1914 Beverages de luxe

mented 'wax' or 'honey-comb water,' and in a history of beer it stands conspicuous as the most primitive form of fermented liquor, manufactured by prehistoric man even before he cul- tivated cereals, before he knew how to bake bread with the aid of yeast, and before he understood how to brew beer out of cereals or bread. ''' * * "Pliny has left us a Keltic expression for a species of cereal which is of fundamental significance for the history of beer. It is the word 'brace.' 'The Gauls,' he remarks XVIII, II, 'have a kind of spelt peculiar to that country. They give it the name (tf 'brace.' "While this Keltic word, therefore, means above all a species of cereals, spelt, or a variety of wheat, which because of its very white flour was employed mainly for brewing beer, it came about that this name for a cereal beca'me also the name for the inash material, the malted 'brace,' or malt, but this malt, 'the soul of beer,' as it has been termed by several writers, became the patent name for a whole number of popular expressions, all of them intimately connected with the jirocess of brewing, with the ac- tivity of the brewer, and with the calling or profession of the brewer. "This Keltic 'brace' — so designated by Pliny — is: Irish for malt: brae, brath, brach, genit, braich, or bracha, corresponding with Welsh and t'ornish: brag, whence Welsh bragaud (a kind of beer). Old English bragot (a kind of beer). Modern English bracket (a kind of beer), and means in all Keltic tongues 'malt.' "From this Keltic parent word are derived the Latinized words of the early and later middle ages whereof we cite a few: Bracium : crushed malt, mash materials; bracium pressum crushed malt, mash materials; brasina : malt mill; braceator, braxator: the brewer; braxatorium, bracitorium : the brewery. "And in modern French, 'brasser,' to brew ; 'bras.serie,' brewery; 'brasseur,' brewer; 'brassin,' the brew; and 'brai,' 'bray,' 'brais' (Old French), malt, crushed malt. "Derived from the Irish 'brach' and the Welsh 'brag,' 'bragio' sprout, we find a kind of aromatic and sweetened ale, the 'bracket,' or 'bragaut,' sweetened with honey. 'Rragget Sunday' functionary, and at the same time public hospitaller. " 'Braga,' 'bragga,' 'braka' are also beers of the Cossaks, Tai'tars, Ruthenians, etc. "The Keltic has the same root word for 'to brew' as the Anglo-Saxon: breowan ; Old High (German: briuwan; Gothic: briggwan; Old Norse: brugga; Middle High German: bruwan; Modern English: to brew; Modern German: brauen. is Mid-Lent Sunday, when it was the custom to celebrate with 'bragget.' The Irish 'bruighfer' in olden times was a public