The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1908-01-05

Aristocratic Member of This Fam
ily-lmportant Part Played
BY Biologists.
New York, Jan. 4.-(SpeciaD Those
who think at all about the brewmaster
at the modern American brewery are
very apt to picture him as a big burly
German, with leather apron, constantly
interrupting his work to quaff deep po-
tations of his brew from ever ready spi-
got and fiagon. The error in this is that
most people confuse the brewing expert
with the laborer who shifts the kegs IN
his laden wagons. In reality, the brew
MASTER when visited in his office, will
more than likely be found TO be Ger
man-American scientist, able and ready
to talk bacteriology biology chemistry
and botany, to say nothing of physics
and mechanical engineering and refriS-
Grafton and hygiene, which are already
regarded by brewers as developed
sciences. He will talk with equal interest
and conclusveness about the germ which
causes municipal epidemic, or the cause
of hay fever, and talk Familiarity about
the appiculatus and the Sacharobacillus
Pastorianus As far as the water sup
ply is concerned he can tell you as much
about what is in the citys natural brew
as any one, for 1t is one of his duties
to keep constant trace 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 the citys air, as some gentle
man. of the bacilli family, If allowed to
get into his watts, may ruin a product
on which he has been working for
months.
Review Sciences.
Any one contemplating a visit to
. brewmaster will do we'll to review all the
science he has studied, for he will hear
little about beer, and probably great
deal about diastase, maltese deXtrine
and dextrose, zymase and engines and
many other terms unheard of as yet
outside the annals of the chemical So
cieties If the visitor has any idea that
he will be invited to frequent draughts,
he probably will be sorely disappointed.
For the brewmaster, like the tea faster,
must keep his keen sense of taste UNI
clouded, as this alone given him the f1nal
test on the success of his experiments.
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 fasts of cold physiology and the BIZ
illogical effects of too much alcohol,
though he does not understand why pro-
hibition always attacks beer, in which
are only three to four per cent of alcohol.
A visitor recently to one of the oldest
breweries in the. United States, found
the brewmaster, a good humored 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 a few minutes said
the brew expert. Il think | have got
my gentleman"
At last he withdrew his hands.
Member of Yeast Family.
81 am trying to isolate a little chap one
three thousandths of an inch long. lie
is a member of the yeast family-really
a plant. Unlike hundreds of others which
are closely associated with 1im, he be-
HAYES properly in the wort of beer
causes fermentation without giving a
faulty taste or color, or cutting no other
mischievous tricks. Fifteen times |
thought l had him, for he looks just like
the rest of his family, and each time,
instead of being my good gentleman, he
was a culprit.
What will do with him if l find him?
All, shall see that he is most carefully
protected from the hoi polloi. He will
live in a little Pasteur flask, absolutely
alone with plenty of the purest food to
be found in the world. Then he will raise
family all exactly like himself. And
when he has family, | shall, oh so
carefully take out one of them on the
point of a platinum needle and in anoth-
er flask raise family of billions of him
VI. hall ~
original family to sleep in a solution of
steriized cane sugar in which they will
live but cannot grow. And whenever my
second family gets bad neghbors among
it, | shall fish out another from the par
ent stock and start a new family of
yeast aristocrats.
How They Are Found.
"How do | find them? All nonor to
many of the worlds greatest chemists
and psychologists who have frequently
begun their studies in connection win
brewing. Pasteur began by searching
for the. cause of fermentation in wines
and later developed his other studies
which have been of such service to pa
thology and therapeutics But Pasteur
did not succeed in isolating the yeast
plant. Then came Hansen, the Dane,
aided by his government to study yeast,
and he succeeded in isolating the yeast
plant and from his parent stock pure
yeast has been sent all over the world
to be cultivated and used. A scientific in
yentor aided this search by ruling a lit
tie glass saucer about the size of a five
cent piece, with a thousand lines to the
inch in both directions To the naked
eye these lines do not show but under
thousand diameter microscope they are
little squares about the size of a pencil
lead. Then Hanson took some yeast
a pin point full, perhaps-and diluted and
diluted it with distilled water until he
thought or hoped that only six or seven
of his yeast gentlemen would be left
Then he peered through his microscope,
and, If he were lucky, perhaps on one Of
his tiny squares would be only one OF
his gentlemen.
Then he would permit this gentleman
to multiply, and after little colony was
started, the scientist would fish for him
with a platinum needle. He could not
tell whether he had caught one of them
or not. All he could do was to put the
needle in culture media and if something
happened after a few days, he had
caught him, he allowed his captive to
raise a family and then tried them in
tho 'wort-perhaps then the scientist
would be sorry that he caught him. But
finally Hansen succeeded in isoating the