Beer

BEER, a beverage made by the alcoholic fermentation of crushed cereal, is of great antiquity throughout the greater part of the world. According to Dr. E. Huber (Bier and Bierbereitung bei den Volkern der Urzeit, 1926) the scanty records of ancient Babylon going back to 5000-6000 B.C. show that beer made from barley, and from barley and spelt, was extensively drunk there, even by labourers and by women in the harem. Important as it was in Babylonian times, beer played an even greater role in daily life in Egypt until the fall of Egyptian civilization and the rise of Mohammedanism. It was used in medicine in Babylon and Egypt, and had spices and bittering substances added to it—a hint of hops to come. With regard to its manufacture, from the examinations of the reliefs from ten graves Dr. Huber has pieced together 23 scenes giving a fairly complete idea of the brewing processes employed. It is particularly noticeable how the initial part of the process is like bread-making, the crushing of the cereal, the making of dough and the baking of this before cutting it up and making an infusion. Bread and beer have in fact always been closely connected, and in mediaeval times the brewery and bak ery were always side by side in the big monasteries. The knowl edge gained from these inscriptions has been confirmed by Herodotus, Pliny and others in many references to the brewing of "wine" from barley.

In Abyssinia and Nubia, Herodotus and Strabo both wrote that the people lived on millet and barley "whereof they also made a beverage." There is a beer made from germinated millet by the Langonassis in the Congo (Eporsoz, Au Soudan Francais). In the south, the Kaffirs have made beer, according to their own ac count, from time immemorial just as they do at present. Dr. Loir has given a long account of it ; it appears that the maize or millet is steeped in water for 24 hours; it is then packed in bags or blankets, hot stones being used in winter time to keep these warm; the grain germinates in 48 hours and is then dried by the sun; this is a crude but very definite form of malting. This malt is mashed with raw grain ; slowly brought to the boil ; allowed to cool in the open, when fermentation starts, due to access of air borne and insect-borne yeast. In China, also, there are records of intoxicating beverages made from millet several centuries B.C. ; but in that country and Japan there has from ancient times been a preference for the use of rice for making fermented beverages (see SAKE).

Records of fermented cereal beverages among classical writers include many countries, e.g., Thracia, Illyria, Pannonia, besides northern Europe and the British Isles. The Greeks learnt the art of brewing from the Egyptians, but beer was generally held in contempt in wine-drinking countries. With regard to our knowl edge of the less civilized districts of northern Europe, we are mainly dependent on classical writers ; Tacitus said that beer was the usual drink of the Germans and Pliny mentions the use of it in Gaul and Spain ; he also writes "They employ the foam which thickens upon the surface as a leaven"—probably the first refer ence to beer yeast for baking purposes.

"Strong" and "Small..

The strength of beer must always have varied a good deal, for the first strainings from the mash would be strong and the later washings weak and when these were not mixed there would be at least two kinds of beer, "strong" and "small" beer. Later on, in the 14th century, the terms used were "better" beer and "penny" ale, the former costing 4d. a gal lon and the latter id. a gallon. According to Bateson (Mediaeval England), when Dover was provisioned against siege, 26o quar ters of malt were sent in as being sufficient to brew 52o gallons a day for 4o days. This works out at a very strong beer of about I100 specific gravity, assuming the quarter was the same as the Imperial quarter of to-day. But in another case in A.D. 1458 when the Hansa towns were sending beer to their troops the specific gravity worked out at about 1o56, practically the same as the gravity of a standard barrel in England to-day. The ale of the middle ages must have been of fair quality as we read that Gluttony in the "Vision of Piers Plowman" when lured into an ale-house going to confession got drunk on a gallon and a gill.

Brewing at Monasteries.

All monasteries, even strict Do minicans, had their brewhouse and Netley could count as many as four brewers among its servants. In 1349, we read of the duke of Lancaster endowing two recluses and their two waiting women with eight gallons of "better" beer per week. Brewing owes a good deal to the cleanliness of the monks and the large scale of their brewing.

The Use of Hops.

As from ancient times it was the custom to add spices and herbs to beer, the use of hops at the start was merely the introduction of a new kind of herb. The original ob jection to the use of hops in Germany in the 14th century was that they interfered with a monopoly exercised by certain author ities in the sale of gruit for making beer. This was a mixture of herbs which included sweet gale or bog-myrtle, marsh or wild rosemary, and milf oil or yarrow; it was also said to contain other ingredients about which there is dispute. In April 1381 Archbishop Frederick of Cologne, on behalf of the gruit monop oly, issued a decree according to which not only brewers, but the clergy, the military and civilians were commanded to buy their gruit in the episcopal gruit-houses and the importation of "hopped" beer from Westphalia was prohibited. Ling or heather has also been recorded as used in beer from early times.

Ale and Beer.

