Commons an account of the quantity of beer brewed by the largest houses in the porter trade (including some that sent out but 6000 and 9000 barrels), who in 1807 amounted to eighteen; in 1813 to fifteen; in 1816 to fourteen. Latterly there have been but ten of these great houses, of whom the annual account is published. Yet these accounts compared prove that an increase of one-seventh more of the business of 1807 was executed in 1816 by the smaller number of firms.

In the neighbourhood of London, and in the country, several causes have contributed, during this period, to throw the leases of public-houses into the hands of brewers. The better state of the roads and means of conveyance have prolonged all the first stages out of town: magistrates have thought it incumbent on them to lessen the number of public-houses; and those improvements in the style of building have taken place on every line of road which have a natural tendency to abolish the small public-house, or pot house. Hence while the small breweries in London have been absorbed in the larger ones, the smaller public houses in the neighbourhood have also been merging themselves in the larger, and have become desirable as a property (which Lord Mansfield has declared them to be), have become in many instances a property far beyond the means of the parties who usually enter into the business of a publican. It would not therefore, be difficult to find twenty names in London and its vicinity, who divide amongst them more than one-half of the whole brewing business of England.

Such a change has, of course, added enormously to the pecuniary consideration and influence of the large brewers of the metropolis, and to the extension of the monopoly of serving public houses in one particular direction principally; or to the concentration of the far larger part of the trade in the hands of a few overwhelming capitalists. That particular direction which the monopoly in question has taken in London, of late years, is to purchase the publican, not the public-house; and by means of the "weight" which, according to the language of the Police Report, these gigantic firms obtain 'with the magistracy,' to influence the discretion hitherto vested in magistrates with regard to the granting of public-house licences. The London brewers have unequivocally disavowed any attempt at bribing or remunerating magistrates for their conduct in this respect, and have, perhaps, successfully rebutted the charge of any deterioration in the article they brew, as compared with that of former years. That they possess, however, the influence in question, a Committee of the House of Commons has affirmed there can be no doubt: the range of each house is as well understood in the London trade, and can be as little interfered with practically, as a gentleman's manor; plans of ground newly laid out for building, are said to be diligently taken, and forwarded to head-quarters, that a new public house in the regular interest of the district, may be duly planted, and that no diversion of interest may take place: here then is to be found the nucleus of the monopoly

system. The licences annually obey the mysterious influence of the great houses, and all that part of the trade which is worth purchasing is bound to them by loans to the publican. The members of these firms then may truly declare that they take no leases of premises as heretofore, and wholly abstain from binding the publican by written stipulations for supplying him with beer; but Mr. Barclay admits that at least one-half of the number of houses in his trade are confined houses, (three-eighths by loan of money). Messrs. Whitbread's have but three-sevenths of their trade stated to be free, i. e. threesevenths of the number of their houses, bad and good, profitable, doubtful, and unprofitable customers, taken together. Messrs. Truman and Hanbury about the same proportion. One material fact, however, does not appear in the evidence that furnishes us with these calculations, i. e. the quantity of business that is free. The fair presumption of the case is that these gentlemen do not lend their assistance to the profligate and idle, or on the least productive houses; but to the industrious and attentive to business, and with some hope of a suitable return. But the statement given in evidence before the police committee numbers one house with another; that which disposes of twenty butts per month, and that which disposes of two or three; that to which it is reckoned prudent to afford a loan of £2000 or £3000 with that which possesses a beer licence, (and therefore receives only a few barrels annually), to sell gin! It is quite clear, from this view of the subject, tha nineteen-twentieths of the business of these houses may be restricted to certain brewers by the loan of essential capital, while the given proportions of their literal number are correctly stated to be free.

The evils of this system have been long felt; undue influence in many cases of granting valuable licences, and direct bribery in some, have been demonstrated to exist. Beer is an article of as great importance to the common people as cheese or butter, and but little inferior to that of bread. Of all the drinks known to man, the most suitable to those who labor appears to be that which proceeds from grain malted. At any rate, it has always been in use in England, to the climate of which it is peculiarly adapted; a climate not so cold as to require ardent spirits; and not so hot as to render it at all difficult to keep beer for almost any length of time. There is, too, this great convenience: that liquor of various degrees of strength is to be drawn from the same material. The quantities may be large or small, suited to the means and the wants of the party. short, it is the drink of the country. On various grounds some remedy for the system is doubtlessly required, and government, we know, is heartily disposed to remedy it. A late experiment, in the retail brewery bill, has been tried; but must on the whole, be regarded as a failure. Few respectable persons have embarked in the new breweries; the monopoly system flourishes as vigorously as ever; public-house property, as it is called, is as valuable. The fact is, that nothing short of affording new licences for public-houses

