LAGER BEER, or LAGER-IIIER. In the article BEER the process of manufacture of beer or ale and the principles of beer fermentation are given. The kind of fermcnta tibn there described, however, is performed at a higher temperature than that which is etnployed for making a kind of beer introduced by the Germans, called by them lager bier The yeast in ordinary fermentation is developed rapidly and rises to the top, and is called top-yeast. The buoyancy is caused by time rapid evolution of carbonic acid gas, which, adhering to the yeast, causes it to ascend in the liquid. The fermentation of lager beer takes place very slowly. The wort is prepared in much the same manner as for ale, and is pumped from the hop•back into shallow coolers placed iu the upper stories of the brewery, and is also passed through a refrigerator until it is reduced to a temperature of about 45° F. Thence it is carried in pipes to large fermenting tuns, placed in cool cellars, or in chambers cooled by ice, having a temperature of 40° to F. Here yeast is added, which, in the course of about three days, incites fermentation, which is manifested by the appearance of minute bubbles of carbonic acid gas, which, as in time fermentation of ale, early a little of the yeast with them. This does not, however, remain there, but, discharging the gas to which it had adhered, settles to the bottom in the form of a viscous mass, which, with that which remains there, constitutes what is called bottom-yeast. The slow fermentation employed in the process of making genuine lager beer causes a clarification and the commencement of a ripening which affords a beverage free from the objectionable qualities of the common beer which goes under the sane name. but which is known to brewers under the name of Schenabler, or present-use
beer. This is fermented in a much shorter time, but the fermentable matter is not all eliminated as in the genuine article, but for the purpose of neutralizing what acetic acid might appear from acetous fermentation, or for producing by union with it an additional quantity of carbonic acid gas to give it " life," the brewer adds in the operation of cask ing a quantity of bicarbonate of soda, immediately upon which the bung is driven in, and the beer is ready for market. Genuine lager, however, lies a long time to ripen, and attains certain qualities not possessed by any other kind of beer, and highly prized by lovers of this beverage. The number of breweries of all kinds making both ale and lacer beer in the United States in 1880 was 2,271. Of these, 2 produced between 200,000 and 250,000 barrels each; 2 between 150,000 and 200,000; 7 between 100,000 and 150,000: 10 between 75,000 and 100,000; 22 between 50,000 and 75,000; 302 between 10.000 and 50,000; 198 between 5,000 and 10,000; 937 between 500 and 5,000; and 784 ]ass than 500 barrels. There is no report of the number of breweries and amount of product assigned severally to the two kinds, ale and lager beer.