"NOURISHING BEER."

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3220, 18 June 1909, Page 6

"NOURISHING BEER."

MEDICAL MAN'S OPINION. *g In connection with a statement i a London paper, the "Hospital Journal," that "A glass of good ale is as nourishing as one of milk," Dr. Symes, of Christchurch, furnishes an interesting explanation. He said this referred to the good old-fashioned English beer, made with malt, and did not apply to the modern method adopted in England and the colonies using, to a large extent, sugar instead of malt in making beer, though, of course, a small proportion of malt was always used. The malt was the nutritive ingredient, whereas sugar merely supplied alcohol. The two kinds of beer differed in this respect, that malt beer was a highly nourishing food, containing very little alcohol, while sugar beer was merely an intoxicating beverage. The German laws, which were, in many ways, in advance of ours, inflicted a heavy fine on anyone who sUd beer made with sugar, followed hy imprisonment for a second offence. Some years ago he gave an address on this subject, in consequence of which one of the leading firms started making malt beer, but this was soon discontinued, because most of the bar customers preferred the more alcoholic beer made with sugar.

For about 1,000 years, added the doctor, malt beer had been a staple factor in the food of the British nation, and it was probable that among the many minor causes of modern degeneracy, one might include the substitution of sugar beer and tea for the old fashioned malt beer. When he was at the Manchester Grammar School, beer made on the premises was supplied at every meal, and this was said to have been the practice since the 14th century. The extract from the "Hospital Journal" stated correctly that maltbeer is equally as nourishing as milk. It is specially beneficial to a certain class of consumptive persons, who could not digest the curd of milk. The Germans supplied such wholesome beer at Id a pint, but here we preferred to buy our malt extract in little bottles at 2s 6d each. Such was our progress