In

For it is during the mashing that the starch of the barley is converted into a saccharine matter. This change seems to be owing merely to the chemical combination of a portion of water with the starch of the barley; just as happens when common starch is converted into sugar, by boiling it with very dilute sulphuric acid, or any other acid. This method of brewing from raw grain answers admirably for small beer. In our trials, he adds, the raw barley did not answer so well for making strong ale as for small beer. The ale was perfectly transparent, and we kept it for several years without its running into acidity. But it had a peculiar flavor by no means agreeable. Probably a little practice might have enabled us to get rid of this flavor, in which case, raw grain would answer, in every respect, as well for brewing as malt does.' He further states, that some years ago it was used to a considerable extent by several brewers of small beer in Edinburgh, and their beer was considered as greatly preferable to small beer brewed in the usual manner. But the practice was stopped by a decision of the Court of Exchequer.

The malt distiller always adds to the malted grain, which he ferments, a certain quantity of unmalted corn, nearly ground to powder, and the proportion of unmalted corn has even been gradually so much increased, as to exceed considerably that of the malted grain. This mixture ground to meal is infused with water at a heat considerably lower than that of the water used by the brewers, and much more agitation is resorted to, to mix it completely. The wort is drawn off and cooled in the usual way, and fresh water poured on to exhaust the grain. When the wort is formed it is not so transparent as that from malt, but its taste is nearly as sweet. It would appear, therefore, as Dr. Irvine supposes, that the starch in the raw grain undergoes a certain change during the mashing, and is brought towards the state of saccharine matter gradually, but completely at last.

Far greater facility, however, certainly attends the using of malt alone: the old and rooted opinion is, that the complete germination of the barley in malting is indispensably necessary to fermentation; and the legislature, we see, is determinately hostile to any mixture of unmalted grain, as opening a door to fraud on the revenue. We therefore return to the consideration of the present practice, only observing that here, as in the numerous other restrictions upon the manufactures connected with the excise laws, is another proof of the wretched policy of excessive

taxation.

As well as barley, wheat, Indian corn, and oats, as we have intimated in a previous article, have been malted; and it is remarkable that when the seeds of the zea mais, or Indian corn, are used for brewing in America, they prepare it by an actual burial in the earth, to revive the germination to a certain stage in the natural way: when it is dug up and kiln-dried after the man

ner of malt. See Philosophical Transactions, XII. 1065.

The hordeum vulgare, or barley generally cultivated in England and the south of Scotland, has become, principally from its use in the brewery, the most valuable grain of the country, with the exception of wheat. The Scotch barley (hordeum hexastichum), called bear and big, is evidently of the same species, but a more hardy plant, and less kindly for malting. While the grains of barley are much larger, the skin which covers them is thinner, and this skin or cuticle is wholly unprofitable to the maltster and brewer. The thickness of it is said to vary according to the heat of the climate in which it is cultivated, being always thinner in the warmer climate. Thus the cuticle of the Isle of Thanet barley is thinner than that of Norfolk barley, and that of Norfolk barley thinner than that of Berwickshire and Scotland. But if Norfolk barley be sown in Scotland for several successive years, its cuticle is said to become thicker.

The specific gravity of barley has been found in 100 different trials, to vary from 1.333 to 1.250, and that of big from 1.265 to 1.227. The average weight of a Winchester bushel of barley is 50-7 lbs. avoirdupois, and the average weight of a bushel of big 46-383 lbs. The heaviest weighing about 52 265 lbs. per bushel, and the heaviest big 48-586 lbs. The average weight of a grain of barley is 0.6688 grain, or very nearly two-thirds of a grain; the average weight of a grain of big 0.5613 grain. The average length of a grain of barley, from many thousand measurements, 0.345 inch, and that of a grain of big 0-3245 inch. So that the average of both,' says an able contemporary, 'would give us very nearly the third of an inch, which it ought to do, according to the origin of our measures, as commonly stated.'

The celebrated Einhoft having carefully analysed the barley-kernel, found in 3840 parts

525

Cooling, of course, is a process of great impertance, and must be conducted on a scale proportionate to our other operations. Nothing yet has been found to supersede the use of large shallow wooden troughs or floors, edged with a wooden ledge, and water-tight; the most exposed situation that the premises will afford being chosen, so that a free current of air may at all seasons be brought over them. To perform it expeditiously, so that the taint of foxing may not ensue in this process, the wort should only be laid at such a depth in the coolers, as will allow it to cool in about seven or eight hours to sixty degrees, which, generally speaking, is about the average temperature for pitching or setting to work. To effect this, in summer, the wort should certainly not be laid at a greater depth than one, two, or three inches; in winter, it may be as deep as five inches. The evaporation that results, on the liquor being conveyed into the coolers, is a great object of the scientific brewer's attention.

