Carbonate 4.01
Iron Oxide and 0.24
Alumina
Silica 0.22

Our knowledge of the essential chemical constituents of brewing waters
enables brewers in many cases to treat an unsatisfactory supply
artificially in such a manner as to modify its character in a favourable
sense. Thus, if a soft water only is to hand, and it is desired to brew a
bitter ale, all that is necessary is to add a sufficiency of gypsum,
magnesium sulphate and calcium chloride. If it is desired to convert a soft
water lacking in chlorides into a satisfactory mild ale liquor, the
addition of 30-40 grains of sodium chloride will be necessary. On the other
hand, to convert a hard water into a soft supply is scarcely feasible for
brewing purposes. To the substances used for treating brewing liquors
already mentioned we may add kainite, a naturally deposited composite salt
containing potassium and magnesium sulphates and magnesium chloride.

_Malt Substitutes._--Prior to the repeal of the Malt Acts, the only
substitute for malt allowed in the United Kingdom was sugar. The quantity
of the latter employed was 295,865 cwt. in 1870, 1,136,434 cwt. in 1880,
and 2,746,615 cwt. in 1905; that is to say, that the quantity used had been
practically trebled during the last twenty-five years, although the
quantity of malt employed had not materially increased. At the same time
other substitutes, such as unmalted corn and preparations of rice and
maize, had come into favour, the quantity of these substances used being in
1905 125,671 bushels of unmalted corn and 1,348,558 cwt. of rice, maize,
&c.

The following statistics with regard to the use of malt substitutes in the
United Kingdom are not without interest.

[v.04 p.0508]

Year. Quantities of Quantities of Percentage
Malt and Corn Sugar, Rice, of
used in Maize, &c. used Substitutes
Brewing. in Brewing. to Total
Material.
Bushels. Bushels.
1878 59,388,905 3,825,148 6.05
1883 [2]51,331,451 [3]4,503,680 8.06
1890 [2]55,359,964 [3]7,904,708 12.48
1895 53,731,177 10,754,510 16.66
1905 51,942,368 15,706,413 23.22

The causes which have led to the largely increased use of substitutes in
the United Kingdom are of a somewhat complex nature.