There appears to have been a distinction be tween ale brewers and beer brewers in the 15th century. In 1464, the London brewers petitioned the Lord Mayor and Aldermen to establish regulations for their craft as they had no rules "to the detriment of the citizens as regards correct measure of bareei kilderkyns and firkyns, and in hoppes and other greynes the which to the said mistere apperteynen." This is evidence of the customary use of hops in beer then. But later in 1483 the ale brewers petitioned the Lord Mayor to forbid the putting into ale of any "hops, herbs or any other like thing but only licour, malte and yeste." From that time on water, malt and ale yeast were the prescribed standards for this product and only the beer brewer was allowed to use hops. There was no prohibition as to the use of hops except for the brewing of ale. As hops were al most universally employed 1 oo years later, either they were per mitted in ale, or beer only was drunk, in which case ale is a mis nomer for beer. In certain districts there are at present some curious distinctions between the two terms; in some parts of London if beer is asked for, porter is served ; on the other hand, in the West country, strong vatted ale used to be called beer.

There appears to have been a distinction between ale and beer in the matter of price; for in 1418, when Henry V. was lying with his army before Rouen, the government of the City of London ordered "that the brewers of the ale that was presented to our lord the King at the siege of the city of Roan should have for every tun of 200 tuns 3os. . . . and that brewers of beer should have 13s.4d. for every tun of 30o tuns" (H. T. Riley, Memorials of London Life, 1868) . The actual size of the tun of that time is not known, but it must have been bigger than that of the Hansa towns which ran from 38 to 45 gallons only.

Even at the end of the 18th century strong beer was sold at 3os. a barrel and small beer at 8s., a ratio similar to the old 4d. and id. a gallon. At this time separate duties were charged upon strong and weak beer and disputes were common between Excise officers and brewers as to which worts were chargeable with "strong" and which with "small" beer duty, so an Act of Parlia ment was passed compelling the brewer to brew table beer by itself, "that the officer may not be puzzled in applying his only means of discrimination, consisting in dipping his fingers into the wort, tasting it, etc." What the "etc." was we do not know. It was about this time that Richardson constructed the first brewer's saccharometer and suggested that its use in determining specific gravity would prevent these altercations.

Specific Gravity.

In the United Kingdom specific gravity is the weight of a volume of liquid referred to water as i000. In France and Belgium water is taken as unity and the degrees of gravity reckoned from the second place of decimals. Thus a specific gravity of 1040 is called 4o degrees by us and 4 degrees by the French and Belgians. In Germany, Italy and elsewhere Balling degrees are used, one Balling degree equally 4•04 specific gravity degrees, so that the 1040 above would be 1 o degrees Balling. The advantage of Balling degrees is that they roughly represent the percentage of extractives in solution.

Taxation.

Since beer was used for rent and as tribute to the overlord before the introduction of money it was a simple transi tion to tax its production when money came into general use and it has been the subject of taxation in one form or another in many countries for numbers of years.

The first duty on beer in the United Kingdom was imposed in the reign of Charles II., a distinction being made between strong beer and weak beer. This continued with occasional increases until the repeal of beer duty in 183o. A duty on malt was first imposed in 1697 and from that date until 183o both beer duty and malt duty were charged. After the repeal of the beer duty the malt duty was greatly increased. A hop duty was in existence between 1711 and 1862, when it was abolished owing to the very wide fluctuation in return.

Sugar was permitted in brewing in 1847 and in 185o the first sugar tax was imposed. It varied from Is.4d. to 6s.6d. until 1874 when the general duty on sugar was repealed but that on sugar used for brewing was raised to iis.6d. at which it remained until 188o when the Free Mash Tun Act was introduced. By this Act the duty was taken off the materials and placed on the wort; i.e., the beer before fermentation according to its specific gravity. At first the rate was 6s.3d. a barrel at a specific gravity of 1057; the bulk at "standard" gravity on which the charge was made was calculated from the bulk and gravity of worts as as certained at collection with an allowance of 6% for "waste." In 1889 the standard gravity was reduced to 1o55 at which it re mains to-day. In 1894 a further 6d. per barrel was added and in 1900 Is. making 7s.9d. per standard barrel, at which it remained till war broke out in 1914. During the war it was rapidly in creased to loos. a barrel. The rate of duty in 1928 is loos. a barrel of 1o55 specific gravity, the amount altering in propor tion to the gravity, with a rebate of 20S. a barrel of whatever strength down to 1024. If the brewer does not get four standard barrels per quarter he is charged duty on the materials instead of on the wort.

Beer is composed of extractive matters (consisting of carbo hydrates, proteids, and flavouring substances derived from hops), alcohol and water, and typical analyses in respect of these in gredients are as follows :— Stronger ale and stout of even higher gravity than io8o is still brewed but in small quantities only.