On the still more important point of fermentation, we have little to add to our previous remarks. In the brewing of porter, which is generally intended to be full bodied (hard), the fermentation must be suffered to proceed slowly, as far as it is consistent with the richness of the wort; if the beer is intended to be rather brisk, the fermentation is the sooner stopped. Ordinarily ale and porter, of which the specific gravity of the wort amounts to 17-25 lbs. per barrel, or 18 lbs. per barrel, requires the fermenting process to be stopped when the specific gravity is reduced to 7, 8, or 9 lbs. per barrel: but scarcely any general rules can here be given. The diminution of the specific gravity is, in some breweries, suffered to proceed to a much greater extent than in others: observation must be directed to the head of the yeast. When the fermentation is brisk, it soon begins to turn of a compact brown color, and becomes rapidly more colored and dense, so that it would fall back into the beer; at this period the fermentation is nearly finished.

During the process of fermentation,' says an able chemist, a large quantity of carbonic acid gas is disengaged; the noxious effect of this gas has been long known, it produces suffocation when taken in the lungs. Being heavier than the air of the atmosphere, it floats on the surface of the fermenting fluid, and occupies, when it overflows the vessel, the lowest parts of the place in which fermentation is carried on. This gas appears to be the only product of fermentation to which we are indebted for all the remarkable changes by which the sweet or saccharine matter of the wort is converted into a vinous fluid. The superfluous carbon of the sweet substance, and a portion of the oxygen, combine to create it, while the balance of principles which remain, becomes capable of generating the ardent spirit, or alcohol. It is, therefore, a necessary consequence of the process of fermentation, but it is not equally necessary that it should be disengaged and separated from the beer, for a large portion of it remains combined with it. It holds a portion of alcohol, in a state either of mixture or combination, of which the true chemical nature has not been well ascertained. This is a question of some difficulty, as well as of importance in a

chemical point of view, but as yet no experiments have been suggested capable of setting it at rest."

Dr. Thomson complains of the difficulty of ascertaining with accuracy the strength of the worts in the London brewery. In some breweries, as in that of Messrs. Barclay and Perkins, there are three separate mash-tuns. In others, the custom is to mash one kind of malt the first day, another the second,and a third kind the third day. The first day's wort is put into the fermenting vessel, and mixed with yeast; and the other two worts are added to it as they are formed successively. Their strength, therefore, could only be ascertained by knowing the quantity of wort from each malt, and its specific gravity when let into the fermenting vessel. After, in this way, examining the porter wort in the principal breweries in London, he says the average specific gravity of brown-stout wort is 1.0624. The wort of the best common porter is of the specific gravity 1.0535; that of the worst or weakest is as low as 10374. The average specific gravity deduced from twenty brewings, was 1.0500. Such wort contains about 46.4 lbs. per barrel of saccharine matter. Judging from the taste of some of the worts, quassia, says Dr. T. seems to be employed in considerable quantity by some of the brewers, and much more sparingly, if at all, by others. The fermentation of porter is carried on with considerable rapidity, so that it is over in two or three days. The specific gravity of the porter is usually brought down to 1'013 or 1017. That of the best brown-stout, after standing some months in the bottle, is 1.0106.

We know of nothing that distinguishes the mode of cleansing porter from that of cleansing ale, except, perhaps, better mechanical contrivances, according to the size of the breweries. In some breweries, the method of cleansing beer by means of large barrels or rounds, is practised throughout the year. Sometimes it is stored in casks, which are bunged up and removed into the storehouse, but daily examined, and occasionally allowed a little vent, especially in warm weather; or the beer is pumped into a cistern, and from thence into the store-vats, which are from eightteen to forty feet in diameter, and from eightteen to twenty feet high; they will frequently hold from 5,000 to 6,000 barrels. Large arched vaults, built of stone, and lined with stucco, have been, at some establishments, adopted for storing the beer. These contribute greatly to the amelioration of the beer by age, in consequence of the uniform temperature which fluids in such masses preserve. These vats are always placed in the coolest part of the establishment; are made air-tight, and furnished with safety valves, excellent piping, cocks, &c.

For the use of the saccharometer in brewing. See SACCHAROMETER.

For finings in filling up the casks. See ALE and FININGS.

By law, every barrel of beer or ale, brewed by the public brewers in Great Britain, whether within or without the bills of mortality, is to contain thirty-six gallons, according to the standard ale quart kept in the Exchequer; 43 Geo. III. c. 69.

But nothing herein is to extend to alter the quantity to be returned, as and for a barrel of beer or ale brewed by any victualler or retailer, or any person other than a common brewer, who