From the fermenting house the beer goes to the "resting" or aging tanks. The next move, after a rest of generally three months or longer, is the finishing tank, where the finished product is "carbonated" either by the addition of carbon-dioxide taken from the fermenting tanks or of a small quantity of new beer just starting to ferment. Either process furnishes the "sparkle" and effervescence which give beer its attractive appearance. Finally comes the filtering and running into kegs or bottles.
It is the boiling process which chiefly distinguishes beer as we know it from the ancient "barley wine." The boiling preserves the product by the elimination of the albuminoids, etc., and gives it both better appearance and flavor. The hops tend to give the desired bitter and aromatic taste. Bottled beer is further preserved by pasteuri zation.
The difference in the color of beers is attributable sometimes to local differences in the method of brewing, but more often to the quantity of malt used. As a general thing, a greater percentage of malt tends to make a beer darker and a greater per centage of rice to make it lighter in color. Slight variations may also be due to the difference between light and dark malt, and an especially dark color may be attributable to the addition of 5% to 8% of caramel malt to a dark malt.
The difference between "heavy" and "light" beer in composition, irrespective of color, is generally attributable to the temperature at which the "wort" is made. The average is 150° to Fahr., the result of adding the boiling grain to the warm, but not boiling, malt mash. A higher temperature produces less sugar and leaves a larger percentage of unconverted grain extracts in the wort—and in consequence the completed beer will be heavy in body or extract but of a low alcohol percentage. A. good example of a beer rich in extracts is the dark Bavarian. Of opposite charac ter is the Pilsener kind—which is light in composition, almost free from extracts, but of a much higher percentage of alcohol.
"Brewer's Sugar" or "Commercial Dextrose," a form of glucose, is frequently used in place of part of the usual malt addition, principally from motives of economy when malt is high in price but also because it contains less nitrogenous matter and thus tends to make a clearer brighter brew. The chemical components are closely allied
—malt under the action of diastase produces dextrin and maltose, and Brewer's Sugar contains dextrin, maltose and dextrose.
American beer closely resembles the German in composition but it averages a little lighter in alcohol—varying in the ordinary varieties from 3% to 4%, going though in some cases as high as 7%. Some connoisseurs assert that the finest German beers excel any produced in this country, but it may be safely asserted that the average of the products of American breweries is fully equal to the average of those of any coun try without any exception whatever.
The title "lager beer" signifies "store house beer," or beer laid by and stored for some months before use.
Lager beer is distinguished in brewing by being fermented at a much lower tem perature than ales. On this account it was formerly made only during the winter months, but the extension of refrigerating facilities in recent years has made its manu facture possible all the year round.
Malt Beer is made solely of barley malt and hops.
Bock Beer is an especially strong variety of German origin but now thoroughly localized here. It is darker in color, less bitter in flavor and stronger in alcohol. It is generally brewed in the winter from the first of the new crop of hops and malt and drunk in the spring.
The goat which is usually associated with "Bock Beer" is attributable to a gen eral misunderstanding concerning the origin of the title. "Bock" means "goat," but the name "Bock Beer" was taken from "Eimbock," the former name of Eimbeck, Prussian city famous for its breweries during the time of the Reformation.
Stock Beer and TVintcr Beer are, practically, equivalents of Lager Beer.
Black Beer or Dantrig Beer is a very dark, syrupy brew first made in Dantzig. Bitter Beer is a name occasionally applied to ALE ( which see).
The most noteworthy "temperance" beers which resemble genuine beer in flavor and appearance but which show less than 1% alcoholic component are made in about the same manner and with practically the same ingredients as lager beer, the alcohol being afterwards removed by re-boiling the finished product.