HOW BEER IS BREWED
We now proceed to give a description of the various processes of
brewing, which we trust will not be deemed too elaborate, in view of
the special character of this work; and to this end we shall beg leave
to conduct the reader through the several departments of one of the
largest breweries of our country.
It is to John Barleycorn, immortalized by Robert Burns and innumerable
other poets of less renown, that we must first turn our attention;
but we need not follow his career from the beginning, as poetically
described by the Scotch bard, for he makes his entry into the brewery
after he has already undergone a great part of his sufferings.
“They laid him out upon the floor,
To work him further woe,
And still, as signs of life appeared,
They tossed him to and fro.
They wasted o’er a scorching flame
The marrow of his bones.” * * *
The entire poem is undoubtedly familiar to every lover of
drinking-songs. In it the poet describes all the manipulations
incidental to the cultivation of barley, from the planting of the grain
to the reaping of it; and also all the numerous and manifold operations
to which the ripe cereal is subjected after it has left the farm and
passed into the hands of the maltster.
The concluding process of malting, described in the quoted lines, has
done its work, when John Barleycorn turns up in this brewery to begin a
new series of ups and downs, calculated and designed to still further
purify him and render him fit for the climax of his fate. Malt, as
every one knows, is obtained by a four-fold treatment of the barley.
The grain must be steeped in order to cause germination and produce
diastase, the agent necessary for the conversion of starch into that
saccharine matter which forms the primary essence of beer; it must be
next couched and floored, when it continues to grow and germinate;
and, lastly, it must be subjected to kiln-drying by which germination
is terminated. When this malt, loaded upon ponderous wagons, reaches
the brewery, it is at once conveyed, by means of most ingenious
contrivances, into malt-scales and weighed. On its way to the enormous
bins, four in number, which serve as store-houses, it is subjected
to repeated processes of sifting, screening and blowing—the latter
part being effected by means of air passing through flues or pipes,
connected at certain intervals with the shutes through which the malt
passes. The storage-bins occupy nearly the whole of one wing of the
main building. They form one vast shaft, divided into four chambers,
running through several stories up to the top-floor, and leaving on
each floor just room enough for a narrow gallery or corridor. The malt
is raised to the tower and thence distributed into these bins, which
together hold about fifty-six thousand bushels of barley, and are so
constructed as to facilitate the utmost cleanliness in every nook and
corner of them.
The first operation of the brewer, when beginning to brew, is to grind
the malt. John Barleycorn’s sufferings here begin where Burns makes
them end;
“But a miller us’d him worst of all,
For he crushed him between two stones.”
[Sidenote: CRUSHING THE MALT]
The same powerful machinery which raises the malt into the
store-houses, is now again set in motion to convey the quantity of
malt requisite for each brew, from the store-rooms through a series of
shutes, shakers, and magnet-studded slides, to and from the scales into
the malt mill. On its devious course to this point the malt is shaken
upon sieves, rocked to and fro, and constantly accompanied by currents
of air, all of which is intended to separate all germs and dust from
the malt, and to leave the latter as free as possible from useless and
harmful matter. Shutes covered with powerful magnets, serve to attract
and hold nails, bits of iron or other similar metallic substances,
which may be in the malt. After being weighed—an operation which one
man can perform by simply depressing any one of four levers attached to
the scales and communicating with the store-bins—the malt is ground, or
rather crushed between metal rollers. In its crushed state, it is again
conveyed, in the same mechanical fashion to the top-floor, where it is
deposited in smaller bins, three in number, each holding 500 bushels.
The malt-scales, two in number, one to weigh the malt when it is
received, and the other to weigh the quantity needed for each brew, are
placed immediately below the store-bins. The double weighing operation
enables the brewer not only to calculate, at any time, the quantity of
malt consumed and still on hand, but also to determine, with accuracy
and without much labor, the exact quantities which he requires from day
to day. The latter is very important, because everything depends upon a
proper proportion of ingredients.
