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A Practical Treatise on Brewing, Based on Chemical and Economical Principles
A Practical Treatise on Brewing Based on Chemical and Economical Principles Author:William Black General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1849 Original Publisher: Longman Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select ... more »from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: BREWING, Before commencing the subject of brewing, it may be proper to say something of the nature of the ingredients used in the manufacture of beer. We shall, therefore, begin with water, the most indispensable ingredient. WATER. The word Liquor is technically applied in the brewery to water. A great deal more importance is attached to the quality of this indispensable article than perhaps it deserves. Many are of opinion that the difference in the flavour and quality of beer proceeds in some measure from the different substances contained in the water used by the brewer. To this opinion we cannot subscribe, for it is impossible to suppose that any slight difference discoverable by analysis, in the quantities of carbonates or sulphates which may be dissolved in the water, could possibly affect either the flavour or quality of the beer. Water, as usually met with, contains the following substances, which may, chemically speaking, be called impurities; namely, Carbonic acid gas, to which the sparkling appearance of pump or spring water is owing. Carbonate of lime, which is nearly insoluble in water, but which is often held in solution by excess of carbonic acid. When such water is boiled, the carbonic acid in excess is expelled, and the lime falls down, forming the crust in boilers and other similar vessels. Sulphate of lime: this salt communicates the " hard" property, as it is called, to water, and is always known to be present, when soap which is dissolved in it curdles. Besides these impurities, water always contains muriate of soda (common salt), and often other...« less