Alcohol, again, is a hydrocarbon. It is really more correct to speak of it in the plural, as "alcohols," since there is a large group of substances all of the same name. Two of these are of the greatest importance, methyl alcohol and ethyl alcohol. The former is obtained from wood, hence it is sometimes called wood spirit. Wood is strongly heated in an iron still, and the methyl alcohol is given off in the form of vapour, which on being collected and cooled condenses into liquid. It is exceedingly unpleasant to the taste: if it were the only kind there would be no consumption of alcohol as a drink.
The second kind mentioned is obtained by the agency of germs or microbes, and the story of its production is so interesting as to demand a little space.
We will commence with the maltster. He performs the first part of the operation. Starting with ordinary barley, by the action of heat, aided by natural growth, he produces the raw material on which the brewer may work. Now barley, like all grain, is largely made up of starch, and although starch will not make alcohol, it can be turned into sugar, which will. So the task of the maltster is to commence the change of the starch in the grain into sugar.
First of all it is soaked in water and spread upon floors and heated until it begins to sprout. There is a little part in each grain called the endosperm, which is the embryonic plant, and the starch is really the food provided by nature to nourish the growing endosperm until such time as it shall be strong enough to draw its nourishment from the soil. In order that it may not be washed away prematurely, the starch is locked up by nature in closely fastened cells, and, moreover, it is insoluble, so that water cannot carry it away. The endosperm, however, has at its disposal certain substances known as enzymes (and it increases its store of these as it grows), one of which is able to dissolve away the walls of the cells, to unlock the treasures, as it were, while the other turns the insoluble starch into soluble matter, in which state the growing organism is able to make use of it as food.
So as the grain sprouts upon the maltster's floor this process is going on—the cells are being opened and their contents converted from starch into soluble matters. Then, when the growth has gone far enough, the grain is transferred to a kiln, where it is subjected to heat, by which the growth is stopped. The living part of the grain is, in fact, killed. That is mainly to stop the young plant from eating up the altered starch, which it would do if allowed time, but which the brewer wants to be kept for his own use.
The maltster's task is now finished, and we come to the brewer's. The first thing he does with the malt is to crush it between rolls, thereby liberating thoroughly those substances which have been formed from the starch and which he intends to turn into sugar. Having crushed it, he places it in the "mash tun," a large tank of wood or iron, in which it is mixed with water and subjected to heat. While in this vessel the enzymes become active again and turn the soluble starch, or a part of it, into a kind of sugar.
The liquid drawn off from the mash tun, containing, of course, the sugar, is subsequently boiled, numerous flavouring matters (including hops) are added, and then it is cooled again, ready for the final process—fermentation.
This takes place in a large vat or "tun" and is brought about by the agency of yeast which is added to the liquid.
Now yeast is a multitude of microscopic plants round in shape and about one three-thousandth of an inch in diameter. Though so small, this little organism is really quite complicated in its structure, and within its little body there are carried on complicated chemical changes which baffle entirely the most learned chemist to imitate. Further, he has yet to find out how the little yeast plant does it. He not only cannot imitate the process, he does not know what the process is. These little organisms multiply mainly by the process of "budding." A new one grows out of the side of each old one, rapidly reaches maturity, breaks away and commences an independent existence. No sooner is it free than it in turn gives birth to another. Indeed so great is its hurry to propagate itself that sometimes the new cell begins to throw out a bud before it has itself separated from its parent. It is therefore easy to see that yeast increases in quantity by what some call "leaps and bounds," but which the mathematically minded know as geometrical progression.
The particular form of sugar with which we are concerned here is known as "dextro-glucose." This the yeast splits up into alcohol and carbonic acid gas. The latter bubbles up to the surface, and escapes into the air, while the alcohol becomes dissolved in the watery liquid. It is believed that the yeast performs this operation not directly, but by the production of certain enzymes, which in their turn act upon the sugar.