1892 Drinks of the world

m

DRINKS.

probably sufficient to satisfy the general reader. But we must add to it a second explanation of beer, which any farinaceous grain, but from the roots and other parts of various plants, as ginger, spruce-sap, beet, molasses, and many more. The scientific inquirer may learn the mysteries of malting and brewing, which are very nearly distinct trades, in the many treatises on beer- making which have adorned the literature of this and other countries. In these he may read as much as he wills of the steeping of the barley, its extension, its absorption of water, and the time occupied in this process ; of the couching and sweating, as it is called, a result of the partial germination of the grain ; of the flooring, or spreading out like hay over a field ; of the kiln-drying, or the introduction of the half- germinated grain into a kiln with a perforated floor, with the necessary and variable amount of heat beneath it. And if all this is not enough, he may continue to read at full length of comings or cuTn- mings, of pale and amber-coloured malt, of grinding the malt, of washing the malt thus ground, of boiling the worts with hops, of cooling the worts, of fermenting the worts, and, finally, of clearing and storing. Beer is probably a word of German, as ale, signify- ing the same thing, is of Scandinavian, origin. But the source of the German word is a moot question of comparative philologyo Those interested in this mat- ter may find abundant information in a note inserted by M. A. Schleicher in the Ztitschrift of Kuhn. We are led thereby to a Gothic form, plus, which in its Is applied to a fermented extract, not from