Zymurgy

ZYMURGY. A name applied to that department of technological chemistry which treats of the scientific principles of wine-making, brewing, distilling, and the preparation of yeast and vinegar,—processes in which fermentation plays the principal part.

With great interest I learn from a pamphlet by Mr. Georg Barth, expert in zymurgy at Munich, which I have received lately, that the author, in his essay on "The Best Method of Storing Hops," arrives at the same conclusions which I have drawn in this article.

The natural languages, however, cover every subject from aardvarks to zymurgies.

Later, in 1897, the German chemist Eduard Buchner refined [Louis] Pasteur's work by showing that the yeasts did not actually have to be alive to yield the fermentation process, as it is an enzymatic secretion of yeast that metabolizes sugar to produce alcohol. This refinement led to Buchner's receipt of the 1907 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for advancements in zymurgy.

Going by the amount of liquor you consume, I thought the only science that interested you was zymurgy, which would make you an illegal scientist because you are not quite eighteen yet.

Of Zymurgy I little know, / Perhaps because I little knead, / And can but make a sorry show / In singing liaisons of feed, / Flour, fodder,— […]

Of course, tastes in brewing have changed (and diversified) since zymurgy’s early days. For example, hops are now considered a staple beer ingredient, but their use was considered illegal by the Brewer’s Guild in England until the late fifteenth century.