Chapter III: Part 3

In the decomposition of fermentable matter, either by combustion or fermentation, (which I have defined to be synonimous,) a portion of inflammable air, or hydrogen, is first evolved; secondly, another portion of inflammable air, united with pure air, or oxygen gas, evolves under the form of fixed air; this is the constant and uniform phenomena of these decompositions, and are progressively going on from the beginning to the end of the fermentation, while there is any fermentable matter to attenuate. A due portion of oxygen uniting in a nascent state with a correspondent portion of inflammable or hydrogen, and fixed air, forms the spiritous particles dispersed through the fermenting fluid, which create vinosity, and constitute it wine, beer, or wash.

During which, so great is the avolation of fixed air, (as we have seen,) that much of the ethereal part of the new formed, or, rather, the scarcely-formed spirit, is carried off with it in a gaseous state. This is much assisted by the agency of the atmosphere, which is the solvent and receptacle of ethereal products, whose affinity for them must be as great as it is perfect and immediate--which demonstrates the necessity of having air-tight vats. When we consider the composition of the atmosphere, and that it owes its formation and existence to this cause, and, thereby becomes the menstruum of all created matter, we may be better able to understand the composition and formation of vinous spirits, and, by closely copying the original, more successfully imitate nature. We have seen that the principal phenomena in fermenting fluids is a brisk intestine motion of their parts, excited in all directions with a loss of transparency, or a muddiness, a hissing noise, the generating of gentle heat, and an exhalation of gas. This heat, we must now observe, is always very sensible before the extrication of any gas. We have adverted to the similarity existing between respiration and fermentation, which is remarkably so in the equality of heat produced in both in a healthy state of either, and which seldom exceeds ninety-six degrees of Fahrenheit's thermometer; but there are instances of their being much higher in both, without producing much injury to either. Instances of this could be adduced at home, without referring to warmer climates of the East and West Indies, where the temperature of the atmosphere is so much higher than with us; and that the temperature of the fermenting fluid, when at its height, always exceeds that of the surrounding atmosphere in these latitudes, which makes the similarity still stronger between these two decomposing processes. This is a general and just remark; but, in order to regulate it by practical facts, we must name the medium standard of heat, which rarely exceeds eighty-five degrees with the brewers; this is the medium of seventy-four and ninety-six degrees; but the medium heat is not unfrequently up to ninety-six degrees in the distiller's fermenting backs of Great Britain. Much depends on the degree of temperature the fermentation is pitched at: here, nothing is spoken of but the cleansing heat with the brewers, and the medium heat with the distillers.

For the maintenance of combustion, the free access of air being necessary, an objection may be raised to air-tight vats, as unfit to carry on this process in, to the exclusion of external air; which objection may seem to gather force from the compression it occasions of the fixed air on the decomposing fluid, which is allowed to extinguish active combustion. I must acknowledge these are formidable objections to my definition of low combustion, but I by no means find them unanswerable.

The aptitude of new hay, malt, and other vegetable matters, to spontaneous combustion, when impacted together by incumbent pressure, and a certain degree of moisture, should be recollected; and that this tendency is not destroyed by excluding the admission of external air, but by quickly cooling and dividing the impacted hay.

The great quantity of oxygen, or vital air, both in the water of dilution, and in the fermentable matter, with which the fluid is more or less saturated, should be also recollected, which is about eighty-five parts in the former, and sixty-four parts of one hundred in the latter.

Though, in an unelastic or fixed state, it is one of the properties of combustion to disengage and render it elastic, great part of which, during the low combustion which it supports, and in which heat is visible or perceptible, and light in an invisible state developed, three parts of this oxygen, with about one third of its weight of carbon, is converted into an elastic state, under the form of fixed air, that separates from the decomposing mass; a circumstance attending also on the combustion of coal and other combustible substances during their decomposition by that process, which supported in them by the external air of the atmosphere, where heat and light are both visible from the intensity and velocity of the combustion; and wholly invisible in the former, not from exclusion of external air, but from the length of time elapsed in low combustion; the one being performed instantaneously, and the other taking several days from its decomposition. Although fixed air is known to extinguish a lighted candle, and destroy animal life, that is, to be equally unfit for the combustion of inflammable bodies, or the support of animal respiration, it is also known to be as successfully employed as atmospheric air, or even dephlogisticated air, to melt glass, &c., when applied to the clear flame of a wax candle, by passing a current of it through a blow-pipe, to direct that flame on the glass to be melted.[4]

[4] Count Rumford on the Economy of Fuel.

