Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 4.djvu/309

Rh races, who also prepare a drink from rice and honey. Where beer has once been introduced, however, it has generally become the national beverage, and is now in universal use in the northern and temperate parts of Europe and Asia. Beer used formerly to bo made in England from wheat ; but this beverage was not so well flavoured as if prepared from barley-malt, nor did it keep long. It was esteemed in Germany and Denmark, and was called by the Germans Mummc, and by the Danes mom. The German Weiss-bier is made from wheat-malt, with a small portion of barley- malt added. We are informed by William of Malmesbury that, in the reign of Henry II., the English were greatly addicted to drinking. The monasteries were remarkable for the strength and purity of their ales, brewed from malt prepared by the monks with great care and skill. The waters of Burton-oii-Trent began to be famous in the 13th century. The secret of their being so especially adapted for brewing was first discovered by some monks, who held land in the adjacent neighbourhood of Wetmore. There is a document still extant, dated 1295, in which it is stated that Matilda, daughter of Nicholas de Shoben, had re-leased to the abbot and convent of Burton-on-Trent certain tenements within and without the town; for which re-lease they granted her, daily for life, two white loaves from the monastery, two gallons of conventual beer, and one penny, besides seven gallons of beer for the men. The abbots of Burton must also have made their own malt, for it was a common cove nant in leases of mills belonging to the abbey, that the malt of the lords of the manor, both spiritual and temporal, should be ground free of charge. Mary Queen of Scots, in the midst of her troubles, seems not to have been altogether insensible to the attractions of English beer, for when she was confined in Tutbury Castle, Walsingham her secretary asked, "At what place near Tutbury beer may be pro vided for her majestie's use ?" to which Sir Ralph Sadler, governor of the castle, made reply, &quot; Beer may be had at Burton, three miles off.&quot; Plot, in his Natural History of Staffordshire, written 200 years ago, refers to the peculiar properties possessed by the Burton waters, from which, he says, "by an art well known in this country good ale is made, in the management of which they have a knack of fining it in three days to that degree that it shall not only be potable, but is clear and palatable as one could desire any drink of this kind to be." In 1630 Burton beer began to be known in London, being sold at "ye Peacocke," in Gray's Inn Lane, and, according to the Spectator, was in great demand amongst the visitors at Vauxhall. In 1585 Stow relates that there were 26 brewers in the city of London, the suburbs, and West minster, 13 being English and 13 foreigners, who brewed 648,960 barrels of beer, of which they exported 26,400 barrels to Embden, the Low Countries, and Dieppe. In 1643 the first excise was imposed on beer. In William III. s reign, the brewer sold his nut-brown ale at 16s. per barrel, and his small beer from the same grains for 6s. per barrel. At the present day the brewing trade has reached vast proportions in Great Britain. It would appear that its extent has now attained the maximum ; the quantity pro duced for export is likely to decline, as most of the colonies are beginning to make their own. The best colonial beer is made in Tasmania, whence it is shipped in frozen blocks to Australia and India. In Calcutta, on the hottest day, the residents now suck (not sip) their frozen pale ale. According to the report to Messrs Bass by Professor Leone Levi, the number of persons employed in and depending on the liquor trade is 1,500,000, and the capital invested in it amounts to 117,000,000. There are 5000 maltsters, 34,000 licensed brewers, 6000 dealers in ales, and 139.000 publicans. These pay nearly 8,000,000 a year for permission to make and sell the popular drink. The quantity of beer brewed in 1869 was 25,542,664 barrels, of which 521,272 barrels were exported; whilst in 1874 the exports were 573,957 barrels, of the declared value of 2,508,883. It has been estimated that Barclay & Perkins (successors to Thrale, Johnson s friend) have 1,500,000 sunk in their trade. Boss, the largest brewer in the world, pays license on 1,000,000 barrels, and there are eighteen other brewers who pay duty on 2C 0,000 barrels. From the excise official returns we find the annual consumption per head of the population is The first essay known to us on the subject of brewing is by Basil Valentine. Boerhaave says of this treatise that it is both accurate and elegant. In 1573 H. Knanst published a work in five volumes at Erfurt, with the quaint title, On the Divine Noble Gift, the Philosophical, highly Dear, and Wondrous Art to Brew Beer. In the year 1585 Thaddeus Hagecius ab Hayek (a Bohemian), published a treatise entitled De Cerevisia, ejusque conficiendi ratione, natura, viribus, et facultatibus. This small work of fifty pages gives a very clear and accurate description of the process of brewing. To Mr Combrune, a London brewer in the earlier part of the 18th century, we are indebted for the proofs he gave of the value of the thermometer in brewing. In other respects his work entitled The Theory and Practice of Brewing, is of no particular value at the present day, though it was very useful at the time in advancing the art, and ran through several editions. Previous to his time brewers had looked upon the thermometer as a scientific toy, and "rule of thumb" was the order of the day. In the year 1784 Mr Richardson of Hull brought out his Theoretic Hints on Brewing Malt Liquor, and Statistical Estimates of the Materials of Brewing, showing the use of the Saccharometer. These works would be beneficial but for the absurd mystery with which the author invests the whole subject. It was he who first brought publicly to the notice of brewers the value of the saccharometer, an improvement of his own on the hydrometer, or water guage, invented by Martin, the Fleet Street mathematician. Mr Baverstock purchased one of these in 1768, and in 1770 received a certificate of the value of his instrument from Mr Thrale, the celebrated brewer in Southwark, who had tested it. It was not, however, till 1785 that Mr Baverstock published his Hydrometrical Observations and Experiments in the Breweries; so that Mr Richardson has the merit of bringing his improved hydrometer, which he christened saccharometer, first to the notice of the trade. By this instrument the brewer is enabled to ascertain the amount of saccharine or fermentable matter in the wort, and thus to take advantage of a particularly good sample of malt, or to compensate for a bad one, so as to procure an uniform strength. Malt varies in quality according to season, the skill of the maltster, and other circumstances. Samples of barley raised from the same seed, and grown in adjoining fields, will produce malt widely different, although this is not discovered till it has been in the mash tun. The quantity of malt which suffices for a particular "length" to-day may fall far short of affording the same quantity of ale to morrow, and vice versa. In either case the saccharometer is essential, as it enables the brewer to make his ales one standard strength. The instrument is also of great service in regulating the fermentations. Mr Richardson's saccharometer was constructed on the principle that 36 gallons (one barrel) of water weighs 360 ℔, and if that quantity of water were converted into wort 