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MATERIALS USED IN BREWING
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MATERIALS USED IN See also:BREWING .-These are See also:water, See also:malt (q.v.), hops (q.v.), various substitutes for the two latter, and preservatives. Water.-A satisfactory See also:supply of water-which, it may here be mentioned, is always called liquor in the brewery-is a See also:matter of See also:great importance to the See also:brewer. Certain See also:waters, for instance, those contaminated to any extent with organic matter, cannot be used at all in brewing, as they give rise to unsatisfactory See also:fermentation, cloudiness and abnormal flavour. Others again, although suited to the See also:production of one type of See also:beer, are quite unfit for the brewing of another. For See also:black beers a soft water is a desideratum, for See also:ales of the See also:Burton type a hard water is a See also:necessity. For the brewing of mild ales, again, a water contain- 1 They were classified at 281b in 1896, but since 1897 the See also:standard has been at the See also:rate of 32 lb to the See also:bushel.507 See also:ing a certain proportion of chlorides is required. The presence or See also:absence of certain See also:mineral substances as such in the finished beer is not, apparently, a matter of any moment as regards flavour or See also:appearance, but the importance of the role played by these substances in the brewing See also:process is due to the See also:influence which they exert on the solvent See also:action of the water on the various constituents of the malt, and possibly of the hops. The excellent quality of the Burton ales was See also:long ago surmised to be due mainly to the well water obtainable in that See also:town. On analysing Burton water it was found to contain a considerable quantity of See also:calcium sulphate-See also:gypsum--and of other calcium and See also:magnesium salts, and it is now a well-known fact that See also:good See also:bitter ales cannot be brewed except with waters containing these substances in sufficient quantities. Similarly, good mild See also:ale waters should contain a certain quantity of See also:sodium chloride, and waters for stout very little mineral matter, excepting perhaps the See also:carbonates of the alkaline earths, which are precipitated on boiling. The following analyses (from W. J. Sykes, The Principles and Practice of Brewing) are fairly illustrative of typical brewing waters. Grains per See also:Gallon. Burton Water (See also:Pale Ale). Sodium Chloride . 3.90 See also:Potassium Sulphate 1'59 Sodium Nitrate . 1.97 Calcium Sulphate . 77.87 Calcium Carbonate 7.62 Magnesium Carbonate 21.31 See also:Silica and Alumina . 0.98 See also:Dublin Water (Stout). 1.83 Sodium Chloride . Calcium Sulphate . 4'45 Calcium Carbonate 14.21 Magnesium Carbonate 0.90 See also:Iron See also:Oxide and Alumina 0.24 Silica . 0.26 Mild Ale Water. . 35.14 Sodium Chloride . Calcium Chloride . 3.88 Calcium Sulphate . 6.23 Calcium Carbonate 4.01 Iron Oxide and Alumina 0.24 Silica 0.22 supply artificially in such a manner as to modify its See also:character in a favourable sense. Thus, if a soft water only is to See also:hand, and it is desired to brew a bitter ale, all that is necessary is to add a sufficiency of gypsum, magnesium sulphate and calcium chloride. If it is desired to convert a soft water lacking in chlorides into a satisfactory mild ale liquor, the addition of 30-40 grains of sodium chloride will be necessary. On the other hand, to convert a hard water into a soft supply is scarcely feasible for brewing purposes. To the substances used for treating brewing liquors already mentioned we may add kainite, a naturally deposited composite See also:salt containing potassium and magnesium sulphates and magnesium chloride. Malt Substitutes.-See also:Prior to the See also:repeal of the Malt Acts, the only substitute for malt allowed in the See also:United See also:Kingdom was See also:sugar. The quantity of the latter employed was 295,865 cwt. in 1870, 1,136,434 cwt. in 1880, and 2,746,615 cwt. in 1905; that is to say, that the quantity used had been practically trebled during the last twenty-five years, although the quantity of malt employed had not materially increased. At the same See also:time other substitutes, such as unmalted See also:corn and preparations of See also:rice and See also:maize, had come into favour, the quantity of these substances used being in 1905 125,671 bushels of unmalted corn and 1,348,558 cwt. of rice, maize, &c. The following See also:statistics with regard to the use of malt substitutes in the United Kingdom are not without See also:interest. Our knowledge of the essential chemical constituents of brewing waters enables brewers in many cases to treat an unsatisfactory Countr Y• Nature of Tax. Amount per See also:English See also:Barrel (See also:round See also:numbers). United States . Beer Tax 5s. 9d. See also:Germany- Malt Tax Is. 6d. N. See also:German Customs See also:Union Malt Tax 3s. 5d. to 4s. 8d., according to See also:Bavaria Malt Tax quantity produced See also:Belgium On Wort 2s. 9d.
See also:France On cubic contents of 4s. Id.
