130 THE ANSLYST. ON THE AUOUNT OF SALT IN BEER. By J. W, GATEHOUSE. ON July 30th, a sample of beer, brought me for analysis by our Local Inspector, w;is found to contain 68.5 grains of common salt pcr gallon. The case on being taken before the Bath Magistrate, mas by them, at the request of the defendant, referred t o the analjsts at Somerset House. On September 7th, at the adjourned inquiry, a report was read, signed by Messrs.Bell, Bannister & Helm, which, whilst giving the amount of salt present as 66.5 grains per gallon, and thus substantially corroborating my own analysis, yet appended as iz rider, that they considered the beer might not be adulterated as they had found certain samples of strong Burton beer to contain about 60 grains of salt per gallon, derived solely from the water, malt, and hops used in brewing.On the strength of this statement the magistrates dismissed the case. Feeling assured that the Somerset House Chemists had made some mistake in the latter part of their statement, I have investigated the possibility of discovering from the composition of the beer itself, the maximum amount of salt that could be derived from the malt and hops, so that supposing the amount of chlorine in the water used to be known, the maximum amount which could naturally exist in the beer might be calculated. In order toarrive at this conclusion, we must, in the first place, know the percentage of chlorine calculated as salt present in malt and hops; and secondlp, be able to calculate from the analysis of the beer, the amount of each used in brewing a given quantity of' the beverage.Oudeman's gives the amount of ash in barley at 3.1 per cent., and that of malt as 2-7 per cent. Fehling and Faist; find the ash of barley to vary between 3.04 and 2.1. Polson gives it as 2-8, and Way and Ogston from 1.79 to 2.3 per cent., the mean of nine analyses being 2.09. I n experiments made by myself, a sample of barley gave 2.44 per cent.of ash, of which 2.04 was soluble in acid and *4 insoluble. Xalt from the same barley gave 2.47 per cent. of ash, of which 1.91 was soluble, and *56 insoluble in acid. The malt dust from the same sample yielded 8.4 per cent. of ash, of which 5.43 was soluble and 2.57 insolublc i n acid. Another analysis of ;t Muspratt found for barley 3 per cent., and malt 2.52.TI€E ANALYST. 131 different sort of malt, and malt dust from the same sample gave respectively 2-44 and 5.69 per cent.of ash, so that it is plain that in the act of germination barley loses not only organic, but also a considerable amount of its inorganic constituents, and it will be seen that a goodly percentage of this inorganic matter is derived from the soluble chlorides contained originally in the seed.Way and Ogston state that the ash of barley contains from a trace of salt only an amount varying up to 2.47 per cent,, their analyses of nine samples being respectively : a trace, 0.41, 0 56, 0.61, 0.725, 1.44, 1.59, 2-01 and 2.47 per cent., giving a mean of 1.09 per cent., and as malt certainly contains a less percentage than this, the amount of salt possible in a beer derived from the malt alone could not be greater than the highest of these percentages, and would with grcat probability, be lower than the mean.An analysis made by myself of the malt and malt dust mentioned above, gave for the malt only an unweigha'nle trace of chlorine, but for the malt dust 0 04 per cent. of argentic chloride, which equals 0.0164 per cent.of salt. The barley, malt, and malt dust also mentioned before, gave respectively -008 15, *0053, and -0.256 per cent. of salt. I n each case 1,000 grains were burnt, and the chlorine caleu- lated in the whole amount. We are therefore warranted in corning to the conclusion that the ash of malt is not higher than 2-5 per cent., and also that the percentage of salt this ash contains theoretically, as calculated from the total amount of chlorine present, is certainly less than 1 per cent., giving a percentage of -025 of sale in malt, as a possible maximum, this being probably many times higher than the average amount.From the analysis of Way and Ogston, hops appear to contain from 5.95 to 8.07 per cent. of ash, and of this from 3.72 to 4.28 per cent.consists of salt. Taking the highest of these numbers, this would give us 0.345 per cent. of salt in hops. My owu analjsie of a sample gave an amount of chlorine corresponding to 0.062 per cent. of salt. As the amount of hops used in brewing is seldom, if ever, more than 20-lbs. per quarter of malt for bitter beer, and generally less than half this in strong beer, and as this weight of malt would brew at least two barrels of beer or 72 gallons, the salt derived from the hops, could not in bitter beer exceed 6.7 grains, and in strong beer 3.35 grains per gallon.I n order to find the original amount of malt used in brewing any sample of beer, we require to know two things : first;, the amount of alcohol; and secondly the amount of solid extract the beer contains, or the specific gravity of the