Up to 1845 brewing was confined exclusively to ale and porter, and the manipulations of the brewer were of the simplest and most primitive kind, as compared with present-day methods. What would be regarded as a very small establishment now was then looked upon as a large brewery. Concurrently with the growing popularity of lager-beer came the almost countless mechanical improvements in both brewing and malting; the utilization of the scientific researches of a host of such eminent men as Pasteur, Hansen, Delbrueck, Van Laer, Morris, Joergensen and many others; the practical application of the many thorough investigations into, and the works on, fermentation, yeast-culture, bacteriology, etc., and finally, the employment of artificial refrigeration; and it may be said that brewing entered upon a new era. These improvements did not, of course, reach the climax of their perfection at once; decades elapsed before the new methods became an indispensable requirement of success, and only in recent years have they overcome the conservatism of ale brewers, with the happy result of adding to the desirable qualities of ale some of the best characteristics of lager-beer; among others, a low alcohol-percentage, effervescence without deposit and brightness under low temperature. Since then the American brew-house has become a model of perfection not equaled in Bavaria, the “land of beer,” as has readily been admitted by distinguished foreign authorities, such as, for example, Professors Delbrueck and Van Laer, who not long ago visited a number of eastern and western breweries. In this respect the brewers of America stand in the front rank of the most progressive manufacturers, their establishments being equipped with the modern and costly appliances which have taxed and rewarded human ingenuity in this particular field for years past.