The proportion of alcohol and extractives depends on the ex tent to which the beer has been fermented; the lower the degree of gravity, the lower the extractives and the higher the alcohol. Both extractives and alcohol have a food value, the protein of the former which averages about 0.3% being especially valuable. But the mineral matters in the beer derived from the malt are not negligible ; they contain a large percentage of potassium phos phate which is of service in the human economy. It has been found for instance that with operatives working at furnaces, water is unsuitable and weak beer is necessary for supplying the salts etc. which the perspiration has removed. In addition the hop resin has been found to favour the flow of bile and thus make for increased digestive energy.

Statistics: United Kingdom.

In 1914 when the duty was 7s.9d. per barrel, the total came to 113,622,971 for bulk barrels of an average gravity of 1052.8; these figures include over 2,000,00o barrels from what is now the Irish Free State. During the last three years ending March 31, 1927, the figures, excluding the Irish Free State, were as follows:— Average Duty Bulk Barrels Specific Gravity 1925 175,825,827 1043•12 1926 £76,320,021 26,765,610 £78,763,480 25,100,461 2043.28 In 1927, the increase in the amount of duty on a decreased trade was due to the Government reducing the three month's credit allowed for payment of duty.

The import and export of beer varied very slightly in pre war times, the former being about 5o,000 barrels, the latter about 500,00o. With the inauguration of the Irish Free State the im ports have naturally greatly increased and in 1927 they amounted to 1,349, 515 barrels. The export for the three years 1925-27 was 286,23o; 302,892; and 294,874 barrels respectively.

Continental Beers.

The great majority of beers brewed on the Continent of Europe are of what is commonly called the Lager type. In their production a decoction mash is usually em ployed instead of the infusion mash process used for English beers.

In the decoction mash, the malt is mashed with cold or warm water (90° to n0°) and afterwards raised in temperature by two or three stages to 165° or 175°, at each stage by boiling a portion of the mash in a separate mash kettle and returning the boiled mash to the mash-tun.

There is an essential difference in the fermentation processes in these two brewing systems. In English beer (top fermentation) a variety of yeast is employed which comes to the top of the beer after fermentation. In lager beer (bottom fermentation) the yeast settles to the bottom of the fermenting vessels. Lager beer is also fermented at a much lower temperature (40° to and rather more slowly. Lager beer is finally stored for periods varying from two or three weeks to three to six months in large "lager casks" or tanks, in cellars cooled to little above the freez ing point of water. During this period of maturation, it spon taneously brightens and becomes highly charged with carbon di oxide. From the lager cellar it is racked through a filter to casks or to tanks for bottling. It is sold direct from the cask or in bottle, and served at a low temperature (45°) on ice.

There are several well-known varieties of lager beer, generally distinguished by the names of the towns in which the types be came famous. The names have come to designate types rather than places of origin. Of these the Pilsener or Bohemian beer is pale, with a pronounced hop aroma and flavour. The Munich or Bavarian type is dark brown, with a full sweet malt flavour and no very pronounced taste of the hop. The Vienna beer has a less decided character than either of these, and lies between them in both colour and taste. The Dortmund beer is pale, with a not very marked hop or malt flavour. In addition to the lager beers, top fermentation and mixed fermentation beers are brewed on the Continent of Europe to a certain extent, especially in Northern France and Belgium where since the war the proportion of lager beer has, however, greatly increased. There are also several special kinds of beer peculiar to definite localities, such as the top fermentation Weiss Bier of Berlin. In this, wheat malt is used as well as barley malt, and the beer is characterized by acidity. In Belgium, Lambic and Faro beers are still brewed to some extent, the Lambic being stronger than the Faro ; both are characterized by their acidity and are produced by spontaneous fermentation.

Lager beer is brewed at various gravities, and these correspond very closely to those of English mild and bitter beers. The strength (corresponding to the amount of material used per bar rel or hectolitre) is expressed in Germany and most other coun tries in degrees Balling, 1 degree Balling being approximately equivalent to 4 degrees specific gravity (I,004). In France and Belgium, a degree equivalent to io British degrees of gravity is employed. II to 12.5 degrees Balling (1044 to 105o sp. gray.) represents a high class lager beer. The percentage of alcohol in lager beer is usually slightly less than in a top fermentation beer of equal gravity and the hop content is also smaller. Owing to the fermentation and storage at low temperatures, lager beers usually carry a better head than ales.

Bock beer, brewed in the winter for spring consumption, and strongly hopped, was first made at Einbeck, near Hamburg, Ger many, of barley malt and I wheat malt. The name Einbeck was confused with ein Bock (a goat) and by this name it is now known.

Since the repeal of prohibition in the United States, the pro duction of American beer has far exceeded that of other countries. For 1936, production figures in barrels for the three great produc ing countries indicate: United States, 56,155,00o; Germany, 984,000; Great Britain, 23,329,00o. See also ALE; BREWING.