primary fermentation lasts about eleven to twelve days
(as compared with three days on the English system), and the beer is then
run into store (lager) casks where it remains at a temperature approaching
the freezing-point of water for six weeks to six months, according to the
time of the year and the class of the beer. As to the relative character
and stability of decoction and infusion beers, the latter are, as a rule,
more alcoholic; but the former contain more unfermented malt extract, and
are therefore, broadly speaking, more nutritive. Beers of the German type
are less heavily hopped and more peptonized than English beers, and more
highly charged with carbonic acid, which, owing to the low fermentation and
storing temperatures, is retained for a comparatively long time and keeps
the beer in condition. On the other hand, infusion beers are of a more
stable and stimulating character. It is impossible to keep "lager" beer on
draught in the ordinary sense of the term in England. It will not keep
unless placed on ice, and, as a matter of fact, the "condition" of lager is
dependent to a far greater extent on the methods of distribution and
storage than is the case with infusion beers. If a cask is opened it must
be rapidly consumed; indeed it becomes undrinkable within a very few hours.
The gas escapes rapidly when the pressure is released, the temperature
rises, and the beer becomes flat and mawkish. In Germany every publican is
bound to have an efficient supply of ice, the latter frequently being
delivered by the brewery together with the beer.

In America the common system of brewing is one of infusion mashing combined
with bottom fermentation. The method of mashing, however, though on
infusion lines, differs appreciably from the English process. A very low
initial heat--about 100 deg. F.--at which the mash remains for about an hour,
is employed. After this the temperature is rapidly raised to 153-156 deg. F. by
running in the boiling "cooker mash," _i.e._ raw grain wort from the
converter. After a period the temperature is gradually increased to about
165 deg. F. The very low initial heat, and the employment of relatively large
quantities of readily transformable malt adjuncts, enable the American
brewer to make use of a class of malt which would be considered quite unfit
for brewing in an English brewery. The system of fermentation is very
similar to the continental "lager" system, and the beer obtained bears some
r