South Bend news-times., July 18, 1913, Afternoon Edition, South Bend in 1913 Edition, Page 16, Image 32

About South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938

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THE SOUTH BEND NEWS-TIMES.
SOUTH BEND-IN-1913 EDITION.
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A brevcry.is an establishment for
brewing.
Brewing is the art of preparing beer
from malted grain.
And beer is a pale effervescent bever
age which if taken in judicious quanti
ties on an empty stomach, will brighten
vjour ideas and improve your disposi
tion. Also, if taken persistently as a tonic
beer will fill out the hollows of a con
cave figure much more effectively than
the methods advocated by Susanna Co-
croft.
Some individuals look upon beer as a
concoction of the devil; many regard it
with disfavor; others believe that the
first glass of beer is the initial step on
the road to ruin, and that by drinking it
habitually the Pearly gates are forever
barred to the drinker. There are pow
verful organizations whose sole aim is
to make the manufacture, sale and use
of beer, and other intoxicants, illegal.
Then there is another sizeable crowd to
whom the world would be a dreary place
indeed, without any beer.
We have eminent physicians who
recommend beer as a tonic they claim
the human system requires a certain
amount of alcohol; then there are other
equally eminent physicians who assert
that it is detrimental. They may be sin
cere, they may be subsidized, or one or
the other may be a liar.
Unfortunately, eminent physicians
seldom ac:ree. For instance the famous
Dr. Hutch Woodison declares that a
slab of cold mince pie, taken just be
fore retiring will stimulate sluggish cir
culation, remove dandruff and banish
the blues. On the other hand, along
comes Sawyer Bones, M. D., who insists
that mince pie is a menace, to health;
that it will corrode the lumbar vertebrae
.hasten ossification of the arteries and
generally raise hob with your' vitals.
And there you are. Both have sound
logic to back their arguments, but we
don't know which to believe. And like
wise beer. It has its enemies and its
supporters, but which is in the right
seems to be purely a matter of opinion.
Suffice to say that while beer may
come in the category of intoxicating
liquors, it is considerably milder than
vodka or absinthe, and containing but
four per cent of alcohol it would seem
that the user would have to ship a great
many liters of this mild beverage be
fore he was inspired to make faces at a
policeman or shin trolley pules.
We might add that in Germany
practically everybody drinks beer, old
and young alike not excepting small
children, yet in spite of this the German
people do not show any noticeable sign
of deterioration. We know this is true,
for while we haven't been in Germany,
exactly, we have been in Milwaukee,
and besides, we have no less than seven
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Named
Hoosier
postcards in our album on each of
which is depicted a rotund German per
son with bald head, heavy rimmed spec
tacles, walrus mustaches, holding aloft
4 a foaming stein of beer, and making
some such exclamation as "prosit" or
"gesundheit" which -we believe is the
customary salutation in that well-irrigated
country.
However, we are not here to discuss
beer from an ethical standpoint; we are
not going to defend or to condemn it as
a beverage. We are going to describe
how it is made, and all prejudice aside,
it is a most interesting process.
EXTREME CLEANLINESS.
The South Bend Brewing Associa
tion's plant on Michigan av., being the
easiest of access, we have chosen it for
the subject of this article. At their of
fice we stated our desire to be shown
through the plant, and after being sub
jected to a rigid cross-examination, the
bright young man in charge was finally
convinced that we did not intend to
carry away any of the brass fittings or
absorb too. much of their produce, and
we were placed in charge of the brew
master. Incidentally, have you ever noticed
that when you approach a banker with
a view, to borrowing some money he
will size up your watch chain and dia
monds and cuff links before commit
ting himself; if you are after a job the
prospective employer will search your
face for a. glimmer of intelligence, but
if you step into a brewery and ask to
get within convenient reach of a tap or
an open vat, the guardian of the suds
involuntarily drops , his eyes to your
waist line and mentally calculates your
probable capacity.
Luckily we are blessed with style of
architecture not likely to alarm the
most niggardly of brewers. However,
had we been constructed on a more
generous plan it is not likely that we
would have been turned away, for our
guide was most hospitably inclined.
