HISTORY OP BREWING.
Nu notice is taken of beer or ale in the books of Moses, from which it is probable that they were unknown till after the death of this legislator. All the ancient Greek writers agree in assigning the honour of the discovery of beer to the Egyptians, whose country, being annually inundated by the Nile, was not adapted for the cultivation of vines. Herodotus, who wrote about 450 years before the commencement of the Christian era, informs us, that the Egyptians made their wine from barley, because they had no vines. 'Onfor mx atikm evevneuris &six du re met ism l rp veep cimnAer ilerodoti, Lib. ii. c. 78. Pliny says that this litjuid in /Egypt was called zythum (Pilau Hist. Net. Lib. xxii. c. 25). The same name was given to it by the inhabitants of Galatia, who, according to Diodorus Siculua, were unable to cultivate grapes on account of the coldness of their climate. Beer was distinguished among the Greeks by a variety of names. It was called INVOr xivhica (barley. wine) from its vinous properties, and from the material employed in its formation. In Sophocles, and probably in other Greek writers, it is distinguished by the name of Spurr. Dioscorides describes two kinds of beer, to one of which he gives the name of tutor and to the other iisep,e4; but he gives us no description of either sufficient to enable us to distinguish them from each other. (Dioscorides, Lib. ii. c. 79 and 80.) Both, he informs us, were made from barley, and similar liquids were manufactured in Spain and Britain from wheat.
From Tacitus we learn, that, in his time, beer was the common drink of the Germans ; and from his im perfect description of the process which they follow ed, it is not unlikely, or rather there can be no doubt, that they were acquainted with the method of converting barley into malt. !, Potui humor ex horde° act frumento in quandam similitudinem vini corruptus." (De Morihns German, c. 23.) Pliny Dann* gives us some details respecting beer, though they are by no means satisfactory. He distinguishes it by the name of cerevisia or cervisia, the appella tion by which it is always known in modern Latin books.
This liquid does not appear to have come into general use in Greece or Italy ; but in Germany and Britain, and some other countries, it appears to have been the common drink of the inhabitants, at least as early as the time of Tacitus, and probably long before. It has continued in these countries
ever since, and great quantities of beer are still ma nuf,actured in Germany, the Low Countries, and in Britain.
- The first treatise published on the subject, as far as we know, was by Basil Valentine. This treatise, according to Boerhaave (for we ourselves have never had an opportunity of seeing it), is both accurate and elegant.. In the year 1585, Thaddrus Hageekta ab Hayck, a Bohemian writer, published a treatise entitled Ds Covina Olere confscimsdi rations, tains, viridus et facukatilms. This little treatise, consisting only of 50 pages, is written wish great simplicity and perspicuity, and ow as accurate a description of the whole process of brewing as any treatise on the subject which we have seen. In the early part of the eighteenth century, Mr Combine, who, we believe, was a practical London brewer, published a book entitled The Theory and Practice of Brewing. This book has gone through wry odium's, and we believe is still reckoned dee man& ardtook on the subject. But the attempts made in it to give a rational theory of brewing are fir from satisfactory. Nor can any stress be laid upon the experiments which it contains on the colour of malt, according to the temperature at which it is dried. The fact is, that malt may be tendered brown, or even black, by exposure to a very low heat ; it may be to a very considerable te tune its colour. The article has seen malt exposed on the kiln to a hest of 175° without losing its colour, 'or without losing the power of vegetating when put into the ground; and he has reason to believe that these properties would have remained unaltered had the temperature been raised still higher. It is not the degree of beat applied, but the rapidity with which it is raised, that darkens the colour of malt. If the heat, at first, does not exceed 100°, and if after the malt is dried as much as it can be at that temperature, the beat be raised to 120% kept sometime at that tea - pereture, end then raised gradually higher,—if we continue to proceed in this manner, the temperately of the kiln may be elevated at least to 175° without in the least discolouring the malt.