Simple as all these operations may appear from our description, they
are, nevertheless, effected by most complicated and costly machinery,
in the construction of which human ingenuity was put to a severe
test. The principal object of these machines is not, as might be
supposed, the saving of labor, but rather the elimination of chance
and accident from this preliminary work of the brewer. These most
modern improvements preclude almost entirely the many chances of
failure to which a less perfect method of sifting malt will always
expose the operation of brewing. The presence of any metallic substance
or of an excess of germ or dust, will inevitably spoil the wort.
The methods spoken of here not only preclude this, but also tend to
insure uniformity of quality, and offer, besides, a certain degree of
immunity from the danger of explosion, which is ever present in any
establishment where the elimination and collection of the malt-dust is
effected in a less perfect way. As we have seen, the floors of the west
wing of the main building serve the purposes of weighing, sifting and
storing malt. On the upper floors of the other parts of this building
we find, in separate rooms, the smaller bins before described; tuns for
preliminary mashing; the cooling tank, and a number of colossal vats
containing water of varying degrees of temperature, heated by exhaust
steam.
[Sidenote: MASHING AND SPARGING]
Having crushed his malt, the brewer now proceeds to mashing, a most
important part of his art. The crushed malt is conveyed from the
smaller bins to a “Vormaischbütte,” that is to say, a mash-tun in
which the malt is thoroughly mixed with water, preparatory to its
transfer to the regular mash-tuns. Neither manual labor nor physical
efforts of any kind are required in thus conveying the malt to the
mash-tuns; everything moves by steam-power. The object of mashing,
_i.e._, the process of infusion or mixing the malt with water at a
proper temperature, is two-fold, viz. 1, to extract from the malt
the saccharine substance and dextrine which are contained therein;
and secondly, to convert into maltose and dextrine the residue of
unconverted starch. The three immense iron tubs, in which the malt is
mashed, are set in wooden frames, rising about four to five feet above
the flooring. Here, too, the magnificent plant of steam engines, of
which we shall speak later on, is brought into application; it sets in
motion the mashing apparatus within the tun, which is composed of a
number of raking contrivances fastened upon two huge arms, revolving
in opposite directions around central pivots, in such manner as to mix
every particle of the grain, as it drops from the “Vormaischbütte” on
the floor above.
Now is the time to realize the importance of the perfect cleaning and
grinding of the malt, for the result of mashing depends in part upon
these two preliminary processes. If the malt be insufficiently crushed,
much of the extract will be lost, or rather, to be more precise, much
of the starch will resist infusion and thus remain bound up in the
grain, which latter then passes out of the tun with a considerable
portion of its starch adhering to it. If, on the other hand, the malt
be crushed too fine, or if it be insufficiently cleaned, retaining
large proportions of dust, a part of the wort will become pasty and
absorb much of the “goodness,” thus impairing the quality of the beer.
Before the invention of the modern appliances before referred to, the
very best raw material frequently failed to yield the results which
the brewer was justified in expecting from it, and such failures,
the true causes of which were rarely understood, gave rise to
trade-superstitions which the modern brewer laughs at, conscious of his
superior knowledge.
While the process of mashing is going on, the brew-master must be
constantly on the alert; he must watch the temperature of the water,
with which he mixes his malt; gauge the effect of the heat upon the
quantity and quality of his mash; and determine, at a glance, almost,
when to open the valves of the mash-tun, in order to draw off the wort
into the copper or boiling kettle below. As in everything connected
with brewing, science furnishes him a reliable guide in the shape of
a saccharometer, which indicates the proportion of sugar in the wort,
and other instruments with which to test temperature, etc. When the
opportune moment has arrived for drawing off the sugar-laden liquid,
the brewer opens valves or doors in the bottom of the mash-tuns,
through which the wort runs into pipes, and through a filtering
apparatus into the boilers on the floor below. While this is going on,
and before half of the wort is run off, we witness another operation
called sparging, by which the useful substance still remaining in the
malt is washed out. By the sparging machine a continuous shower of
hot water is evenly thrown on every part of the grain; it issues from
hollow arms, perforated on their reverse sides, and horizontally fixed
to an upright pin. As soon as the water begins to force its way out of
the holes, in opposite directions, these arms revolve automatically;
the raking appliances, meanwhile, continue to whirl around, constantly
stirring up the mash, thus enhancing the effect of the water and
accelerating the operation. Insufficient or ineffective sparging means
a considerable loss to the brewer.
