The sun., 1899-02-19
WHAT REAL, PURE BEER is.
DOUBTS ON THIS QUESTION EVEN
AMONG BREWERS.


Alike In Many Countries and for Gem
turies-why Brewers Oppose such LeGis-
Iation, and what Has been Done ON
Many Occasions to Disprovs Popular H.
lusious ms to tho AduIterntion of Beers.
The almost unanimous opposition Of the
brewers OF New York State to pure beer"
'-gislatlon OF the kind proposed In the bill pre-
AIRED by the Assembly Public Health Commit
zee Is not Difficult to understand, and it Is not
s'rnnge that the brewers cry strike" at this
.iIl. as they have ut the many others. nearly
like 1t. which have come up at Albany year
niter.year. For twenty-five years or more the
National Congress- state Legislatures, State
Rndmunicpal health boards and societies with
various aims have had periodic pure beer"
upheavals with no other result than to create
n widespread illusion. among persons who
have received lasting impression from
lance at n newspaper headline or word
cpoken over glass Of beer that It is a common
practice among American brewers to adul-
,erate beer Popular illusions are Just MS dnl
cult 10 fight nowadays as they we're when
women were burned as witches. and the eX
perence OF tho past few years shows that no
amount OF argument will destroy the pure
beer'' illusion.
Not many persons know what beer is. A no.
ton not at all uncommon. strange as IL seems,
Is that beer is made from hops. and it is not
unusual to hear it said that the reason for the
hopgrowers demand for pure bcor" legisla-
lion is that the brewors now make beer from
chemicals instead Of hops. Most OF the advo-
Gates Of pure beer" bills know that hops are
used by the brewer to aromati2c and preserve
The beer. and that only one pound OF hops is
needed for a barrel OF beer. Long ago there was
u popular illusion that hops should not be used
10 flavor beer. In England. in 1880, Horny
VIII. forbade the adultcration" OF beer by hop
ming. and earlier than that Henry ~, in 14OO.
and Henry VI. in 1850. forbade even the raising
of hops. Hops we're used by the German brew
ers nearly thousand years ago. and the plant
was in common Use in breweries in the eleventh
century. Back in 1920 the Dutch hop-Srowers
we're accused OF mixing cOcC1i'us indicus with
their hops. and the Norwegians. at one time,
when imported German hops were expensive.
substituted mfoil Spiced beers were popular
for a long while. and the brewers used sage.
laurel leaves. Eontian. rcd pepper. rosin and
lavender Amber. coriander and raspberry
juice were mixed with beer in the sixteenth
century.
The substitution of other bitters for hops to
give an aroma to beer is not such n disputed
question now as it was short time ago, but it
might be well to quote paragraph relating to
It from the United States Government report
on beer authorizations Department OF AGrcul-
turc, Bulletin No. 13l:
The nature of the bittcrs used in beer has
long been the target toward which public sus-
ricon is directed and nearly every substance
known possessing a bitter taste has been
enumerated among the adulterations Of beer.
from poisonous alkaloids. such rs strychnine
and picrotoxn. to harmless or quas-harmlcss
bitter roots and woods. such quassia gen
tan. &c Complete and exhaustive schemes
Of analysis have been compiled such as Drag
endorffs Enders. &c. for the detection and
isolation Of such foreign bitters. Either
these methods of investigation are faulty
or difficult Of manipulation. or the use
Of foreign bitters is very much less preva-
lent than is generally supposed, for the
cases where such hitters have been de-
tected and isolated very scarce in chem
cal literature In fact Elsner. German au-
thority on food adulteration. goes SO far as to
say that there has never been a case where the
existence OF n foreign bitter in a malt liquor
has been proved with certainty. This is going
too far Of course. for picrotoXin and picric
acid have undoubtedly been found in beers.
and probably more cases OF such adulteration
would occasionally have been discovered were
it not for the difficulty of the analysis and the
small quantity of the matter required for i'm
parting bitter taste. But there is probably
much less Of this hop substitution than the
indicate"
Something OF the art OF beer max ing must he
known by any one who would get at the truth
of the pure beer" question. The mailing Of
barley and the brewing Of beer from the matted
grain involve so many complex chemical
changes that the most thorough scientific inves-
tigation fails to establish hard and fast rules for
the brewer and no two barrels OF beer are Just
alike: but the art of making beer has advanced
IL air tha JaNs s,t.hn th,Nl
sure good beer, placed in the vat the thumb
OF hanged man and piece of the rope with
which he was hanged.
In the malthouse the barley grain Is soak ed
In cold water for several days and then piled up
on the floor in heaps or "couches." Here it
heats spontaneously and begins to germinate
and dry. The Germination is retarded by
flooring" spreading the barley over the floor
and then the grain is dried in kiln. The prod
uct is malt The mailing of the grain renders
its constituents soluble and suitable for fer
mentation. During termination the alumni
nous substances are changed into diastasc
body which exerts wonderful action on starch
One part of diastase is said to change 2.O0O
parts OF starch which is insoluble and which
constitutes two-thirds Of the malt to dextrin
tgum), and then to glucose grape sugar. both
soluble in water. The starch OF barley is the
basis OF beer and the mailing produces the
uldbIdSe necessary LOT tne conversion OF the in
soluble starch into sugar
The brewer brushes the malt and then puts
1t In the mashtub with warm water. where the
diastase attacks the starch. As malt diastase
Ia capable Of changing to glucOse n much larger
quantity ot starch than exists In tho barley
the practice in modern brewing is to add un-
matted grain to the malt during the mashing
process. Glucose made from cornstarch ly
the action Of suIphurir acid s also used by
brewers as partial substitute for the glucose
formed from the starch of the matted and un-
matted grains. The infusion of the mashtub is
allowed TO stand to clarity and sot and then
1t Is drawn off--a sweet. clear wort-into
n copper boiler. where it il boiled with the
hops. The boiled wort is run of into fer
mentng tuns. whore yeast Is added
to produce active fermentation. Under the ac-
tion of the yeast the glucose Of the wort de-
composes and yields alcohol and carbonic acid
gus. The beer is then cleared and rack ed
Beer varies greatly IN its proportional compo-
Eitton. hut normal beer, neither weak like
weiss beer Lor strong like some of the English
aIpS contains HIOut ninn -tantbs ~ and