| The process of fermentation, which has for its object | | | | substances used in fermentation have a constituent |
| either the manufacture of bread, or of an alcoholic | | | | part -- sugar, starch, or some other substance -- which |
| product in a more or less concentrated form, is very | | | | is easily converted into a fermentable sugar by the |
| similar in action during its earlier stages. It commences | | | | action of yeast, or of diluted mineral acids, or by a |
| with the growth and multiplication of the fermenting | | | | constituent of malted barley, called diastase. |
| germs contained in the minute organisms floating in the | | | | The sugar produced by these means is resolved into |
| air, the inorganic constituents of the water, and the | | | | carbonic acid gas and alcohol by vinous fermentation. It |
| protoplasm (essence of life) of the yeast; and all the | | | | will be seen, therefore, that fermentation is started by |
| changes brought about are accompanied by heat. | | | | the saccharine element in the ferment, which is termed |
| Fermentation is caused by the decomposition of the | | | | maltose; the process is then kept up by the gluten, |
| starch and gluten of a solution of either potatoes, flour, | | | | which, becoming decomposed, aids the sugar and |
| or malted barley, which decomposition is accompanied | | | | starch in the work of providing food for the yeast as |
| by an evolution of gas. There is also a peculiar | | | | soon as the latter is brought in contact with it. The |
| vibration given to the various bodies in contact, which | | | | fermentation then takes place very rapidly, and |
| agitates the whole. This agitation is increased by the | | | | carbonic acid gas is generated and given off in |
| bursting of the starch-cells and the formation there | | | | proportion to the amount of the products contained in |
| from of maltose, and also by the changing of the | | | | the ferment, or sponge, and also to the strength and |
| maltose sugar into carbonic acid gas. Substances in a | | | | freshness of the yeast: especially is this so with gluten, |
| state of decomposition are capable of bringing about a | | | | which is the great agent of fermentation, when in a |
| change in the chemical composition of bodies with | | | | state of decomposition and when in contact with |
| which they are in contact. Most of the vegetable | | | | yeast. |