From the American Brewers’ Review – 1900
If there is any one reason why the pure beer agitation ought to be stopped it is because of the flood of misinformation it causes to be let loose upon the public, and the provocation it affords for the publication of opinions based on worse than ignorance. The New York Mail recently printed an interview concerning the then pending Stevens bill. Were it not for the fact that the Mail gave the man’s name publicity, the American Brewers’ Review would not have the heart to mention him as it would be cruel to expose him thus to public ridicule. Here is what the Mail reports Mr. John B. Hardy, of the Hardy & Gough Co., members of the Produce exchange, as saying.
“Beer made of hops exclusively has been found to be entirely too heavy for general use. This is so in Germany, as in the United States. Ten per cent of all the brewers of this country use rice as a substitute for malt because, unlike corn, it has no fusel oil. The finest kind of beer is made with an addition of rice. The cost of rice is, however, so much more than that of wheat or corn that some brewers do not like to use it. Mr. Stevens is certainly sincere, but he is entirely wrong in his idea that hops can be used exclusively in beer. There can be no wholesome substitute except the extract of rice.”
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