to 81 lbs. Sugar may be used as a partial substitute for malt, with, in most cases, some degree of saving to the brewer, and without injury to the quality of the beer. The kind of sugar to be used will depend on the quality of the beer to be brewed, but it should be remembered that a bad sugar will not, any more than bad malt, yield a sound palatable beer. From 170 lbs. to 200 lbs. of good raw sugar may be taken as the average equivalent of a quarter of malt.
When the process of mashing has been properly conducted, the wort, after leaving the cooler, should not be turned blue by tincture of iodine, or by iodide of potassium mixed with a few drops of nitric acid. If it turns blue some of the starch has escaped conversion into sugar, and is dissolved in the liquor.
By multiplying the decimal part of the number representing the specific gravity of a wort by 360 (the weight in pounds of a barrel of pure water), we obtain the quantity of saccharine per barrel, corresponding to the given sp. gr.; and by dividing the joint weight of saccharine and water, per barrel, by 360, we obtain the specific gravity. Thus—
Suppose a sample of wort to have a specific gravity of 1·055, then—
Decimal of sp. gr. ·055 × 360 = 19·8 lbs. per barrel.
Again, a barrel of wort weighs 379·8 lbs., that is, 360 lbs. for the weight of a barrel of water, and 19·8 lbs. for the weight of saccharine in the water, then—
297·8 ÷ 360 = 1·055 specific gravity.
It is usually stated in works on brewing that certain temperatures must be reached by each variety of beer, during the progress of the fermentation, in order for the liquor to acquire its characteristic flavour. Thus, it is stated that mild beer begins to acquire flavour when the heat of fermentation arrives at 75° Fahr., increases at 80°, and is highest at 90°, but sometimes even reaches 100°. Old ale is said to obtain its best flavour at a temperature not exceeding 75°; and porter at 70° Fahr. In order to reach these temperatures the worts are directed to be set at from 10° to 15° lower, the rise being due to the heat generated during the fermentation. That these statements refer principally to the old methods of brewing is shown by the fact that some of the brewers of Bavaria, Scotland, and Burton-on-Trent produce rich and high-flavoured liquors at temperatures vastly below those above enumerated. Still, however, the fact must not be concealed, that since the introduction of the new German system of brewing into England the general character of its beers, as they reach the consumer, are inferior in strength and flavour to those of a former period. We may now seek almost in vain for the fine vinous, high-flavoured, invigorating old beers vended in our early days by the common publicans and tavern-keepers, of whom the larger majority were their own brewers. Under the new system of chemical brewing, as worked by those huge monopolists, the ‘great brewers,’ the only object appears to be to obtain the largest quantity possible of saccharine out of the quarter of malt, and to convert this into the largest possible quantity of beer, with little regard to flavour or quality, but an excessive one for their own profits. In due course this liquor is forced on their helpless tenants the publicans, who, in their turn, ‘reduce’ and ‘doctor’ the liquor, until, by the time it reaches the consumer, its insipidity and low strength would have led even a brewer’s drayman of the last century to cast it into the kennel.
The best times for brewing are the spring and autumn; as at those periods of the year the temperature of the air is such as to permit of the easy cooling of worts sufficiently low, without having recourse to artificial refrigeration, or to the use of machinery for the purpose. Old ale cannot be conveniently brewed in summer.
Beers are classed by the brewers into—