Now before we go into the details of
brewing, we wish to lay stress on the
scrupulous cleanliness of this particular
brewery. Other breweries may be just
as clean, but having visited several es
tablishments where food stuffs are han
dled commodities that find their way
to our tables three times a day we
must say that the subject of this article
is far ahead of anything we have ever
seen in the matter of superior sanitary
conditions. We are willing to wager
that the best regulated kitchen in South
Bend is no neater or more free from dirt
than this brewery. It is indeed remark
able. The modern construction of the
brewery proper and the bottling works,
with their concrete floors and large,
light, well ventilated rooms, helps to
make this possible.
The brew-master, Mr. Glueckert, is a
typical German. By typical we do not
mean that burlesque of the vaudeville
stage, but the genuine fatherly type to
whom one instinctively warms at once
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by the People for the People
Crearn : Tiger Export
who shows a kindly interest in visit
ors and takes great pride in his work.
He diligently explained every step in
detail as we went through the place
and when a point was not quite clear he
insisted in going all over it again until
we understood it thoroughly. In the
course of conversation, however, Mr.
Glueckert stated that there were many
features to which he could not do jus
tice since there were no English equiv
alents for the German terms which cov
ered the subject precisely.
THE PLANT.
The plant itself is entirely self-contained.
It maintains its own water
works, supplied by three wells about
145 feet deep, and no city water what
ever is used. Then there is the power
plant which generates electricity for the
individual motor driven machines and
for the lights, and two ice plants have
been installed, one of 35 tons capacity
and the other of 100 tons capacity.
Briefly, the brewing of beer consists
of extracting with warm water the fer
mentable substance of barley, or other
grain which has been previously malted,
and this infusion evaporated by boiling,
hops having been added to preserve it.
The liquor is then fermented. And there
you have it. However, should you start
out to make a keg or two of beer by this
formula, the results are not likely to be
satisfactory. A more comprehensive
knowledge is essential, very essential,
we should say. You will find it much
less expensive and a blame sight more
convenient to buy your beer. '
In general, the different steps neces
sary to produce good beer are the grind
ing of the malt, mashing, boiling," cool
ing, fermenting, cleansing, storing and
bottling.
GRINDING.
The malt as you know, is barley or
some other grain which has been treat
ed in a manner so that it will yield up
its fermentable substances with little re
sistance. In realitv it is crushed instead
of ground, for if it were reduced to a
powder like flour, when placed in the
mash tub or kettle and mixed with wa
ter, it would form a paste and the re-,
suit would be a few elephantine dump
lings, whereas when it is merely crush
ed the particles do not stick together,
and the water has an opportunity to
seep through the entire mass and drain
off, having absorbed the necessary ele
ments in the malt.
Having been properly crushed, the
malt is then allowed to stand say 24
hours in order to get rid of the 'heat
absorbed in passing through the crush
ing rolls. It is then ready for the mash
tun. MASHING.
This latter is an immense upright cyl
inder or kettle entirely enclosed with
the exception of a sort of charging door
at the top through which the crushed
malt is passed. The false bottom of
this receptacle is of copper with hun
dreds of perforations through which the
liquor drains off. Up through the cen
ter is a revolving shaft to which is at
tached a number of metal rakes or forks
which mix the mass thoroughly after
the water has been turned onf The wa
ter, having first been boiled for a suf
ficient period is reduced to a certain
temperature which I do not recall at
present as it is not gauged in the Fah
renheit scale, and enters" in the form of
a shower bath near the top of the tub,
sprinkling the entire contents.
In due time the liquor thus derived
is then drawn off into the boiling ket
tle, located on the floor below. This
kettle is a large copper vessel much
the shape of the mash tun. Here the
hops are added and the contents are
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boiled for about three hours after which
they are pumped through the cooler.
THE COOLER.
The cooler is constructed of a series
of double copper tubes one inside the
other. Cold water circulates through
the inner tube, while over this and yet
inside the larger pipe, the warm beer
trickles and is cooled without coming
in contact with the air, where it might
absorb dust or other impurities. In
warm weather the cooler is assisted by
the refrigerating plant.
Next the liquid passes into the fer
menting cellar in which are arranged
over a score of large cylindrical steel
tanks, lined with glass enamel and hav
ing a caoacity of a hundred gallons each
FERMENTATION.
Fermentation scientifically is the con
version of saccharine matter into alco
hol, and takes place slowly. As the
beer ferments, a beautiful fluffy foam
like a creamy shaving lather gathers on
the surface, and we understand that
this is removed from time to time as it
accumulates. The experienced brewer
can accurately gauge the condition of
the beer by the appearance of this froth
much the same as the old fashioned
doctor diagnosed your ailments by the
complexion of your tongue.
