Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume II.djvu/490

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470 BEER nich ; brown beer of Merseburg ; Berlin white beer, or champagne of the north ; Broyhan, a famous Hanoverian beer ; double beer of Griin- thal ; and white bitter beer of Erlangen, Lich- tenhain, and Upper Weimar. All these possess various excellences, particularly the Bavarian beers, most of which are due to the peculiar mode of fermentation. Usually, what is called ale contains a smaller quantity of hops than beer, although the term bitter beer is often ap- plied to the East India pale ale, which, besides being very heavy, contains a larger proportion of hops. Porter was first made in England in 1730. Previous to that time the malt liquors in London were ale, beer, and twopenny. It was customary to call for half and half, or for three threads. To avoid the necessity of draw- ing from two or three casks, a brewer named Harwood produced a beverage which was in- tended to embrace the qualities of the three liquors. It was called entire, or the entire butt; and being a strong, nourishing drink, suitable for laboring men and porters, it re- ceived at last the name of porter. It is made from malt, a portion of which has been to a certain degree roasted ; consequently it has a deeper color than the other kinds. The fol- lowing table, from Watts's " Dictionary of Chemistry," exhibits analyses of some cele- brated European beers, by Kaiser, Hoffmann, Otto, and others : NAME OF BEER. Milt Eit. Alcohol Cub. Add. W.tCT. 6-0 6-4 0-18 88-44 145 6-9 79-08 10-9 8-B 0-15 80-45 8-4 5-5 0-20 90-90 9-4 4-6 0-18 85-85 9-2 4-2 0-17 86-49 Bavarian draught (Scheflk) . . . Bavarian. 16 months old 5-8 5-0 6-9 8-8 5-1 2-4 0-14 015 90-26 89-75 90-70 Prague Stadtbier 10-9 14-0 8-9 1-4 .... 86-20 84-60 2-6 2-6 0-60 94-80 Werder's brown beer, Berlin . . Berlin Weissbier 8-1 5-7 2-8 1-9 0-80 0-60 94-20 91-80 Biere blanche de Louvain Brunswick mum . . . 8-0 45-0 4-0 1-9 98-00 58-10 The amount of fermented liquors brewed in the United States during the year ending June 30, 1871, according to Mr. Louis Schade, a statistician, was 7,159,740 bbls. Of this amount New York produced 2,305,145 ; Penn- sylvania, 918,986; Ohio, 656,896; Massachu- setts, 525,731; New Jersey, 514,189; and North Carolina, 51 bbls. The total brewers' tax in 1871 was $7,387,501. The number of breweries in the United States in 1870 was 2,862. Of the ale brewers, only one brewed over 100,000 bbls. Four breweries produced over 70,000 bbls. each. One lagerbier brewery produced over 40,000 bbls. The number of breweries in England in 1870 was 2,671. The ale and beer brewed amounted to 50,724,086 bbls., the duty upon which was 6,878,102. Allsop and Sons employ 1,300 persons in Bur- ton, of whom 100 are clerks. Their two BEEK-SHEBA breweries are capable of producing 16,000 bbls. 1 of ale per week. The new brewery covers 40 acres, and the ground is traversed by 12 miles of rail. In Austria and Hungary, in 1871, there were 2,699 breweries, which produced in Austria 7,918,433 bbls., and in Hungary 630,938 bbls. of beer, of which there were ex- ported 126,336 bbls. The German states, ex- cluding Bavaria, Wilrtemberg, and Baden, pro- duced from January to May, 1872, four months. 3,733,769 bbls. of beer, and during the same time there were exported 2,576 bbls. Bavaria produced in 1871 about 4,285,000 bbls. i;i:i li. I. U illiHm, a German astronomer, of Jewish parentage, the brother of Meyerbeer, the great composer, born in Berlin, Feb. 4, 1797, died March 27, 1850. His regular pro- fession was that of a banker, but he devoted much of his time to his favorite study of astronomy, working in conjunction with Mad- i ler. Beer built an observatory in the Thier- garten at Berlin, chiefly devoted to the ob- servation of the planet Mars and the moon. The crowning labor of the two astronomers was a map of the moon published in 1836, upon which the Lalande prize was conferred by the French academy. In 1849 Beer became a member of the Prussian diet. II. Michael, a dramatist, brother of the preceding, born in Berlin in 1800, died in Munich, March 22, 1833. He became known in literature by five tragedies, of which his Struensee is the best. His complete works were published at Leipsic in 1835, and his " Correspondence " in 1837. (See MEYERBEER.) BEER-SHEBA (Heb. Beer SheW, well of swearing or well of seven), an ancient town on the southern border of Palestine, 38 m. 8. S. W. of Jerusalem, of which only the ruins are now visible. It took its name from one of

two wells still existing near the site. Accm-d-

( ing to one Biblical account (Gen. xxi.) the more ancient one was dug by Abraham and received the name from the fact that he and Abime- lech, king of the Philistines, "swore there" a covenant, and ratified it by the setting apart of " seven " ewe lambs. Another account (Gen. xxvi.) conveys the impression that Isaac instead of Abraham was the digger of the well. Of the two principal wells at Beer-sheba, the larger one is 12 ft. in diameter and about 44 ft. deep to the surface of the water ; the other, 100 yards further W., is 5 ft. in diameter, and has about the same depth. Both are surround- ed by masonry, the inner edge of which, as in other wells of the country, is worn into deep grooves by the friction of the ropes used in drawing up water. These two wells lie near the N. bank of the Wady es-Seba, and a short distance from them is a group of five smaller ones. The ruins of the town, on the slight elevation near these, are unimportant as guides to its history. It has been Kttle visited by strangers, partly owing to its distance from other places of historical interest, and partly because of the insecurity of travel in that part