BARLEY—PAST AND PRESENT.

Globe, Volume XXIV, Issue 2461, 24 February 1882, Page 3

BARLEY—PAST AND PRESENT.

It i* ft matter of common remark that brewers, in spite of the teaching* of scienceand the advantages arising from the nee of numerous modern appliances, are now often unable to produce beers that can be kept sound, in this respect being much inferior to the products obtained many years ago. There are several ways in which this may be accounted for. In olden days beers werev brewed of much higher gravity, and consequently, after fermentation, were much more alcoholio than those at present in vogue; This excess of alsohol exerted its well-known preservative aotion, and led to the destruction of numerous organisms which are> capable of existing in less alcoholic beers. Tne beer-drinker of the present day _is_ also farmore exacting in the matter of condition and brillianoy than the beer-drinkers of old, and much beer that would have been considered drinkable at the commencement of this century would now be altogether rejected. Over and above this more refined taste, and the less alcoholic character of our modern beers, to which we have alluded, there is also, probably, another reason why brewers now find it so difficult to produce a beer that will keep sound. The barley that is now grown is very different from that yielded at the commencement of this century ; the old-fashioned long and husky grain of barley has, by careful cultivation, and by oft-repeated selection of seed, gradually developed into a plumper and altogether different grain. Not only in general appearance has barley altered, but also in chemioal composition, although we are unable to bring any well authenticated analysis to corroborate this view. Improved cultivation, and the repeated application of large quantities of nitrogenous manures to our barley Belds have, without doubt, led to the barley of the prcsentday being also more nitrogenous, and the consequence has been that the modern brewer has to operate upon a wort highly charged with certain constituents which are excessively prone to decomposition and putrefaction.—" Brewers' Guardian."