When sparging is completed, the brew-master changes the scene of his
activity; he descends to the floor immediately below the one where
his mash-tuns are placed. These two floors are closely connected with
each other; in fact, through large openings in the ceiling, which
openings are surrounded by substantial guard rails, we gain an almost
unobstructed view of both rooms at one and the same time; and even if
we knew nothing at all of brewing, the sight of so many pipes, tubes,
funnels and shafts connecting the upper floor with the lower, would
convince us that the closest relation exists between the two rooms.
On this lower floor our attention is at once attracted by three huge
copper kettles, every part of which, as well as the many pipes which we
see here, at once impresses us with the truth of the saying, that when
a brewer is doing nothing, he cleans and polishes his utensils. Indeed,
the pride which every journeyman brewer takes in the cleanliness of
the establishment is made manifest at every step we take; but here,
in the kettle-room, where every object far and near is faithfully
reflected, as if in a mirror, upon the resplendent sides of the
brew-kettles, an extra effort seems to have been made to outshine every
other department.
The liquid which now runs from the mash-tun into the boiling-copper
contains all the ingredients which constitute what we may call the
body of the beer; it is the extract of a highly nutritious grain,
gained in such a way as to justify the designation of liquid bread,
which an eminent chemist has assigned to malt liquors. But all the
nourishing qualities of the grain have not been extracted; a very large
proportion, comparatively speaking, remain in that part of it for which
the brewer has no further use. In the brewery under description these
grains are conveyed through large pipes from the mash-tuns to the
ground floor, or, rather, to an arch-way where wagons may be brought
to receive them. They are used as food for cattle and have proved to
be the best nutriment for milch-cows. According to the exhaustive
analysis made by the Agricultural Experiment Station of this State,
and many other investigations, brewers’ grains, even when no longer
perfectly fresh, are usually nourishing and, when fed to milch-cows,
tend to increase the quantity and enhance the quality of the milk.
It is estimated that no less than two-thirds of the bulk of brewers’
grains, as they issue from the mash-tun, consist of water, and this
moisture not only militates against the transportation of the grain
to rural points, but also accelerates decomposition—two reasons which
have prevented a more general utilization of the grains by dairymen. A
number of grains-drying machines have been invented, and we learn of
others in course of construction, by which the grains may be profitably
dried and preserved.
[Sidenote: BOILING THE WORT]
The boiling of the wort in these three huge coppers is another one of
the essential phases of brewing. The heat required for the boiling is
furnished by boilers which send a continuous current of steam through
the coils fixed in the copper. These coppers have covers with small
sliding doors, which, during the process of boiling, are rarely opened
except to enable the brew-master to make his tests. Were it not for
these covers, the boiler-room would be enveloped in an impenetrable
cloud of steam, which would greatly hamper all manipulations. As it is,
the steam finds an outlet through a large pipe or flue fixed on top
of the copper. It is at this stage that the hop is added to the wort,
but not until after the latter has boiled a sufficient time. Usually,
the boiling requires four hours; at the expiration of the third hour,
or still later, perhaps, the brewer will empty the contents of several
large sacks full of aromatic hops into the copper, thus adding the
bitter principle to the saccharine. The proper treatment of the hops
at and during this stage always has been a matter concerning which few
brewers shared the same opinion; but of late scientific investigations
have removed many prejudices which arose from a misconception of
the nature, ingredients and functions of the plant. At present, the
average brewer fully understands that he can extract the essence of
the hops without excessive boiling. The object of the boiling is: 1.
To concentrate the wort; 2. To extract the essence of the hop; 3. To
coagulate the unchanged albuminous substances and cause them to settle,
together with the unconverted starch which, if allowed to remain
intact, would materially militate against the preservation of the
beer. But this does not do justice to the important function of hops;
at least it is to be feared that, to the average reader, it will not
convey a clear idea of the action of this tender plant upon the wort.