boiled beer made up t o its original bulk; from which, neglecting the small quantity of acid, we can find the original gravity of the wort, and the total amount of malt extract before fermentation.From these data the weight of malt used in the brewing, is easily deduced, as by Ure's experiments, a quarter of malt weighing on the average 320-lbs., will yield about 210-lbs.of extract, or in brewer's language, a barrel of 84-lbs. gravity. That the calculations based on these facts may be more clear, we will now take an actual example of beer analysis, in order to compare the amount of salt it could contain, with that actually present. The beer was a sample of the strongest Burton I could procure, made by a well-known firm. Specific gravity .. . . . . . . . . . . 1025.8 per cent. Amount of alcohol"' . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.65 ?? Specific gravity of boiled beer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,039'6 Specific gravity of the alcohol 985.5, giving a c( spirit indication " of 14.5, vhich by the tables, gives an additional gravity of 67'6 Original gravity of wort . . . . . . . . . 1107.2132 THE ANALYST. From this ( ( original gravity,” we next proceed to find the quantity of malt extract it contained, which may be done either from Ure’s tables or by the following calculation.Subtract 1,000 from the original gravity, divide by 100, and multiply by 2.5, will give the total amount of malt extract per gallon in pounds weight. To show that the above rule agrees with the tables, a wort of specific gravity 1032 would, by the tables, contain 7-95 per cent.of extract, or ,795 pounds per gallon, whereas by calculation 1032-1000=32, and 0.32 x 2*5=*8. Proceeding with our calculation above, an original gravity of 1107.2 = 1.072 x 2.5 = 2.68 pounds of malt extract per gallon, and as 320 of malt = 210 of extract, the amount of malt used =- 2.65 x 320 But as the percentage of salt in malt is not greater than 0025 per cent, the amount I n this calculation we haw taken no note of the amount of salt derived from the hop, but as it was not a bitter beer, if we add 3.35 grains, as before calculated, we shall obtain a total of 10*5 grains due t o malt and hops alone.The published analyses of the water used in the brewery where this beer was made, gives about 14 grains of salt per gallon, so that from malt, hops, and water, we get a possible amount of 24.5 grains of salt per gallon.The amount actually obtained by an analysis of the same beer was 18.24 grains, or about As the whole of the numbers above used are constauts, except the 2.68 obtained from the beer under examination, me may materially shorten the process by the annexed rule.To find the possible amount of salt in a beer due to malt alone,-Deduct 1,000 from the original gravity of the wort, divide the result by 100, and multiply by 6.6, which gives the salt in grains per gallon. of salt in this = 2’68 X 320XYF! or expressed in grains 820 210 x 100 ‘02‘ X 7000 = 7.1 5 . 210 x 100 of the possible amount. To take a case :- A Beer just analysed by me was found to contain Alcohol 5.2 per cent.The specific gravity of the Alcohol being *9911 the spirit indication ,.. Malt Extract 7-38 ,, was 8.9 which by the tables gives an original gravity of 38-6 Gravity of Boiled Beer ... ... ... ... ... 1030.6 Original gravity of Wort ... ... ... 1069.2 Salt due to Malt alone ... ... ... = -692 X 6.6 = 4’567 Salt due to Water unknown Salt due to Hops ...... ... 3.35 Possible total due to Malt and Hops ... 7.917 Amount of salt actually found by analysis 8.55. This process will thus, if the amount of salt in the water be known, always give a theoretical amount largely in excess of any that will actually be found, and yet sufficiently near to enable one to judge of the actual amount of adulteration, as the general character of the water in his district will always be known to the analyst.A very slight consideration of the statement made by the Somerset House Chemists, that a certain Burton beer contained 60 grains of salt per gallon, due to the water, malt, and hops alone, will thus be seen t o be based on some mistake, except the beer were purposely brewed from a water largely charged with salt, and much more so than is usually the case, even with Burton waters.THE ANALYST. 133 Even if a beer were brewed, BO strong as to contain the extract from a quarter of malt in a barrel, the amount of salt per gallon could not possibly exceed- From Malt 3 ' 0 x l ~ ~ ~ 3 ) E ' 0 2 5 = 15.5 grains. Maximum due to hops ... 6.7 Maximum due to malt and hops 22.2 leaving nearly 40 grains per gallon for the water alone. This, however, is in every respect an extreme theoretical case, the amount of 18.24 grains as actually found in the strong Burton, examined by me, being much nearer what I believe will be actually found in practice. This case shews, a t least, how much Public Analysts lie at the mercy of statements made by Somerset House officials, without proof of their accuracy being offered.