Britain at Work
A Pictorial Description of Our National Industries

i6o BRITAIN AT WORK. EXTERIOR OF MASH TUN (MESSRS. BARCLAY, PERKINS AND CO.S BREWERY). largely present in London deep well water. It also has present a high percentage of sulphate of lime, which makes a hard water eminently adaptable for brewing a light, delicate beer. The water of Dublin and London has much greater extractive qualities than that of Burton, and for that reason is admirably suitable for brewing stout and porter. There is no difference in the processes of brewing light and dark ales, the darker colour of stout being caused by roasted malts being used. Burton is a town entirely given over to the brewing interest. It brews not only for local consumption, or to supply the needs of any particular district, but for the beer-drinking world. The fame of Dublin stout also causes a demand throughout England and the colonies, and London enjoys a considerable export trade, besides an increasing outside bottling trade. I here is hardly a town in England without a brewery, and certainly none with any pretensions to importance. The tendency with breweries, as with most other industries, has within recent years been to amalgamate, which has led to the creation of enormous under- takings with stupendous totals of capital — that of Messrs. Watney, Coombe and Reid, the largest com- pany, being upwards of seventeen millions sterling. A large proportion, however, of the capital of a brewery company is invested in public-houses by way of loan to the tenant, or purchase of the freehold, thus securing the custom of the house for beer. This system of tied houses was to an extent forced on the brewers by public opinion being not only averse to the granting of new public-house licences, but showing a ten- dency to demand a reduction of those already existing. The brewers quickly recog- nised that a licence had become not only a valuable asset, but a modified mono- poly, and they each secured as many as possible to “ tie ” a trade for their respective breweries. At the present time the number of free houses, or public - houses which are under no obligation to buy beer from a particular brewery, are under ten per cent, of the total number of licences ; there is thus little scope for further expansion among existing breweries, and practically no opening INTERIOR OF MASH TUN (MESSRS. WATNEY’s BREWERY). THE MECHANISM IS SHOWN STATIONARY. THE MAN IS REMOVING ONE OF THE SLOTTED PLATES THROUGH WHICH LIQUID DRAINS FROM GRAINS.