Without it, beer would be nothing more than fermented barley-juice,
which, as we have seen, was known to the most ancient nations. Without
it, beer could not be preserved for any length of time, and both
in appearance and flavor would be greatly inferior to the drink of
to-day. Hence, hops not only impart to beers their pleasantly bitter
and aromatic flavor, but they also assist in clarification and produce
the preservative qualities of the liquid. The two principal substances
which the hop-cone yields when boiled, are lupulin and tannin, and it
must be the brewer’s aim to extract these in just that proportion which
the condition and quality of his wort require. Injudicious handling of
the hops may result in an excess of tannin and a deficiency of lupulin,
and may otherwise work injury to the finished product. The diminutive
sparkling grains of the hop-flower, called lupulin, are closely wrapped
up in the center of the hop-cone, and should be laid bare before the
plant is placed in the copper. To this end most brewers break up the
hops, and the writer was shown a most ingenious and yet exceedingly
simple machine which performs this operation in a highly satisfactory
manner.
Hops, as delivered at the brewery, are packed in large bales, each
weighing 180 pounds; the quantities required for immediate use are
taken out of these bales, broken on the machine above referred to, and
then placed loosely in large canvass bags, provided with hoop-like
handles. As a matter of course, these quantities are all carefully
weighed before being dumped into the copper. Scientific observation and
practical experience have taught the brewer not to boil the hop too
long. Formerly the plant was boiled “all to pieces,” the object being
to expedite the precipitation of the albuminous wort by means of the
extracted tannin. At present, the boiling time is reduced to a minimum,
and yet, by reason of the opening of the hop-cone, the effects and
essential functions of the hop are not in any manner impaired.
In the purchase of hops, the brewer must use good judgment and great
care so as to secure an article rich in lupulin, fully mature, not too
old, cleanly picked and properly dried. If he obtains such hops, he may
still have room for complaint on account of the lack of that flavor
which is the result of long-continued cultivation and the natural
advantages of a favorable soil. The latter causes have made Bohemian
hops famous all over the world. Any brewer who strives to produce the
very highest grade of beer will always use a certain proportion of
these extra-aromatic hops in conjunction with the domestic product. For
all practical purposes, however, American hops are as good as, if not
better than, the average foreign article, with the exception of a few
varieties, the production of which is also confined to a rather narrow
territory.
[Sidenote: COOLING THE BREW]
When the boiling is completed, the brewer again descends to a still
lower floor, where we see, besides many engines, pumps and other
gear, a large black rectangular tank which is placed directly under,
and connected with the boiling-coppers. This is technically called a
hop-retainer or hop-back; the former term undoubtedly more intelligible
than the latter, and certainly more appropriate because the function
of this tank is to check or retain the hops, while the hopped wort,
flowing through open valves in the bottom of the coppers, is being
rapidly pumped back to the top floor, where an expansive iron
receptacle called the cooling-tank, stands ready to receive it. Poor
John Barleycorn! In different conditions he has now made this same
trip up and down for the fourth time, and yet the end of his journey
is still far off. The contrivance which effects the retention of the
hops consists of a perforated false bottom within the hop-back, or, in
other words, of a sieve equally as large as the iron tank into which it
is fitted, and so fixed as to leave between it and the real bottom of
the vessel a sufficient space for the reception of the wort. At this
stage, the head-brewer thinks of but two things, namely, to send his
wort to the cooling-tank as rapidly as possible and to have it reach
its destination clear and brilliant. For the latter purpose he allows
the wort to settle in the hop-back for about twenty minutes; this done,
he adjusts the pumps, sets them in motion, and then ascends to the top
floor to watch the steaming liquid, as it issues from the pipe and,
with a sound between a hiss and a roar, rushes into the tank. If we
wish to form an idea of the shape and dimensions of this cooling-tank,
we must do it now, for in a few moments, as the hot liquid accumulates,
a dense cloud of steam, fraught with the enlivening aroma of the hops,
begins to fill the immense room, rendering everything indistinct,
except when a particularly strong gust of wind rushes through the wide
openings in the lattice-work of the windows and for a moment lifts
the vaporous veil. The shape of this vessel is that of a gigantic
rectangular pan; its depth is three feet; its lateral dimensions
are 30 x 42 feet; its capacity equals that of two of the three
boiling-coppers, each one of which holds three hundred and seventy-five
barrels.