This will not be so much to be wondered at, when we consider that the proportion of vital air in fixed air is as twenty-seven to nine, and in atmospheric air, the proportion of azotic gas or phlogisticated air, to vital air, is as seventy-three to twenty-seven; therefore, the former contains three fourths of vital air, and the latter little better than one fourth; but the fixed air is in a combined, and the phlogisticated air in an uncombined state. Among the processes made use of by nature for the decomposition of vegetable and animal substances, fermentation, or low combustion, is a principle one. Air, in a fixed or unelastic state, may be as necessary here as air in an elastic state is known to be in the active combustion of inflammable bodies. Chemists and philosophers are no strangers to two sorts of combustion, one in external air, and the other in close vessels.

But this is not the combustion alluded to in fermentation, where all the requisites for complete decomposition is to be found independent of contact with the atmosphere; here one part is oxygenated at the expense of the other, and the other disoxygenated in favour of it.

Nor does the solution, or decomposition of metals by acids, the combustion of inflammable and vital air for the production of water, stand in need of external heat or fire, any more than the low combustion in which fermentation consists for the production of spirit, beer, or wine, than that generated by the self-operation of its own temperature; similar to this is the self-animating principle or power with which nature has endowed the animal body of generating its own heat by respiration.

In fermentation, the caloric, or matter of heat, which is plentifully disengaged by the condensation of oxygen, is prevented from breaking out into flame with the condensing hydrogen, from the presence of affinities in the fermenting mass, ready to absorb and fix them into vinous spirit, ale, beer, &c., with the other component element, carbon; by which they are too instantaneously taken up and fixed, to amount to more than bare ebullition, and pass at once from an incipient state of elasticity, to a fixed and non-elastic one, while the redundant heat, which would otherwise appear, is taken up and carried off by the abundant formation of carbonic acid gas, which requires so great a quantity of caloric to render it permanently elastic, as not only keeps this sort of combustion under ignition, but much below the degree of heat at which the accumulating vinous spirit could be raised to the evaporable or distilling point, though capable, as already observed, of detaching a considerable portion of it with the volatile gas, and of the water of solution, or the water of composition recently formed from the present attractions in its most volatile and incipient state of formation; both which we have seen ascend with the fixed air extricated, partly in a combined, and partly in an uncombined state.

One part of hydrogen is sufficient to saturate and fix above five of carbon, and they require nearly sixteen parts of oxygen to complete their formation into alcohol, while the water of dilution undergoes a proportionate decomposition and recomposition, to assist the resolutions and combinations, and support the admirable equilibrium preserved by nature.

At the same time that the extreme levity of the hydrogen gas accounts for the great quantity of heat which it holds in combination, and the high temperature requisite to effect its decomposition, and that such is its capacity for heat, that though combined with oxygen and water, it still possesses the property of absorbing a great deal more. It is this property that renders aqueous vapour lighter than atmospheric air in which it ascends; yet we have just now demonstrated the resolution and combination of hydrogen gas, and oxygen gas, both extricated from the fermentable matter and the water of dilution, and their formation into spirit, &c., at a temperature not many degrees above that of the incumbent atmosphere, and no higher than that excited by respiration in the animal system.

