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lOO
the MIXICOLOGIST.
BREWING
Is the art of preparing an exhilarating or intoxi
cating beverage by means of a process of fermenta
tion. In the modern acceptation of the word,
brewing is the operation of preparing beer and ales
from any farinaceous grain, chiefly from barley,
which is at first malted and ground,and its ferment
able substance extracted by warm water. This
infusion is evaporated by boiling, hops having been
added to preserve it. The liquor is then fermented.
The art was known and practiced by the Egyp
tians many hundred years before the Christian era,
and afterward by the Greeks, Romans,and ancient
Gauls, from whom it has been handed down to us.
All countries, whether civilized or .^avage, have, in
every age, prepared an intoxicating drink of some
kind. Great care must be taken when buying for
malting, for sometimes the grain is doctored by
n
kiln-bleaching, or dried at too great a heat. Sev
eral samples, too, may be mixed, in which case they
will not grow regularly, as heavier barley generally
requires to be longer in steep; and the grains, broken
by the drum of the threshing-machine being set too
close,.spoil a sample. Those cut into sections will
not germinate, but in warm weather putrefy, as is
evident from their blue-gray and moldy appearance