The Production of Alcoholic Beverages

Malt beverages, including beer and ale, are made by brewing cereal grains (often barley). The initial step in the brewing process is “malting.” After having been softened sufficiently by being soaked in water, the grain is piled in heaps and allowed to sprout. When the sprouted root shoots are approximately three fourths the length of the kernels, the grain is subjected to a drying process. Thereafter the sprouts are removed. The malt (the grain without the sprouts) is stored for a period of four to eight weeks. During this time an enzyme known as diastase is released and the characteristic malt flavor comes into being. The enzyme diastase changes starch into sugar during the subsequent “mashing” process.

After the malt is ground up, mashing begins. Water and cereals (such as corn or rice) are added to the malt. This mixture is then heated and stirred continually. Solid matter settles when the stirring is stopped. The next step involves adding hops, that is, the dried flowers from the hop vine, and boiling the mixture. Finally, yeast is added to start the fermentation process, the conversion of sugar into alcohol. The finishing process includes aging, carbonating and filtering.

By contrast, some beers may contain as little as 2 percent alcohol, but usually the alcohol content of beer is about 4 to 6 percent.

It has been found that beverages with an alcohol content of from 10 to 35 percent are absorbed fastest. Thus it would appear that the person who drinks whiskey (with its high alcohol content) and immediately follows this up with beer (with its low alcohol content) produces a mixture in his stomach that will be absorbed faster into the bloodstream and have a more pronounced effect upon him than the whiskey alone.

Some Hazards

While the abuse of alcoholic beverages has posed problems from the time that man began producing them, the twentieth century has brought additional hazards into the picture. One of these is the extensive use of chemical additives in the production of alcoholic beverages. About five years ago, for example, a chemical additive was implicated in the deaths of fifty persons who regularly consumed a considerable quantity of beer. The additive was a cobalt salt. The beer had been treated with this additive so that it would hold and keep its “head” of foam.