Chapter 344 Fine Wine

People should eat less. Because when people are hungry, they only have one worry. But when they are full, they will have countless worries. In the final analysis, most of the things in this world are just because they are full.

——The world's first governor, Eunuch Cao.

There are many ways to divide the levels of human needs. The most famous one is Maslow's five-level theory. He divides human needs into physiological needs, safety needs, social needs, respect needs, and self-realization needs.

Maslow believes that physiological needs are the lowest level that people pursue. This is the most primitive and most needed basic requirement for people, such as eating, drinking, clothing, and housing.

This can be said to be the bottom line for maintaining a country. Once one or more of people's physiological needs cannot be met, the country will be turbulent and even an uprising will break out.

This is both an inevitable need and a huge driving force for people's actions. Of course, it is also the bottom line.

Many ancient rulers in history are good at taking advantage of this. They created one internal unbreakable structure after another in order to last for thousands of years and to ensure the stability of the country forever.

It's a pity that all those dynasties were easily invaded by foreign enemies after squandering the dividends of their predecessors. There are countless examples of the elite class collectively defecting.

The most typical example is Mexico, a country that once had the same opportunities as the United States and even had better resource allocation than the United States. In the end, the elite class collectively surrendered to the "drug dealers".

The second is the need for security. People hope to have stable jobs and stable incomes, and their lives and property can be guaranteed, free from disasters and wars (at least not the slaughtered party).

But whether it is a five-level classification method, a seven-level classification method, a nine-level classification method, or a three-level classification method (food and clothing, well-off, and wealthy), physiological needs are people's primary needs.

Although it is very cool to kill all enemies and defeat all heroes, it is not what Franz really wants to see thousands of miles of desolate land and widespread misery.

If he can, he is still willing to help more people, even if future generations will say that Franz is not a heroic leader and erase his achievements.

Bohemia, Pilsen.

In 1516, Duke William IV of the Duchy of Bavaria promulgated the "Beer Purity Law" in the German region, stipulating that beer in the German region can only be made with four raw materials: barley malt, hops, water and yeast.

This is the first time in human history that beer has been defined in the form of law, but today in 1842, this law is obviously not appropriate.

Industrialization has penetrated into all fields, and the beer industry is naturally no exception. The emergence of Pilsner beer in Bohemia represents the beginning of the industrial revolution in the beer industry.

The German part of Austria will abide by the "Beer Purity Law", but there are still a lot of lands in the empire that do not need to abide by this law.

In fact, the main purpose of the "Beer Purity Law" is to collect taxes, not to make beer taste better or safer to eat as later generations thought.

One of the biggest drawbacks of the "Beer Purity Law" is that it makes the beer taste monotonous in the German region and severely restricts the development of the beer industry.

The reason is simple. To brew beer, you must first have grain, and it must be fine grain. It is difficult for nobles or wealthy landlords to do this, which eliminates a large number of possible competitors, and of course kills many possibilities.

This is also an important reason why the beer revolution did not break out in the historic German region, but in the Bohemian province of Austria.

In 1842, several well-known brewers including Joseph F. Gurol were hired by Franz for a large sum of money to complete the pilsner beer that spanned the times.

At the same time, he also invited a young man from France, Louis Pasteur.

Unlike traditional ale and porter beer, the traditional ale process, the yeast is on the upper layer of the wort, and the fermentation temperature is slightly higher, generally 10-20℃.

After fermentation, no further treatment is performed. This kind of beer is easy to "turn sour" and has a short shelf life. It is okay for ordinary guests in the pub, but it is a nightmare for sailors sailing on the sea.

Moldy food, algae-growing drinking water and sour beer, as well as rats all over the ground and maggots everywhere, made sailors in the early 19th century miserable.

Pilsner beer uses a new lager process, with yeast in the lower layer of the wort, and the fermentation temperature required is relatively low, generally below 10°C.

After fermentation, it can be filtered and pasteurized, which can greatly extend the shelf life of beer, unlike traditional ale beer, which has a shelf life of only a dozen days, and then becomes "sour beer".

Even the Porter beer that the British are proud of has a shelf life of no more than three months, while the specially treated Pilsner beer can be stored for more than a year.

At the same time, the industrialization of Pilsner beer has a huge advantage. It can not only be brewed with traditional malt, hops and water, but also with various cheap raw materials such as rice, corn, starch, cassava, sucrose, rye, etc.

Doing so can not only save costs, but also greatly enrich the taste of beer. As for the low alcohol content and slightly light taste, it is in line with the requirements of the emerging bourgeoisie to drink without getting drunk.

In contrast, the traditional ale or porter process requires the use of malt, hops, yeast and water. This is not only expensive, but also places stringent requirements on workers, otherwise it is extremely difficult to ensure quality.

Even if the beer is produced by the same brewery, there are often huge differences in taste. Therefore, for a long time, beer was regarded as a drink that was not worthy of being on the table.

In fact, breweries do not guarantee the quality of traditional beer regardless of the local brewing. On the contrary, in order to increase production and enrich the taste, brewers have been adding strange things such as horse urine, foxtail grass and beech to beer for centuries. As for adding water, it is a basic operation and there is no need to explain it in detail.

The advantages of industrialization of Pilsner beer include short fermentation time, usually one week, while traditional beer takes one to two months, or even longer.

Not only is it time-consuming and labor-intensive, but the quality is not guaranteed.

Finally, the biggest advantage is the price.

As the first producer of beer before the 19th century, the price of beer in Austria was already very low. The price of each pot (pint) was usually 5 groschen, equivalent to 0.166 florins, and the cost was about 3 groschen.

After a series of reforms, the cost of Pilsner beer can be reduced to less than 1 groschen. The huge price difference was enough for Franz to beat all the beer merchants in North Germany to death.

At this time, the beer production of the Austrian Empire ranked second in the world, with 1.396 billion liters per year, more than the sum of Britain and France.

Slightly less than the total of 1.589 billion liters of other member states of the German Confederation.

However, although the beer industrial revolution took place in Austria in history, it was eventually developed in Britain and the United States.

Franz was not going to repeat the same mistake. He wanted to promote the beer of the Austrian Empire to the world.