In which we have shown the vegetable oxyde, (saccharine matter,) when reduced by the admixture of water, to form the worts or wash, to be a carbonated hydrogenous fluid, containing the elements of wine, beer, ale, spirit, &c., and the mode of producing them under circumstances conducive to their formation; these are motion, heat, pressure, and mutual attraction, called into existence by a species of low combustion, or fermentation, somewhat similar to respiration. In which the materials, the products, and the liberation of caloric are ultimately the same, whether the operation is attended by visible fire from the velocity of action, or weak incalescence from the slow progression of its motion; in which the component elements are continually assuming a gasseous form, and as constantly losing it by the force of mutual attraction for each other. No sooner is the equilibrium broken, in one instance, by their gasseous appearance, than it is restored by their condensation, and the heat liberated by the latter taken up by the former, by which the equilibrium is preserved; in this consists the increase of temperature above that of the surrounding atmosphere, accompanied by the discharge of fixed air; to fix, and advantageously apply which, shall be the next consideration; and, by an accurate imitation of the modification employed by nature, to render the fermenting fluid so much the stronger by such fixation. To accomplish which, we must advert to what has been delivered in the preceding pages, particularly to the proportions in which the equilibrium preserved by nature consists, and exactly to her manner of combining them in sugar, malt, and other saccharine matter, her mode of breaking this equilibrium, or decomposing them by fermentation, and recombining them into wine, beer, &c., and by the same process restoring the equilibrium.

It cannot be doubted, but that, in the investigation of the acetous process of fermentation with the attenuation we do the vinous, they will mutually reflect light on each other; in which it will come out that wine, beer, ale, vinegar, spirit, &c., are not the only commercial preparation to which the doctrine of fermentation, or low combustion, may be advantageously applied, but also to others, that are perhaps equally important and productive.

The cleansing being at the meridian, or greatest temperature of the heat of the fermenting fluid, and the object of that cleansing being to reduce the heat, and thereby allay the violence of the fermentation, by which an immediate decomposition takes place, the lighter impurities buoyed up to the top of the fluid flows off with the yest, while the heavier dregs descend to the bottom, and the fermentation gradually declines as the cleansing draws to a conclusion, and the fermenting fluid forms a turbid heterogeneous mass, very perceptibly approaching towards a transparent homogeneous fluid in its progress to a drinkable state.

In laying out a brewery, the air should have free access to the coolers on all sides, under and over; cleansing vessels should be similarly situated, and, if avoidable, the coolers should not lay immediately over them, to raise their temperature, which should not be many degrees above that of the atmosphere, at temperate, which is fifty-two degrees; but the descent from the cleansing heat (seventy-five to eighty-five) should be progressive, that is, not sudden. A sudden chill would precipitate the grosser, and diffuse the lighter dregs throughout the fermenting fluid, which should be thrown off from the surface in cleansing; this would retard the fining, and empoverish the beer or ale; while the mode recommended will be found to promote transparency, and give strength and body, that is, fullness and spirituosity. In general, the cleansing commences too soon for the strength and quality of the goods, particularly for porter, since the introduction of a greater proportion of pale malt than formerly used; a more perfect fermentation is now requisite to keep up the genuine distinction in that flavour of porter from ordinary beers and ales, which, since the change of _lengths_, has much declined, though the only characteristic quality that gives it merit over other malt liquors--an object that deserves consideration in this great commercial branch of trade, and source of national wealth, where the loss of distinction will be the loss of trade. The rough, astringent, thirst-creating smack is the produce of the brown malt, and a well conducted fermentation. The porter now brewed can no more bear the sudden chill of a cooling atmosphere in the barrel cleansing, without too immediate a condensation and separation of its parts, than it is able to sustain the quick changes of a warm atmosphere, without an immediate tendency to acidity. As things now are, either extreme can only be avoided by a more attentive advertence to the mode of _cleansing_, so as to prevent a predominant tendency to either by adopting the means proposed, or such other, on the same principles, as are equally likely to preserve the quality, increase the strength, promote transparency, and avoid acidity. I know it may be urged by the most able brewers, that a high and rapid fermentation in the cleansing is a principal cause of that flavour for which porter is distinguished; that this kind of fermentation leads to a more perfect attenuation; and some of them may, with great truth, add, a perfect attenuation is the genuine mode of early bringing beer forward. This I most readily grant; it is the doctrine I wish to inculcate. The greater gravity of keeping beers, preserves them in a _mild state_, while their spirituosity prevents acidity. The flavour of the colouring matter now in use, nor the change it induces, is not, by any means, adapted to preserve the genuine flavour of porter, or compensate for that made in the change of malt; a change I by no means condemn, with respect to the malt; but however advantageous to the length, we must not altogether give up flavour, while we may equally as well, and indeed much better, preserve both by a due admixture of each sort of malt, and with suitable additions and proper correctives in the process or preparation of porter, both salubrious; as by the subsequent mixture of stale and mild beer, before sending out, or, afterwards, by drawing them from different casks into the same pot, when on draught, to suit the palate of each respective customer.

