vine. even in its
est infancy, has for al attend mt nurse a
io1y more or less straight, pole. In their
nnedorned gauntness, the man who has
ever travelled through a hop-growing
.ountrv wonders what earth they can be.
SIN the vines climb up these poles, turn
;rg each one into a line of vivid green,
so9n 10 be transformed into pyramids Of
f9iisge. as the different tendrils stretch out
rom the parent stem and Irvine among
THEMSELVES, turning the field into almost
"a adlse.
The " ritter once travelling by rail through
me Kentish hop fields in E igland was
MT a little surprised to be suddenly ac-
costed bv his sole companion in the same
! compartment.
Didn't know you grew vans over here.
/ 7 had been in the West Indies, and knew
what he meant. and regret to say told him
4 we did. did not wish to be questioned for
fine next forty minutes that | was doomed
| 70 be in that train, and hop garden and
yam patch are very much alike.
It is an anxious time for the hop farmer
from the time whe the froundS of flowers
81 first peep out from among the leaves until
4 these punches Of soft, cone-like bloss ms
i have turned to pale gold, and are ready
to be dried in the curious pinnacle-Shaped
4 kIns that dot every hop garden.
What beer drinker thinks of those hun
dreis who flock out Of murky, smoky
4 towns, with their wives and children, to
help garner this alcoholic harvest. All
save the little babe that sleeps comfortably
4 on / ed Of hop leaves can help in one way
or another to inc. ease the wages earned,
1 and, as payment is according to the amount
i Of hops picked, all work with a will.
Ful-hoW cred, clean and untarnished hops
are one # the most profitable crops that a
farmer can raise, but hops can only be
raised in certain localities, and there is ever
present. the danger of blight mildew,
that often make the crop actually not fit to
pick
So much for the raising of the ingredients
article is quite another story-tde one is
pastoral and poetic, the other is urban and
prosaic
The successful brewer must be man of
large experience, great Judgment, keen
observer, and a bit of a chemist.
At the very outset, his experience and
Judgment point out to him the class of
barley he wants for the different sorts or
qualities of beer his house is known for.
For tue best beer he must buy clear golden
grain, the shorter and thicker the better,
and in his purchase of hops he has even to
sxercie more care. Each pocket must
be carefully sampled, for the injection of
any inferior hOns would ruin whole brew
ing from a xxx to lower quality.
About half the brewers do their own malt
ing. The remainder is done by the maltsters.
VINO do nothi & further in the way of max
ing beer. except in converting the barley
INTO dlffusible starch. The brewers find
this the cheapest and most economical way.
brewery is nothing more than an i'm
nense storehouse, with kitchens and eel ars.
The malt, whose chemical use is to fur
nish the starch, which, in process of fer
mentation, becomes alcohol, and the
dlestase, which is also developed from the
barley along with the starch in the mailing
process, when brought into contact with
water, turn this starch into grape sugar.
30 powerful is this diastase tnat one part |
will convert 1900 parts of starch into the !
alcohol producer, namely, the grape sugar. |
II we take 1t for granted that the actual |
process of brewing uegins in the brewery |
that is, after the maltster has delivered his |
malt-the following is an outline of the diff |
ferent steps taken to produce the beer and |
ale we drink.
The frs, thing done is the MASKING. Into
the large mash tubS.or cylindrical basins is |
thrown a certain quantity of malt and q |
proportlonate amount Of water at known |
temperature. The mas is churned by large |
fan-shaped paddles that thoroughly stir I'D |
the two ingredients. By saccharometer |
the brewer knows when he has mixed the |
right proportio TO produce the greatest |
amount of saccharine matter. He must |
watch with care that the mass is at the |
right temperature, and experience alone |
teaches him when the malt has been in |
soak" long enough.
The product OF this MASKING has the tech |
meal term of wort" applied to it in the |
brewing world.
The wort" is drawn off into enormous
copper boilers capable of containing hum
dreds of gallons, which, as rule, are
placed in the floor below. These boilers |
are kept scrupulously clean, and are heated
OF coils OF steam pipes II is while the
wort" is being heated in these boilers that |
the brewer has again TO bring his ex-
perlence and judgment into play, for he |
must know exactly at what time to add the |
nops-that means when the mass is lust at |
therlght temperature. This he judges by the |
amount OF foam on the seething mixture. |
1t IS now that the hops are added, and 1t |
must be just at the nick of time. The pro- |
PORTION of hops is about one pou per
.9arrel-this is for good beer For choice |
beers larger proportion is added, while |
Tor tie inferior sorts, of course, less. For
TIE trothy concocti ms that are sold in the
summer at our seaside resorts it is a very
open question if any at all is used. The
fraudulent brewer, Instead of using the
expensive hops, which at times cost a dollar
OF more pound, us S substi utes, such as
seeds of paradise, p" extract of citechu" or
some other chemical compound. Some of
taese may be harmless, but certainly the
greater number are little better than a
allow poison.
In the old days very str ng ale used to be
proved: In those days there was no stint
Iug Ct hops, and the liquid was brewed
sometimes two d thr times over These
ufe"lngs were generally made at the birth
e ", some heir, and the large pu 1cheons were
nlled and laid aside until the baby had
grown to manhood, and were preached at
us coming of age. But that was long ago,
e@1ept IN very rare instances where the
prdcIlce IS still kept W in SONS old English
ana German houses.
lie hops are allowed to boil in the wort
from one to three hours, then taken out as
eoulpIeteiy and rapidly as nossible with
X Stralnar- like SC1OnS and tha HouId is |