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Kernot and Alsop, for selling cocculus india, &c. 25_l._
Joseph Moss, for selling various drugs, 300_l._
Ph. Whitcombe, John Dunn, and Arthur Waller, druggists, for having
liquor for darkening the colour of beer, hid and concealed.
Isaac Hebberd, for having liquor for darkening the colour of beer, hid
and concealed.
Ph. Whitcombe, John Dunn, and Arthur Waller, druggists, for making
liquor for darkening the colour of beer.
John Lord, grocer, for selling molasses to a brewer, 20_l._ and costs.
John Smith Carr, grocer, for selling molasses to a brewer, 20_l._ and
costs.
Edward Fox, grocer, for selling molasses to a brewer, 25_l._ and costs.
John Cooper, grocer, for selling molasses to a brewer, 40_l._ and costs.
Joseph Bickering, grocer, for selling molasses to a brewer, 40_l._ and
costs.
John Howard, grocer, for selling molasses to a brewer, 25_l._ and costs.
James Reynolds, grocer, for selling molasses to a brewer, costs.
Thomas Hammond, grocer, for selling molasses to a brewer, 20_l._ and
costs.
J. Mackway, grocer, for selling molasses to a brewer, 20_l._
T. Renton, grocer, for selling molasses to a brewer, costs, and taking
out a license.
R. Adamson, grocer, for selling molasses to a brewer, costs, and taking
out a license.
W. Weaver, for selling Spanish liquorice to a brewer, 200_l._
J. Moss, for selling Spanish liquorice to a brewer.
Alex. Braden, for selling liquorice, 20_l._
J. Draper, for selling molasses to a brewer, 20_l._
PORTER.
The method of brewing porter has not been the same at all times as it is
at present.
At first, the only essential difference in the methods of brewing this
liquor and that of other kinds of beer, was, that porter was brewed from
brown malt only; and this gave to it both the colour and flavour
required. Of late years it has been brewed from mixtures of pale and
brown malt.
These, at some establishments, are mashed separately, and the worts from
each are afterwards mixed together. The proportion of pale and brown
malt, used for brewing porter, varies in different breweries; some
employ nearly two parts of pale malt and one part of brown malt; but
each brewer appears to have his own proportion; which the intelligent
manufacturer varies, according to the nature and qualities of the malt.
Three pounds of hops are, upon an average, allowed to every barrel,
(thirty-six gallons) of porter.
When the price of malt, on account of the great increase in the price of
barley during the late war, was very high, the London brewers discovered
that a larger quantity of wort of a given strength could be obtained
from pale malt than from brown malt. They therefore increased the
quantity of the former and diminished that of the latter. This produced
beer of a paler colour, and of a less bitter flavour. To remedy these
disadvantages, they invented an artificial colouring substance, prepared
by boiling brown sugar till it acquired a very dark brown colour; a
solution of which was employed to darken the colour of the beer. Some
brewers made use of the infusion of malt instead of sugar colouring. To
impart to the beer a bitter taste, the fraudulent brewer employed
quassia wood and wormwood as a substitute for hops.
But as the colouring of beer by means of sugar became in many instances
a pretext for using illegal ingredients, the Legislature, apprehensive
from the mischief that might, and actually did, result from it, passed
an Act prohibiting the use of burnt sugar, in July 1817; and nothing but
malt and hops is now allowed to enter into the composition of beer: even
the use of isinglass for clarifying beer, is contrary to law.
No sooner had the beer-colouring Act been repealed, than other persons
obtained a patent for effecting the purpose of imparting an artificial
colour to porter, by means of brown malt, specifically prepared for that
purpose only. The beer, coloured by the new method, is more liable to
become spoiled, than when coloured by the process formerly practised.
The colouring malt does not contain any considerable portion of
saccharine matter. The grain is by mere torrefaction converted into a
gum-like substance, wholly soluble in water, which renders the beer
more liable to pass into the acetous fermentation than the common brown
malt is capable of doing; because the latter, if prepared from good
barley, contains a portion of saccharine matter, of which the patent
malt is destitute.
But as brown malt is generally prepared from the worst kind of barley,
and as the patent malt can only be made from good grain, it may become,
on that account, an useful article to the brewer (at least, it gives
colour and body to the beer;) but it cannot materially economise the
quantity of malt necessary to produce good porter. Some brewers of
eminence in this town have assured me, that the use of this mode of
colouring beer is wholly unnecessary; and that porter of the requisite
colour may be brewed better without it; hence this kind of malt is not
used in their establishments. The quantity of gum-like matter which it
contains, gives too much ferment to the beer, and renders it liable to
spoil. Repeated experiments, made on a large scale, have settled this
fact.
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