Democratic Sentinel, Volume 1, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 July 1877 — Lager Beer. [ARTICLE]

Lager Beer.

It seems, according to a newspaper writer, that lager beer was introduced into the United States only thirty years ago. That was about the time tlie great German immigration was beginning, and our Teutonic friends brought along with them their god Gambrinus, and certainly he lias been a welcome guest. The history of beer carries us back to the old Egyptians, who are said to lmvc invented it, as they did many other things. 'They were a remarkable people, and doubtless Moses learned much from them. Our modem beer, however, dates back only to tlie time of Charlemagne, when hops were first cultivated in Europe. The monks were the brewers of the Middle Ages, as they also were the great agriculturists, and they kept the secret of its manufacture for a long period, enjoying the exclusive privilege of concocting a liquor which has uow become -a favorite drink of the civilized world, and out of whose brewing vast fortunes have been made, so that in England the brewers stand next to the aristocracy in social consequence, with abundant wealth to sustain the position. As early as the fourteenth century Bavaria was celebrated for its beer, and now it makes an article of a quality not excelled in Germany. A century 1 later Saxon breweries became well known, lmt the English—next to the Germans, and, of late, ourselves, the great beer drinkers—did not begin to manufacture the beverage until later. In 1524, however, they were making beer from [hops. The trouble with the English bieer is that it is too heavy and too heady, and therefore a recent temperance advocate in England urges the popularization of the German lager, a much lighter and more innocent potation. So important is beer brewing in Gerjnany that there has been established at Nuremberg a school of brewers where all the mysteries of the art are taught, and it is a very useful institution, more useful in fact than some more pretentious colleges; for good brewers, like good cooks, are a blessing to the race, and though it may be necessary that they should be born and not made, yet nothing commendable is done except after training. —New York Sun.