Although he has the most perfect refrigerating apparatus at his
command, our brew-master now evinces considerable anxiety; he is pretty
sure of the usual result of his operations; but he knows “there’s
many a slip between the cup and the lip,” or, rather, between the
cooling-tank and the fermenting tun; and right here appears to be the
only loophole which human ingenuity left to chance. His object is to
reduce the temperature of the liquid and render the wort properly
amenable, in the desired measure, to the action of the yeast which
he will presently add to it, and thus place it in a fair way for the
beginning of fermentation. But unless this is done rapidly, the wort
may turn sour, and besides, many believe that other dangers usually
accompany a protracted exposure of the liquid to the open air. In many
breweries, particularly those situated on depressed ground, or hedged
in by other high buildings, artificial means are employed to accelerate
this first stage of the cooling process.
Cooling is one of the most interesting, as it is one of the most
important, phases of brewing. The manner in which it is accomplished
in model breweries of to-day, impresses us with the greatness of
science and its illimitable resources when pressed into service of a
progressive industry. Formerly, the successful brewer of lager-beer
depended very much upon the climate, the supply of ice and the chances
of securing what the Germans style “Felsenkeller,” rock cellars;
that is, deep caverns hewn into the rocks. The refrigerators of
to-day completely emancipate the brewer from the thraldom of these
contingencies; he can now brew almost anywhere and everywhere, even in
Southern climates. Mild winters and consequent scarcity of ice have no
terrors for him; and if it were not for his second nature to utilize
every natural advantage offered him, he might get along without any
cellars, certainly without “Felsenkeller.” From the cooling-tank the
wort is conveyed through pipes into a pan, whence it trickles over two
refrigerators. These two refrigerators are on separate floors, one
above the other; the one over which the wort passes first is supplied
with water from an artesian well; the other derives its cooling
capacity from a refrigerating plant, of which we shall presently speak
at some length. Having now reached the temperature most suitable for
the beginning of fermentation, the wort passes directly into the
fermenting tuns.
[Sidenote: FERMENTATION]
Fermentation, artificially induced by the admixture of yeast, at the
rate of about one pound per barrel, sets in at once and gradually
converts the saccharine principle into alcohol and carbonic acid gas,
thus imparting to beer that quality which places malt liquors in the
category of intoxicating beverages.
While fermentation continues, the same vigilance which prevails in
every part of the brewery, must be constantly exercised. The conversion
of sugar into alcohol and carbonic acid gas should be gradual, not
sudden; hence, when the fermenting process becomes too rapid, either by
reason of defective yeast or on account of the unsuitable temperature,
it must be restrained by means of attemperators, that is, coils which
are placed in the fermenting-tun and connected with the refrigerating
plant.
As in all other operations thus far described, so here, too, the
prolific genius of our age of inventions has placed at the command of
the brewer machineries with which he can regulate the temperature of
these oceans of turbulent, foaming liquids, either by a light pressure
of his hand, by the turning of a small wheel, by pressing upon a knob,
or by such other equally simple manipulation. In this fermenting
room, as well as in the cellars, into which we shall pass presently,
everything assumes Titanic proportions, and the human beings who move
about these places appear like pigmies. When we see fermenting-tuns
holding from three hundred to four hundred barrels, and settling tuns
of the size of an ordinary house, extending through two stories, and
holding seven hundred barrels or twenty-one thousand seven hundred
gallons of beer; and when we consider that these monster casks, filled
with John Barleycorn’s blood, cover miles upon miles of cellar-room, we
begin to realize and appreciate the power of the engines which are at
work in this brewery.
