Materials, Manuf., &c. See Malt, Hops, Brewing, &c.
Purity. The leading characteristics of good beer are transparency, a fine colour, an agreeable semi-vinous flavour, and the property of remaining for several hours exposed in a glass or cup without becoming ‘flat’ or insipid. If the materials used were good, if the brewing was skilfully conducted, if the liquor has been carefully stowed in perfectly sweet casks or vessels, in a suitable cellar, for a sufficient time, and has not been tampered with, this will almost always be the case. Hence colour, transparency, and flavour, and the power of resisting exposure, are tests of the purity and quality of beer, which should not be lightly treated. There are none more simple and effectual; and, together with a good ‘palate,’ and a close observance of its effects on the head and on the stomach, will readily distinguish pure and wholesome beer from ‘doctored’ and inferior liquor. If, therefore, we find a sample of beer possessing the above qualities and in good condition, and on testing it for its alcohol and saccharine matter, find these substances in such quantities as fairly to represent the amount of malt which should have been used in the brewing of such a liquor, we may, in the absence of proof to the contrary, infer it to be pure; because the object for which adulteration is practised—the saving of malt and hops—did not exist in this case. To demonstrate the purity of beer requires an elaborate and troublesome analysis, which can only be performed by those accustomed to chemical operations. Good and pure beer should contain nothing but what exists in the malt, the hops, and the water, from which it is brewed, or which is produced from them
in the processes of ‘mashing,’ ‘fermentation,’ and ‘maturation.’
Adulteration. Until the year 1862 nothing was allowed to enter into the composition of beer but malt and hops; and the Act 56 Geo. III, cap. 58, imposes a penalty of £200 on any “brewer, dealer, or retailer of beer,” who “shall receive, or have in his possession, or use, or mix with, or put into any worts or beer any molasses, honey, liquorice, vitriol, quassia, cocculus indicus, grains of paradise, Guinea-pepper, or opium, or any extract or preparation of these substances, for, or as a substitute for, malt or hops;” and a further penalty of £500 on any “druggist, or vender of, or dealer in drugs, or chemist, or other person whatever,” who shall “sell, send, or deliver to any licensed brewer,” &c., any of the above materials. However, by the Act 25 Vic., cap. 22, s. 20, so much of the above is repealed as relates to hops. This Act provides that—
“On and after the 16th Sept., 1862, so much of an Act passed in the 56th year of the reign of King George the Third, cap. 58, and of an Act passed in the 7th and 8th years of the reign of King George the Fourth, cap. 52, and of any other Act relating to the revenue of excise, as imposes any excise penalty upon any brewer of, or dealer in, or retailer of beer, for receiving into, or having in his possession, or using or mixing with any worts or beer, any article for, or as a substitute for hops, or as prohibits the sale of any such article to the said persons, shall be, and is hereby repealed: provided always, that nothing herein contained shall be construed to extend to repeal any such penalty or prohibition so far as regards any article which may be used as a substitute for malt, notwithstanding that it may be also a substitute for hops.”
Prior to this an Act (10 Vic., c. 5) had been passed allowing brewers to use sugar under certain restrictions.
As the law now stands, a brewer may use hops, quassia, wormwood, gentian, or any other simple bitter; but he is forbidden to use any substitute for malt, such as unmalted grain, sugar in a liquid state, molasses, or any substance which would give pungency or intoxicating properties to the beer, such as cocculus indicus, grains of paradise, tobacco, &c. It is a well-known and authenticated fact, that beer is commonly and sometimes dangerously adulterated. The cupidity of fraudulent brewers and publicans frequently induces them to introduce other ingredients than malt and bitters into their liquors, with a view of giving them a false appearance and strength. Thus, to give pungency—capsicum, grains of paradise, ginger, &c., have been added; to give intoxicating properties—opium, cocculus indicus, tobacco, &c.; as a substitute for malt—molasses, treacle, colouring, honey, &c.; to impart a false appearance of age—sulphuric acid, alum, green vitriol, glycerin, mustard, &c.; to remove acidity—pearlash, soda, chalk, &c.; and to impart a frothy head—alum, foots, table-salt, &c.
The publicans generally ‘reduce’ their strong beer with water (which they call ‘liquor’), and add treacle, together with a mixture of copperas, salt, and alum (termed ‘heading’), to make it bear a frothy head. The cheap beer sold in many of the low taverns of London is made by dividing the contents of two butts between three butts, filling them up with water, and adding a bladder of porter-extract (technically termed ‘P. E,’) to each. This ‘P. E,’ is a mixture of powdered cocculus, Spanish juice, caramel, capsicum, &c., boiled up with treacle and water to the consistence of a thin extract, and then put into bullocks’ bladders.
Exam., Tests, &c. The analysis of beer, both qualitative and quantitative, as already noticed, is a matter of considerable difficulty. We shall therefore defer its consideration until we come to the article Porter, as that description of beer, on account of its colour, is not only the one most difficult to examine, but also the one most frequently adulterated. See Ale, Brewing, Hops, Malt, Porter, &c.
Beer, Am′ber. Syn. Amber. A liquor, formerly much drank in London, brewed from a mixture of 3 parts of amber malt, and 1 part of pale malt, with about 6 lbs. of hops to the quarter. It was generally ‘tapped’ within a few days after it had done ‘working,’ and was chiefly used mixed with bitters, or made into ‘Purl,’