the avoidance of damp, and to prevent the bees from coming in contact with the ground when they hang in a great cluster at the door of the hive — as they often do before swarming, when the weather is hot and the hive very populous — each hive is raised to a height of at least 15 or 18 inches from the ground. See Honey.
Bibliography. Cheshire, Bees and Bee Keeping (London, 1885-88) : Langstroth, The Honey-Bee (New York, 1889); Benton, The Honey-Bee: A Manual of Instruction in Apiculture (Dept. Agriculture, Washington, 1896); and Maeterlinck, The Life of the Bee, Eng. trans. (New York, 1901).
BEEK'MANTOWN' BEDS. See Ordovician System.
BEE-LOUSE. See Forest Fly.
BEELZEBUB, be-el'ze-bub ( Heb., god of flies,
from baal, lord, and zebfib, lly). The name by
which the people of Ekron, in Philistia, wor-
shiped their god, Baal (q.v.), or Bel (II. Kings,
i. 2 ). It was to this god's oracle that Ahaziah sent
messengers to find out whether he would recover
from his fall. It is probable that the real name
of the god was Baal-Zebul ('lord of the high
house'), which was changed to Baal-Zebub as a
cacophonous modification, much as Baal was
changed to Bosheth, 'shame,' and Malk to Mo-
loch, etc. Later on in the New Testament he
appears as the chief of the demons (Matt. x. 25,
xii. 24, etc.) under the two forms Beelzebub and
Beelzebul.
BEEMSTER, bam'ster. A region in the Dutch Province of North Holland, once a lake, and reclaimed at the beginning of the Seventeenth Century. It has an area of 17,825 acres, and is very fertile and well adapted to cattle raising. The commune of Beemster has a population of 4715.
BEER (AS. bcor, OHG. bior, Ger. bier; prob-
ably a dissimilation for ^bredr, and connected
with AS. breoican, OHG. brinican, Ger. brauen,
to brew ; another etymology refers beer to AS.
b^o, barley ) . The term beer, in its broadest
sense, denotes any fermented liquor that has
not undergone distillation. This definition of
beer is very comprehensive, and includes many
varieties of fermented liquors not commonly
known as beer. The name has also a more
limited meaning. In England the name beer
usually denotes some form of ale, and in the
United States and in Continental Europe the
term is practically restricted to lager beer, which,
however, is made in a variety of qualities. Brew-
ing is the name given to the process of manu-
facturing beer, although, strictly speaking, the
manufacture consists of two separate processes
known as malting and brewing, which will be
found discussed fully under Brewing. In the
present article, the principal varieties of beer
and their characteristics will be described briefly.
Historically, beer is of great antiquity; it was manufactured by the Egyptians and afterwards by the Greeks, Romans, and ancient Gauls. Among the ancient writers who mention beer are Herodotus, Tacitus, Pliny, Xenophon, and others. The Romans are supposed to have introduced the art of brewing beer into Britain, the only intoxicating beverages used by the Britons previous to the Roman conquest being mead and cider. Naturally the process of brewing practiced by these ancient peoples has been vastly improved upon by modern brewers, who have called in the knowledge of chemistry and bacteriology to aid them in perfecting their art.
Varieties. While beer is the generic name for all malt liquors, many of these liquors are known by other names, the principal of which will be enumerated and briefly explained.
Ale would seem to have been the current name in England for malt liquor in general before the introduction of hops from Germany about 1524. After this date the German word (Bier) beer was used at first to distinguish the hopped liquor from ale, the unhopped. As now used, ale signifies a kind of beer distinguished chiefly by its strength or high percentage of alcohol. In the manufacture of ale the first fermentation is checked, while a considerable percentage of sugar remains undecomposed, which by the subsequent fermentation in the barrels is changed to alcohol and carbonic-acid gas. The length of time which ale is left to cure in the barrels is from one week for mild ale, from two to four months for pale ale, and from ten to fifteen months for strong ale. Burton ale contains over 8 per cent. of alcohol. This is the strongest of the English ales. The Scotch ales are distinguished for the smallness of the quantity of hops used and for their vinous flavor. They are fermented at a lower temperature than English ales, which are fermented at from 65° to 90° F. India pale ale differs chiefly in having a larger quantity of hops.
Porter is a kind of malt liquor which came into use in London in 1722. According to Leigh, "the malt liquors previously in use were ale, beer, and two-penny, and it was customary to call for a pint or tankard of half-and-half — i.e. half of ale and half of beer, half of ale and half of two-penny, or half of beer and half of two-penny. In the course of time it also became the practice to ask for a pint or tankard of three-thirds (or, as it became corrupted, three threads), meaning a third each of ale, beer, and two-penny: and thus the publican was obliged to go to three casks for a single pint of liquor. To avoid this trouble and waste, a brewer by the name of Harwood conceived the idea of making a liquor which should partake of the united flavors of ale, beer, and two-penny. He did so and succeeded, calling it entire, or entire butt beer, meaning that it was drawn entirely from one cask or butt; and being a hearty, nourishing liquor, it was very suitable for porters and other working people. Hence it obtained the name of porter, and was first retailed at the Blue Last, Curtain Road, Shoreditch." The chief characteristics of porter are its dark-brown color, peculiar bitter flavor, and agreeable freshness in drinking. It was originally brewed with malt roasted until slightly brown; now, however, under the improved system of brewing, pale malt, with the addition of some highly roasted for the sake of color only, is used. Enormous quantities are brewed by the London brewers. A kind much stronger than ordinary porter is also extensively brewed in London, Dublin, and elsewhere, under the name of stout.
Lager beer, which is now so extensively manufactured in the United States, takes its name from the fact that it is kept several months in a storehouse (Lager in German) to cure. In