See also: Quantities of Quantities of Sugar, Percentage of Malt and Corn Rice, Maize, &c. Substitutes to used in Brewing. used in Brewing. See also:Total Material. Bushels. Bushels. 1878 59,388,905 3,825,148 6.05 1883 51,331,451' 4,503,6802 8.06 1890 55,359,964' 7,964,708 z 12.48 1895 53,731,177 10,754,510 16.66 1905 51,942,368 15,706,413 23.22 The causes which have led to the largely increased use of substitutes in the United Kingdom are of a somewhat complex nature. In the first See also:place, it was not until the malt tax was repealed that the brewer was able to avail himself of the surplus diastatic See also:energy See also:present in malt, for the purpose of transforming See also:starch (other than that in malted See also:grain) into sugar. The diastatic See also:enzyme or ferment (see below, under Mashing) of malted See also:barley is present in that material in great excess, and a See also:part of this surplus energy may be usefully employed in converting the starch of unmalted grain into sugar. The brewer has found also that brewing operations are simplified and accelerated by the use of a certain proportion of substitutes, and that he is thereby enabled appreciably to increase his turn-over, i.e. he can make more beer in a given time from the same plant. Certain classes of substitutes, too, are somewhat cheaper than malt, and in view of the keenness of See also:modern competition it is not to be wondered at that the brewer should resort to every legitimate means at his disposal to keep down See also:costs. It has been contended, and apparently with much See also:reason, that if the use of substitutes were prohibited this would not See also:lead to an increased use of domestic barley, inasmuch as the supply of See also:home barley suitable for malting purposes is of a limited nature. A return to the policy of " malt and hops only " would therefore lead to an increased use of See also:foreign barley, and to a diminution in the demand for home barley, inasmuch as sugar and prepared cereals, containing as they do less See also:nitrogen, &c. than even the well-cured, See also:sun-dried foreign barleys, are better diluents than the latter. At the same time, it is an undoubted fact that an excessive use of substitutes leads to the production of beer of poor quality. The better class of brewer rarely uses more than 15-20%, knowing that beyond that point the loss of flavour and quality will in the long run become a more serious See also:item than any increased profits which he might temporarily gain. With regard to the nature of the substitutes or adjuncts for barley malt more generally employed, raw grain (unmalted barley, See also:wheat, rice, maize, &c.) is not used extensively in Great See also:Britain, but in See also:America brewers employ as much as 50%, and even more, of maize, rice or similar materials. The maize and rice preparations mostly used in See also:England are practically starch pure and See also:simple, substantially the whole of the oil, water, and other subsidiary constituents of the grain being removed. The germ of maize contains a considerable proportion of an oil of somewhat unpleasant flavour, which has to be eliminated before the material is See also:fit for use in the mash-tun. After degerming, the maize is unhusked, wetted, submitted to a temperature sufficient to rupture the starch cells, dried, and finally rolled out in a flaky See also:condition. Rice is similarly treated. The sugars used are chiefly See also:cane sugar, See also:glucose and invert sugar—the latter commonly known as " saccharum." Cane sugar is mostly used for the preparation of heavy mild ales and stouts, as it gives a peculiarly sweet and full flavour to the beer, to which, no doubt, the popularity of this class of beverage is Iargely due. Invert sugar is prepared by the action either of See also:acid or of yeast on cane sugar. The chemical See also:equation representing the See also:conversion (or See also:inversion) of cane sugar is: C,2H22O11 + See also:H2O = See also:C6H,2O6 + See also:C6H12O6. cane sugar water glucose See also:fructose invert sugar Invert sugar is so called because the mixture of glucose and fructose which forms the "invert" is laevo-rotatory, whereas 1 Inclusive of rice and maize. 2 Exclusive of rice and maize. cane sugar is dextro-rotatory to the See also:plane of polarized See also:light. The preparation of invert sugar by the acid process consists in treating the cane sugar in See also:solution with a little mineral acid, removing the excess of the latter by means of See also:chalk, and concentrating to a thick See also:syrup. The yeast process (Tompson's), which makes use of the inverting See also:power of one of the enzymes (invertase) contained in See also:ordinary yeast, is interesting. The cane sugar solution is pitched with yeast at about 55° C., and at this comparatively high temperature the inversion proceeds rapidly, and fermentation is practically impossible. When this operation is completed, the whole liquid (including the yeast) is run into the boiling contents of the See also:copper. This method is more suited to the preparation of invert in the brewery itself than the acid process, which is almost exclusively used in See also:special sugar See also:works. Glucose, which is one of the constituents of invert sugar, is largely used by itself in brewing. It is, however, never prepared from invert sugar for this purpose, but directly from starch by means of acid. By the action of dilute boiling acid on starch the latter is rapidly converted first into a mixture of See also:dextrine and maltose and then into glucose. The proportions of glucose, dextrine and maltose present in a commercial glucose depend very much on the duration of the boiling, the strength of the acid, and the extent of the pressure at which the starch is converted. In England the materials from which glucose is manufactured are generally See also:sago, rice and purified maize. In Germany potatoes See also:form the most See also:common raw material, and in America purified See also:Indian corn is ordinarily employed. See also:Hop substitutes, as a See also:rule, are very little used. They mostly consist of See also:quassia, See also:gentian and camomile, and these substitutes are quite harmless per se, but impart an unpleasantly rough and bitter See also:taste to the beer. Preservatives.—These are generally, in fact almost universally, employed nowadays for See also:draught ales; to a smaller extent for stock ales. The light beers in See also:vogue to-See also:day arc less alcoholic, more lightly hopped, and more quickly brewed than the beers of the last See also:generation, and in this respect are somewhat less See also:stable and more likely to deteriorate than the latter were. The preservative in part replaces the See also:alcohol and the hop See also:extract, and shortens the brewing time. The preservatives mostly used are the bisulphites of See also:lime and potash, and these, when employed in small quantities, are generally held to be harmless. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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