As fermentation progresses, workmen are constantly in attendance to
watch the process. On ladders, almost three times the size of their own
bodies, they climb to the top of the tuns to skim the beer with huge
ladles, testing at the same time, by taste and touch, the condition
of the liquid mass, in order to determine when to draw it off to the
resting-tuns.
The transfer of the beer from the fermentation vats to the resting-tuns
and from these to the storage casks is accomplished by hydraulic and
air pressure, and in such a way as to require no other labor but that
of opening or closing valves or depressing levers. As we descend into
the cellars, three stories under the ground, the temperature becomes
more and more stinging, the walls and ceiling are covered with ice
to the depth of from three to five inches, and every vat and cask is
thickly encrusted with frost. In forming an idea of the capacity of
these cellars, we cannot simply depend upon the number of square feet
of ground occupied by them, because both vats and casks rise to a
height almost equal to that of the cellars, and they vary in capacity
from fifty to five hundred barrels. The beer contained in them would
float a fleet, since their aggregate minimum capacity amounts to
125,000 barrels.
[Sidenote: FINAL OPERATIONS]
The last operations to which the beer is subjected are those of
cleansing, fining and krausening. The beer passes from the settling
vats to the storage casks, in which it remains from three to four
months, when, after another winding journey through miles of pipes, it
emerges bright and clear and brilliant, only to be racked, that is to
say, filled into kegs which go to the retailers.
The same continuity of operations which we have witnessed on the floors
above ground, is also observed in the three tiers of cellars, and the
relation between the latter is almost as close as that between the
former. We have already indicated the character of the connection which
exists between the different kinds of tuns, vats and casks into which
the beer is filled at different stages after the brew is completed. We
have seen that fermentation takes place in open vats, and is regulated
by attemperators, fed by the refrigerating plant and by means of
powerful pumps. Formerly, another means of restraining fermentation,
which was applied manually, was resorted to; it consisted of conical
cans, called swimmers, which the brewer filled with ice and placed
in the fermenting liquid, where they floated about and depressed the
temperature.
When the desired results of fermentation are secured, then, and not
until then, is the wort transformed into beer but before it becomes fit
for consumption, it must rest for a considerable length of time, to be
then transferred to the storage casks, where the processes of fining
and krausening take place. For the former process, chips or shavings
are used, usually those gained from the beech-tree, by which the muddy
particles, resulting from fermentation and still remaining in the
beer, are attracted and held, leaving the bulk of the liquid clear and
translucent. While this is going on, large quantities of carbonic-acid
gas continually escape from the lager-casks, and, ultimately, in order
to re-enliven the liquid, a second fermentation must be produced by
adding one-fifth of a new beer to four-fifths of the old. This is
done by means of pipes which convey the new beer through two tiers of
cellars to the lager-casks.
Mashed, sparged, boiled, cooled, doubly fermented, clarified and
thoroughly aged, the beer is now ready for racking. This is done by
several gangs of men at the same time. The quantity to be racked and
the capacity of the packages to be filled being known, the foreman is
enabled to determine how many kegs must be held in readiness. Each
“racker” has a given number of kegs before him. Above a wide board,
which runs along the wall, there is a long row of faucets through
which the beer, drawn from the lager-casks, flows into a detachable
hose and thence into the kegs. When one keg is full, the hose is
quickly inserted into another, and, while this is being filled up,
the first is being closed up with a wooden bung tightly hammered into
the bung-hole. In the lower end of the pipes, to which the faucets
are attached, glass tubes are inserted, which enable the “racker” to
discover immediately the slightest change in the color or clearness of
the beer. When such a change occurs, the stream of beer must be turned
off at once, because the presence of muddy particles indicates that the
sediment in the lager-cask has been reached and is being stirred up.
The kegs are now ready for delivery to the retailer, and pass out of
the proper domain of the brewer, until they are returned empty and
are again conveyed to the wash-house, or, perhaps, if their condition
should require it, to the pitching-yard or to the cooper-shop—all of
which places we shall presently visit on our tour of inspection.