After fermentation is complete, the
beer is twice filtered and run into the
stock cellar where it is aged the proper
length of time before being bottled and
delivered to the consumer.
Three brands of beer are produced
here, and they are "Hoosier Cream"
(an original and appropriate name)
which is a draft beer; "Tiger Export",
made for bottling only, and the latest
production, "Golden Glow", which is
on the order of old style lager beer, be
ing aged much longer than the forego
ing brands and blended with special
care. The name "Golden Glow" was
selected in a prize contest a short time
a?o. BOTTLING.
The process of brewing, is of course
the most important of all, but inasmuch
as the entire process is necessarily car
ried on in opaque vessels or tanks, the
successive steps cannot be seen and
hence they are not as fascinating as the
bottling operations.
Bottling is done almost entirely by
automatic machinery. Operators are
on hand of course to look after the ma
chines and feed them, but as far as ac
tually washing, filling, corking and la
beling the bottles are concerned the
men have little to do.
Starting in at the basement of the
bottling department, which by the way
is a separate concrete building, apart
from the brewery proper, we see hun
dreds of cases of empty bottles sliding
in on a ball bearing roller incline. As
suming that the other breweries in the
vicinity produce an equal amount of
beer we are led to believe that there
must be a very large number of our
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esteemed fellow citizens who find the
pernicious stuff a handy thing to have
around the house.
As soon as the bottles are removed
from the cases they are placed on a trav
eling rack which carries them into a
complicated apparatus known as the
"Cyclone Soaker," a designation which
might be more consistently applied to
one Jack Johnson or perhaps the late
lamented Ad Wolgast.
THE SOAKER.
This soaker is an odd looking contrivance,
not unlike a clover huller without wheels,
but a whole lot more complicated. On the
outside of it is draped a confusion of ther
mometers, pumps, gauges, valves and pipes.
The bottles are carried through slowly in
rows of about a dozen in an inverted position
rows of about a dozen in an invert
ed position, and before coming out
on the back porch or perhaps it " is the
front they are subjected to four separate
and thorough baths. The first and second
are a warm and hot soda solution, respect
ively, and in the third and fourth thev arc
rinsed in hot and cold water.
A tube is inserted well up into the throat
of each bottle and thus the inside is sprayed
thoroughly, all particles of cork or paper
being .lushed out. As the bottles come out
from this sanitary experience they drop into
the pockets of an elevator which carries
them to the second floor.
Here they are at the mercy of another
washing machine this time" the outside is
scrubbed by a relentless gang of brushes and
with cold water. The bottles are now ready
to be filled.
THE FILLER.
An operator then takes the bottles, which
by this time are as clean and as clear as glass
of that quality ever gets, and sets them in
the filler. This resembles a huge revolving
bird cage, upon the brass bars of which the
bottles are placed and automatically thrust
up under a small tap which fills each with
exactly the same amount of beer. They are
then placed in the corker, 'hich presses on
the cork lined, metal caps.
After this a dozen or so are placed in wire
baskets and started into the pasteurizer, and
before they emerge at the end of a full hour,
they have been submerged in three separate
tanks of water, each at a different tempera
ture. Next the labels are pasted on by a
couple of very intricate but ingenious ma
chines and they are then ready to be placed
in cases and delivered to the consumer.
Nearly all of the machinery in the bottling
department is automatic which makes it pos
sible to fill ninety bottles a minute, although
ajt the time of our visit there were not over
six or eight operators at work in the entire
bottling works.
In the matter of their equipment in gen
eral, Mr. Glueckert states that while there
may be larger breweries in the state, he does
not believe any of them are more modern
than the plant" of the South Bend Brewing
Association, and although we are not famil
iar with brewing, we will venture that few
establishments are more systematic.
Possibly some experienced brewers will
peruse this article and chuckle over our con
ception of the way beer is made, but while
thev mav find some of our statements a few
vards away from the bull's eye, our defense
is that they have spent years in learning the
art of brewing, whereas we have attempted
to comprehend it in 20 minutes.
Moreover, this little dissertation was de
signed more for the edification of those en
gaged in other pursuits, and if they have
been attending to their business as thev
should have, they won't know any more
about brewing than we do.
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