The morning journal-courier., 1908-01-09
Scientists Who Spend Years in Seeking the Aristocrats
 of It.
BIOLOGISTS IN BREWERIES
The Important Part Played by Them in the Making of
 Beer.


 brewery are apt to picture him as a big, burly German, with leather apron, constantly interrupting his work to quaff deep potations of his brew from ever ready spigot and flagon The err TOT in this is that most persons con- fuse the brewing expert with the la borer who shifts the kegs in his laden wagons. In reality, the brewmaster when visited in his office will more than likely be found to be German American scientist, able and ready to talk bacteriology, biology, chemistry and botany, to say nothing of physics and mechanical engineering and re- frigeration and hygiene, which are already regarded by brewers as devel- oped sciences. He will talk with equal Interest and conclusiveness about the germ which causes a municipal epi- demic or the cause of hay fever, and CUglNclS etuOQl lliO aPPiIu- latus and the sacharobacillus pastori- anus. As far as the water supply of his city Is concerned, he can tell you as much about what is in the city's natural brew as any one, for 1t is one of his duties to keep constant track of city water with microscope and test tube. He takes no ones word for what he is using in his manufacture; he finds out for himself. He even makes it his business to know what is in the city air, as some gentleman" of the bacilli family, if allowed to get into his vats, may ruin a product on which he has been working for months.
 Any one contemplating visit to a brewmaster will do well to review all the science he has studied, for he will hear little about beer and probably a great deal about diastase, maltese dextrine and dextrose, zymase and enzymes, and many other terms little heard of as yet outside the annals ot the chemical societies. If the visitor has any idea that he will be invited tc frequent drafts he probably will be sorely disappointed, for the brewmas- ter, like the, tea taster, must keep his keen sense of taste unclouded, as this alone gives him the final test on the success of his experiments. 'Conse- quently the brewmaster drinks little beer. He will take a mouthful, catch its flavor and then spit it out. More than likely, the brewmaster will preach sermon on the wisdom of moderation, bringing to his argument not sentiment, but facts of cold phy- siology and the biological effects of too much alcohol, though he does not understand why prohibition always at tacks beer, in which Is only or per cent. of alcohol
 A visitor recently to one of the old est breweries in the United States found the brewmaster, good humor- ed German scientist, seated in front of a glass box. His hands were at work inside the case, which they entered through air tight sleeves.
 Excuse me for few minutes" said the brew expert. T think I have got my gentleman. I have been hunting for him for nearly two years. I cap- tured fifteen individuals of his tribe but they were not my gentlemen"
 At last he withdrew his hands.
 T am trying to isolate little char one hree-thousandths of an inch long" he continued; The is a member of the yeast family-really a plant Unlike hundreds of others which art closely associated with him, he be. hayes properly in the work of beer causes fermentation without giving 2 faulty taste or color or cutting up oth, CT mischievous tricks. Fifteen times thought I had him, for he looks jus like the rest of his family, and eaci time, instead of being my good gentle man, he was a culprit.
 What will I do with him if fint him? An, I shall see that he is mos carefully protected from the hoi pol loi. He will live in a little Pasteul flask, absolutely alone with plenty o the purest food to be found in thu world. Then he will raise famil, all exactly like himself. And when ht has family I shall, oh, so carefully take out one of them on the point o a platinum needle and in another f1asl raise billions of him to use in brewing Then shall put my original family tt sleep in a solution of sterilized cant sugar, in which they will live but can not grow. And whenever my second family gets bad neighbors among it shall fish out another from the parsn stock and start new family oi yeast aristocrats.
 How do I find them? All honol to many of tne worlds greatest chem ists and bacteriologists who have ire nuently begun their studies in connec tion with brewing. Pasteur began b, searching for the cause of fermenta tion in wines and later developed hi, other studies which have been of suci service to pathology and therapeutics But Pasteur did not succeed in isolat ing the yeast plant
 Then came Hansen, the Dane, aid cd by his government, to study yeast and he succeeded in isolating thi yeast plant and from his parent stoel pure yeast has been sent all over tn, world to be cultivated and used. A sci entific inventor aided this search b, ruling little glass saucer about tn, size of a scent piece with a thoussnt lines to the inch in both directions. T. the naked eye these lines do not show but under thousand diameter micro scope they are. perfect little squares Then Hansen took some yeast-a pil point full perhaps-and diluted ani diluted it with distilled water until h thought or hoped that only six or -sev en of his yeast gentlemen would b left. Then he peered through his mi croscope, and if he were lucky per haps on one of his tiny squares woult fe only one of his gentlemen.