BEAM. A horizontal piece of timber used for resisting the strain of a weight ; as a tie-beam, which acts like a string or chain by its tension ; a straining-piece where it acts by compression ; or a bres summer where it bears a resisting weight. BEER. Wine made from grain, chiefly by fermenting an infusion of barley, malt, and of hops, and bears different names according to the color and the strength. Wheat and maize are suscepti ble of undergoing a like change with barley. Oats and rice also are capable of producing beer ; and many other vegeta ble bitters are substituted for the hop. The objects in view in this manufacture are to form sugar, and consequently the alcoholic portion of the liquor, the other to communicate a particular flavor, and assist in its preservation. The first stage is to convert the barley into malt, by making the grain germinate up to a cer tain point, when a peculiar azotized sub stance called diastase is formed, which possesses the remarkable property of converting the starch into a fermentible sugar, resembling grape-sugar. This change does not take place at once, for the starch is first changed into a gummy mucilaginous substance called dextrin. This substance does not ferment on the addition of yeast ; but by the action of diastase it is readily converted into starch sugar,• which is fermentible. This is generally a distinct operation from that of brewing, and consists of four pro cesses, namely, steeping, couching, floor ing, and kiln-drying. In steeping, the malt is placed in sunk cisterns, sprinkled with water so as barely to cover it, and let lie for about 40 hours. The im bibes moisture and increases in bulk ; it gives out carbonic acid, which dissolves in the water ; some of the husk colors the water also. The grain becomes whiter and so soft that the two ends of a grain can be squeezed between the finger and thumb ; the water is then drained off; it is then heaped or couched. When it warms and begins to germinate, the grain absorbs oxygen and gives out car bonic acid, and the temperature rises to The germination of the malt is now stopped by drying on a kiln, which con sists of a chamber, floored with an iron plate, full of holes, and furnished with a vent in the roof for the escape of fumes. Below this floor is a furnace containing charcoal or coke, the beat of which as cends through the malt.
Pale amber and brawn malt can be pro duced from the same kind of malt, by varying the temperature of the drying. Pale malt is dried at the proper temper ature, and produces the best beer ; the other varieties are scorched and charred. The brown malt gives a bitter taste, and being less alcoholic, became a more fa vorite drink with the laboring classes of London : and hence its name " porter." The malt is then ground or crushed into coarse powder, and then passed into a mash tun containing water heated up to 170°. Here it digests on the malt till all the sugar is extracted, when the liquor, now called worts, is drawn off. The grain receives three waters, which, when drawn off, are mixed together. The first wort is sometimes set aside for superior ales, and the second and third for inferior beers. The 'mister regulates the strength of his worts by an instrument called the saccharometer, a variety of hydrometer.
The worts are next concentrated by boiling, and cleared of the vegetable al bumen which coagulates. The hops are added in this vessel, and are kept stirred, so as not to lie on the bottom. The quantity of hops added depends on the quality of the beer, the season, and cli mate to which it may be exported. In warm weather a larger portion is added. In strong English beer 4# lhs. of hops is allowed for a quarter of malt : for ale and porter 1 lb. of hops to a bushel of malt. The boiling being completed, the liquid is now cooled suddenly. It is then passed into the fermenting tun, and yeast added. One gallon of yeast generally sets 100 gallons of wort in active fermentation; by this latter action the sugar is changed into alcohol. Before this is fully com pleted the worts are racked off into large hogsheads, with the bungholes open, where fermentation is allowed to complete itself. By this means no vinegar is pro duced, which would be the case were the process to be completed in open vessels. The fermentation over, the beer is pumped up into store-vats of great size, where it is kept until required to be drawn off for consumption. The casks are bunged down tightly. The beer cleanses itself in these vats, throwing down a scum of flocculent matter. Isinglass, or finings, is sometimes added for this purpose, to ex pedite the clarification.