Beef, Pott′ed. See Potted Meats, &c.
Beef, Spiced (spīst’). Salted beef when spices (usually black pepper and allspice) have been added to the salt, &c., used in curing it. See Beef, Collared (above).
Beef Tea. An extract manufactured at Berlin, which contains the nutritive matter of the flesh in the highest state of potency. A pale blood-red(!) jelly, which will not keep long, and after a time passes into a state of odorous putrefaction. (A. Buchner.)
BEER (bēre). Syn. Bière, Fr.; Bier, D., Ger.; Birra, It.; Cerevi′′sia (-vĭzh′-’ă), Cervi′′sia (Pliny), C. Lupula′ta* (i.e. hopp′d or modern b.), Vi′num Anglic′anum*, V. hordea′ceum* (-sh′ŭm), Zy′thum* (or -THUS*; ζὑθος, Gr.), &c., L.; Bere, Beere, Sax.; Bir, W. An aqueous infusion of malted grain which, after being boiled with hops, has undergone the vinous fermentation; malt-liquor. The word BEER is now the common generic term for all fermented malt-liquors, and, indeed, for all other beverages prepared by a process of brewing. Whenever the term is used in a special sense, it is with a descriptive prefix, as, for example, spruce beer, ginger beer, &c.
Hist. Ale and wine are fabled to have been invented by Bacchus; the former, in Egypt, where the soil and climate would not permit of the cultivation of the grape. Herodotus ascribes the origin of the art of brewing to Isis, the wife of Osiris, and notices zythum ζὑθος, a beer obtained from barley. Malt-liquor was undoubtedly employed as a beverage in the fifth century before Christ; and, probably, very much earlier. Xenophon distinctly alludes to it in his famous retreat (B.C. 401). Aristotle speaks of ‘beer drunkenness,’ and Theophrastus calls it ‘barley-wine.’ The Romans learned the art of brewing from the Egyptians, and gave the liquor thus made the appropriate name of cerevisia (quasi Cererisia), from its being the product of corn, the gift of Ceres. The most celebrated beer of ancient times was the Pelus′ian pota′tion, so named after a town at the mouth of the Nile where beer was prepared in great perfection. The use of beer was likewise known to the ancient Gauls and Germans, and probably also to most other ancient nations inhabiting the temperate zone. Pliny says “Zythum is made in Egypt, ce′lia and ce′′ria in Spain, and many other sorts (of beer) in Gaul.” In our own country, ale was early known and valued as a beverage. The art of its preparation appears to have been obtained either from the Romans or the Saxons. According to Verstegan, “This excellent and healthsome liquor, beere, anciently called ale, as of the Danes it yet is, was of the Germans invented and brought into use.” Alehouses are mentioned in the laws of Ina, king of Wessex (A.D. 680). Alebooths were regulated by law, A.D. 728. By the beginning of the 13th century ale was drunk generally in England. By a statute of James III, of Scotland, it was made a capital offence to mix wine with beer (A.D. 1482). In 1492, a licence was granted to a brewer at Greenwich to export 50 tons of that “ale” called “beer” or “bere;” the distinction between the two apparently being, that the latter was flavoured with wormwood or other bitters; whereas ale was not. Ale was originally made from barley-malt and yeast alone, and those who put in anything else were held to sophisticate the liquor. Hops were introduced A.D. 1524; and to this date modern, or hopp′d beer, may be traced.
By statute of James I the “ale” called “bere” was taxed, and “one quart of the best thereof” ordered to be sold for a penny (A.D. 1610). Alehouses were first licensed in 1621, and during the reign of Charles II were, together with all malt-liquor, placed under the control of the Excise (A.D. 1660). By the Statutes 1 & 4 Will. IV (1834), previous enactments respecting malt liquors and their sale were reduced to their present form. Beer is now the common beverage in all European countries where the vine is not a subject of rustic husbandry.
Qual. Pure malt-liquor which has undergone sufficient fermentation is perhaps, when taken in moderation, one of the most wholesome beverages that can be drunk. Ale is the most nutritious variety, and, when moderately mature, is the one best adapted to the debilitated and delicate; but good porter, owing to being less rich in extractive and gummy matter, and from being slightly astringent from high-dried or scorched malt being used in its preparation, occasionally agrees better with bilious constitutions and the dyspeptic. Much, however, depends on acquired taste and habit. The most wholesome, and perhaps the least exceptionable beverages obtained from malt, are those known as East-India, Scotch, and Bavarian ales, when honestly prepared and not highly ‘bittered’ with the hop, as is, unfortunately, now so general. A late writer has described good beer as nutritious, from the sugar and mucilage which it contains; exhilarating, from its spirit; and strengthening and narcotic, from its hops. Pereira says, “Beer is a thirst-quenching, refreshing, intoxicating, and slightly nutritious beverage.” Its effects, when taken injudiciously, or in excess, for the most part resemble those of other intoxicating liquors—disease, misery, and crime; and these in direct proportion as it deviates from the true standard of purity and excellence.
All medical authorities agree in discountenancing the use of beer for infants and
children. Water or milk with the child’s meals are the best beverages for them.
Var. The numerous varieties of malt liquor met with in commerce may be resolved into two great classes—ALE and PORTER. Ale of all kinds is brewed chiefly from pale malt, and is generally of a light amber colour. Pale ale is manufactured from the finest and lightest dried malt, and the choicest hops, the latter in excess. Mild ale differs from pale ale in being sweeter, stronger, and almost free from the flavour of the hop. Bitter ale or BITTER BEER has, as a rule, less body than pale ale, and is more highly hopped. Table beer is a weak liquor commonly containing three or four times the proportion of water usually present in ordinary beer or ale. Porter differs from ale chiefly in its being artificially coloured by the use of roasted malt, which also imparts to it a peculiar bitter flavour. In point of strength it stands about midway between light and strong ales, although frequently brewed of a strength very slightly above that of table beer. Stout, BROWN STOUT, &c., are simply richer or stronger descriptions of porter, and may be said to have nearly the same relation to the higher qualities of mild ale that porter holds with regard to pale ale or bitter beer. In London, PORTER is called BEER; and, indeed, in all parts of the kingdom, the prevailing beverage of this kind consumed by the masses, of whatever class, commonly goes by the name of beer.