Transcriber’s Notes:
The original spelling, hyphenation, and punctuation have been retained, with the exceptionof apparent typographical errors which have been corrected.
AMERICAN BEER
Glimpses of Its History and Description ofIts Manufacture
NEW YORK:
UNITED STATES BREWERS’ ASSOCIATION
1909
PREFACE
This book is composed mainly of selected parts of twoseparate essays written by the undersigned and publishedmany years ago on two different occasions and fortwo widely dissimilar purposes.
The reproduction of these sketches in the present formappears to be warranted by a growing demand for informationconcerning the process of brewing of which one ofthe two essays here referred to contains a popular description,often quoted not only in magazines and newspapers,but also in encyclopaedias. That booklet, copyrightedby Mr. George Ehret, is now out of print; but withcharacteristic kindness Mr. Ehret has authorized the UnitedStates Brewers’ Association to reprint the whole or anypart of it, as present needs may demand. We have, accordingly,reproduced without abridgment everythingrelating to the processes of brewing, malting, refrigeration,etc., and have only changed or amplified the remainderof the text in such a manner as to bring it up to date.
As to the historical part, the sketches herein containedare not intended to go beyond the narrow limit indicatedby the sub-title. They afford only random glimpses ofthe history of American brewing, but enough, probably,to create in the mind of the reader a desire to read thoseother books published by the Association, in which thesubject is treated fully and comprehensively from variouspoints of view.
G. THOMANN.
New York, November, 1909.
CHAPTER I.
NEW ENGLAND
The writer of an historical essay dealing with theorigin of the art of brewing, even in countries ofcomparatively recent civilization, cannot escapethe necessity of taking into account a certain elementof mythical obscurity, calculated to throw a legendaryglamour around and about the introduction of abeverage, the invention of which has been ascribed by thepopular imagination of ancient times to certain benevolentgods, either male or female, according to the mythologicalsystems of the different countries.
Even the history of brewing in New England is notentirely free from this legendary element, although thereis, indeed, no dearth of well-authenticated historical factsfrom the very moment when the new communities emergedfrom the primitive conditions of the earliest camp-life.There can be no doubt that on the soil of New Englandbeer was consumed by people of European origin longbefore the landing of the Pilgrims. On their adventurousvoyage of exploration, which resulted in the discovery ofVineland, the Vikings, it may safely be assumed, carriedwith them a supply of their favorite beverage; and thereis more than an ordinary degree of internal probability inthe assumption that Bartholomew Gosnold, who in 1602landed at the p