Drinks of the World

France.

In France beer was originally known as cervoise from the Low Latin cerevisia. There are two sorts, white and red; the latter has more hops. When much grain enters into the composition it is called double bière. Its qualities vary here as elsewhere, according to the grain employed in its manufacture, the malt, and the fermentation. It has been commonly adulterated with ledum palustre or wild rosemary, a strong narcotic. Allusions to beer are comparatively infrequent in French works. The details of its manufacture, which present no remarkable points of variation, may be found in any French work on brewing.

Germany.

Of the many beers of this country, perhaps the most deserving of notice here is the Mum of Brunswick, well known and appreciated for its excellence. The process observed in its manufacture has been, it is said, always kept a mystery,[113] and to prevent discovery, the men who brewed it were hired for life. The origin of the word Mum is obscure. The German Mumme, a strong ale producing silence[114] from intoxication; the Danish word for a mask, because it exhibits the parties drinking it with a new face; and Christian Mummer of Brunswick, the supposed inventor of the drink, have been by turns suggested. The varied kinds of Schenk, or winter beer, and Lager, or summer beer, are fairly well known. The Leipzig Goose and the Berlin white beer are refreshing drinks in summer. An excellent description of Bierbrauerei apparatus is given in Brockhaus’ Conversations Lexikon, Band iii. The most important beer factories are in Munich,[115] Erlangen, Zirndorf, Nürnberg, and Vienna.

German beer is far less potent than that of England, but want of strength is made up by the quantity taken. From the time of Goethe, and long before, Germans were great consumers of beer, and the scene in his “Faust,” of students in Auerbach’s Cellar, was typical of his time. Now-a-days there is no degeneracy in the German beer drinker, and a Viennese “Saufender Renommist” will drink his thirty half-pints of Märzen at a sitting. German beers are now readily attainable at any German restaurant in London.

India.

The Hill-tribes of India commonly consume Pachwai, prepared from rice and other grain in Bengal. In Nepaul a beer named Phaur, made from rice or wheat, is brewed much in the same manner as English ale, which it is said strongly to resemble. It is in considerable repute and, according to Hamilton,[116] wheat and barley are in Nepaul reared for the express purpose of making the beer and other drinks similar to it. In the West Indies the negroes make a fermented drink resembling beer from cassava, which in Barbadoes is termed piworree,[117] and in other places ouycou.

This plant, the manioc or mandioc of America, grows to the size of a small tree, and produces roots like our parsnips.[118] Ouycou is sometimes brewed very strong. It is considered nourishing and refreshing, as indeed most drinks which gratify the palate seem to be considered. Molasses and yams are used in its preparation. The liquor is red. Piworree or paiwari is also made by the Indians in Honduras, as in Brazil, from cassava. Cassava bread carbonised superficially is placed in hot water until fermentation arises. To promote this, feminine chewing is found efficacious. The taste, says Simmonds, is said to resemble that of ale, but is not “quite so agreeable—this may easily be believed.” Cela dépend, as in the case of the chica of the sierras of South America.

Japan.

Kæmpfer, in his History of Japan, i., 121, tells us that in the manufacture of Sacke or Saki,[119] a strong and wholesome beer produced from rice, the Japanese are not excelled by any other people. This beer, a very ancient drink, is white when fresh, but becomes brown, if it remains long in the cask. It is manufactured to the highest degree of excellence in Osacca, and thence exported to other countries. The beer’s name is said to be derived from that of this city, being the genitive case of the word, with the initial letter omitted. It is wholesome and pleasant, but should be drunk moderately warm.[120] There are many varieties of saki, distinguished by different names.

Russia.

Quass, or Kvas, a word signifying sour, an ancient Scythian beverage, is the ordinary household beer of Russia. A variety of it called Kisslyschtschy is variably described as exceedingly pleasant, and as an abominable small beer, something like sweet wort or treacle beer, almost as vile as the Vodki or Russian gin. These matters of course depend on individual taste. The Russian pivo, also in common use, is said to resemble German beer, but German beers are many and diverse.

Sweden.

Swedish beer is made at Stockholm. Spruce beer is much in use. This drink is said to have originated from a decoction of the tops of the spruce fir. In Norway and Denmark as well as in Sweden this liquor is made from boiling the leaves, rind and branches of pines. But the Spruce beer of Great Britain and Ireland—either white or brown, according as sugar or molasses is employed in the making—is an essence or fluid extract procured by boiling the shoots, tops, bark and cones of the Scotch fir (pinus sylvestris). Spruce beer is supposed to be of much medicinal value as an antiscorbutic. Samuel Morewood presents us with a gratifying reflection on this matter. While, he says, Spruce is beneficial to the health of man, it has not, by its “consequence depreciated his character, or lowered him in his moral dignity.”

Tartary.

The beer to be met with in Tartary is for the most part of an indifferent quality. That brewed from barley and millet by the Turkestans, termed baksoum, more resembles water boiled with rice than beer. They, however, admire it, and affirm that it is an invaluable remedy for dysentery. The reader will have already perceived that it is a cosmopolitan practice to pamper the appetite under the pretence of preserving the health. Baksoum is acid in taste, of no scent, a feeble intoxicant, and cannot be kept for any length of time.