A Practical Treatise on Brewing/General Summary
GENERAL SUMMARY.
To any one who has attentively perused the foregoing pages, it will appear that want of success in brewing, must be due to other causes than those to which it is generally attributed, viz., the great uncertainty attending the process of fermentation.
If it be admitted that brewing is a chemical process, it must be subservient to the same laws which govern other chemical operations; and, under precisely similar circumstances, the same effects will necessarily be produced.
If, therefore, we succeed in one instance, nothing but diversity in the materials used, atmospherical changes which may be counteracted, or in some part of the operations performed, can prevent our arriving invariably at the same results.
Fermentation is undoubtedly as delicate a process, and perhaps as little understood, as any other connected with chemistry; but upon a regular and successful fermentation, or the contrary, must depend the good or bad quality of the beer. Such trifling causes, however, affect this process, that a brewer must not only have a distinct and extensive knowledge of chemistry, but also be what is termed a good manipulator, with great skill in the operative department of the business, before he can reasonably expect to brew uniformly good beer.
How often do we hear brewers say, "We cannot account for our want of success in this brewing, as it was conducted in every respect precisely the same as one last year, and designed to produce the same kind of beer, which then turned out remarkably well." They never, however, think of the different state or temperature of the atmosphere, which, by requiring the worts to remain several hours longer in the coolers, may occasion acidity, and thus produce the difference in quality. A change in the construction of the utensils, may, from various causes, have an equally injurious effect; besides many other casualties.
As already stated, brewers possessing a good and accurate taste and smell have a great advantage over those who in these respects are defective, as they are thereby enabled at once to discover acidity or unsoundness in the worts. Litmus paper, however, if properly employed, will in some measure compensate, as it also enables them to make the same discovery; after which, by immediately applying the proper remedies, the injurious effects may be obviated which would otherwise be produced.
The principal danger is always to be apprehended from electro-chemical or galvanic action; which we have not as yet found any other means of counteracting, than by removing the cause. By this action, whenever it exists, we are opposed from the beginning to the end of the process; and during its continuance, no regularity or command over the fermentation need be expected. We cannot, therefore, be too careful in the construction of new brewhouses, or in the alteration of older concerns, to avoid all mixtures of metals in connection with the utensils, and particularly with regard to the fermenting tuns.
This subject has been but very little attended to; and we believe that we have been among the first to investigate and draw the attention of brewers to the injurious operation of electro-chemical action on the process of brewing; and we trust that what we have now written, may be the means of inducing brewers assiduously to examine this matter. With this view, we cannot sufficiently recommend to them the use of the Galvanometer. Good manipulation also in the process of brewing, is quite as necessary as in any other chemical operation.
Many of our most eminent chemists are bad manipulators; and have been, consequently, very apt to fail in exhibiting certain experiments. Even the great Sir Humphry Davy admitted that he himself was a bad manipulator, and we have heard that upon one occasion, after having frequently tried an experiment and always failed, which he was quite certain must have succeeded if properly managed, he submitted the case, when accidentally in Edinburgh, to one of the chemists in that city. By him the experiment was immediately performed with success. Sir Humphry then remarked, that he had made more discoveries by his own bungling in manipulation, than in any other way; the failures having led to new results of a nature different from what he had anticipated.
Bad manipulation in brewing, although not likely to lead to any beneficial discoveries in that art, may be followed by equally bad effects, as in making chemical experiments. Many brewers, for instance, think it a matter of but little importance, should they be a few hours longer in making their extracts, at one time than at another. This, however, will frequently produce acidity in the worts, and consequently fretful or irregular fermentation. Others think that success in brewing depends wholly on the first taps or worts running brilliantly bright from the mash-tun, (a matter of no great importance,) and adopt measures for attaining that object, which are often very injurious.
Many other instances of carelessness and want of method might be quoted, which would sufficiently account for the various anomalies taking place in fermentation. Such seemingly unimportant matters, however, are seldom taken into account; and want of success is attributed to causes over which it is supposed we have no control, and of course cannot understand. The same difficulty, indeed, occurs to experimenters in chemistry. A bad manipulator is often surprised by want of success in his experiments, when another operator, of scientific qualifications perhaps greatly inferior, is invariably successful.
To want of method, therefore, or bad manipulation, may be ascribed a great portion of the uncertainty which occurs in fermentation.
Another circumstance may here be taken into consideration. In making certain colours, a bright sky and a dry atmosphere are best adapted for producing brilliancy. The want of these auxiliaries in this country is so influential that we are seldom able to rival the colours made in Italy, or in other countries possessing these important advantages. We find, however, that in countries possessing the necessary requisites for making colours, the process of brewing beer is seldom successful. This proceed from a different state of the atmosphere producing acidity in the worts, more readily than in our more northern climates. We should accordingly, even in this country, avoid all exposure either of the worts or gyle-tuns to the solar rays, or even to much light.
Irregularity or want of uniformity in the process of fermentation, as before stated, proceeds from such apparently trifling causes as to make it quite impossible to enumerate or describe them. We may rest assured, however, that if we succeed in any one fermentation, every failure in our future processes must proceed from want of method, bad manipulation, or other impeding causes, which may be traced, and may unquestionably be removed.
But let us dismiss all pretended secrets, as well as adages, new hard names, old saws, and dogmas, which we are sorry to see still quoted as rules for guiding the maltster and the brewer, although these dogmas still appear in works written professedly for the purpose of giving scientific practical information, yet do they abound in such high-flown, mystical language, as would not only, by their obscurity, puzzle the reader to comprehend, but the authors themselves to explain, were they so required. Let us have done with all these sources of error and confusion; and instead of looking upon brewing as an art which proceeds without obedience to regular laws—differing, therefore, from every other chemical process—let us endeavour with the advice and assistance of men of science, to trace out the laws by which this art must be governed: and thus effectually remove the reproach, that any ignorant pretender may be more successful than those who think themselves, and indeed who really are better acquainted with the subject. There is still in this art a great deal to learn: and although possessed of moderate chemical knowledge ourselves, we have gratefully to acknowledge the advice, assistance, and information we have readily and uniformly received from every scientific gentleman to whom we have applied on the subject.
Instead, therefore, of throwing away money for the assistance promised by the secrets of empirics, let brewers adopt the superior plan of applying to men of science when any difficulty occurs, and we have little doubt they will be courteously received, and the required information be freely imparted.
In the foregoing pages, we have endeavoured to explain every thing connected with the process of brewing, so far as we are yet acquainted with it; and in language so plain, that we trust it will be intelligible to readers of every description. If we should have failed, the reader may rest assured that the obscurity does not proceed from any intentional reservation, but merely from inability to be as clear and explicit as we desire.
We hope that we have assisted in laying a foundation for scientific enquirers; which, if properly employed, may lead to more uniform and certain results. than have hitherto been thought to be attainable. And we do think that in the production of an article so indispensable to the working classes as beer is now considered, no exertion should be spared to produce it in all cases of the very best quality.
We have only further to add, that this treatise is based entirely on our own practice, without reference to the opinions of other writers on the subject; during which, in many and various situations, we have had opportunities of seeing very different modes of working—and that in most instances we have found, that where brewing was not conducted successfully, causes existed which might be traced, and which, when traced, might be removed with certain advantage to the brewer; and having stated only that which we have already ascertained to be true, we are persuaded that the whole will be confirmed by the results of well directed and scientific practice.