Page:A Practical Treatise on Brewing (4th ed.).djvu/130

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114
FERMENTATION.

ances more healthy. But prevention is better than cure; and, as we have already stated, the causes may be easily traced and removed. The beer so fermented will be either mawkish or yeast-bitten, or perhaps both.

Yeast-bitten Fermentation.

As this term may not be thoroughly understood, we shall endeavour to explain its meaning. Some beer, when drunk, leaves a very unpleasant bitterness on the palate, which hangs there for a considerable time. This bitter taste is supposed by many to proceed from hops; the hop bitter, however, is quite different, being highly aromatic and pleasant, and, technically speaking, goes clean off the palate.

This disagreeable bitterness proceeds from using stale, languid yeast, which, instead of carrying on the fermentation properly, seems to get so incorporated with the beer, as to become a component part of it, which cannot be discharged, as happens after a proper fermentation. Such beer, therefore, must be injurious to all constitutions, but particularly to delicate females and sedentary people. It produces acidity on the stomach, consequently heartburn, and a stupifying effect without exhilarating. Yeast-bitten beer often appears bright enough to the eye, and from this circumstance many people are induced to think it must be good, wholesome