I hope it is by this time understood, that my views are to raise the _Process of Brewing_ above the vulgar error that tyrant custom has entailed on it, and by the free exercise of the brewer's abilities, both in a scientific and tradesman-like manner, so as advantageously to preserve flavour and quality, with almost any proportions of every sort of malt he may occasionally be obliged to use.

The world is continually exclaiming that _experience_ is better than _theory_. This is very true; for example, he who has had a very long experience, may, in general, perform operations with tolerable exactness; but this he undeviatingly does by certain stated means, without any deeper intelligence of the process. I would, with Mr. _Chaptal_, compare such a man to a blind person who is acquainted with the road, and can pass along it with ease, and perhaps even with the confidence and assurance of a man who sees perfectly well, but is at the same time incapable of avoiding accidental obstacles, of shortening his way, or taking the most direct course, and alike incapable of laying down any rules which he can communicate to others. This is the state of the artist of mere experience, however long the duration of his practice may have been, as the simple performer of operations.

Brewing, fermenting, distilling, &c., are branches of commercial chemistry, that generally challenge the attention and secure the protection of those governments that constitute them sources of revenue and trade. Chemistry is as much the basis of the arts and manufactures, as mathematics is the fundamental principle of mechanics. In the process of brewing porter, ale, threepenny, &c., to be subsequently treated of, the practical minutia of fermentation and attenuation shall be circumstantially laid down in each, so as to account for, and distinguish the variety of flavour, &c., assignable to each _cause effected_ by the different modes of treatment.

_Hops, the best method of cultivating and raising them._

A rich, deep soil, rather inclining to moisture, is, on the whole, the best adapted for the cultivation of hops; but it is observable that any soil (stiff clay only excepted) will suit the growing of hops when properly prepared; and in many parts of Great Britain they use the bog-land, which is fit for little else. The ground on which hops are to be planted should be made rich with that kind of manure best suited to the soil, and rendered fine and mellow by being ploughed deep, and harrowed several times. The hills should be at the distance of six or eight feet apart from each other, according to the richness of the ground. On lands that are rich, the vines will run the most; the hills must therefore be the further apart.

At the first opening of the spring, when the frosts are over, and vegetation begins, sets, or small pieces of the roots of hops, must be obtained from hops that are esteemed the best.[5] Cut off from the main stalk or root, six inches in length, branches or suckers, most healthy, and of the last year's growth, if possible to be procured; if not, they should be wrapped in a cloth, kept in a moist place, excluded from the air. A hole should then be made large and deep, and filled with rich mellow earth. The sprouts should be set in this earth with the bud upwards, and the ground pressed close about them. If the buds have begun to open, the uppermost must be left just out of the ground, otherwise cover it with the earth an inch. Two or three sets to a pole is sufficient, and three poles to a hill will be found most productive; place one of the poles towards the north, the other two at equal distances, about two feet apart. The sets are to be placed in the same manner as the poles, that they may the easier climb. The length of the poles may be from fourteen to eighteen feet, according as the soil is rich or poor. The poles should be placed so as to incline to each other, meet at their tops, and there be tied. This is contrary to the European method, but will be found best in America. In this way they will strengthen and support each other, and form so great a defence against the violent gusts of wind, to which our climate is frequently subject in the months of July and August, as to prevent their being blown down. They will, likewise, form a three-sided pyramid, which will have the greatest possible advantage from the sun. It is suggested by experience, that hops which grow near the ground are the best. Too long poles, therefore, are not good, and care should be taken that the vines do not run beyond the poles, twisting off their tops will prevent it. The best kinds of wood for poles are alder, ash, birch, elm, chestnut, and cedar, their durability is directly the reverse of the order in which they stand; charring, or burning the end put into the ground, will preserve them. Hops should not be poled till the spring of the second year, and then not till they have been dressed. All that is necessary for the first year, is to keep the hops free from weeds, and the ground light and mellow by hoeing and ploughing often, if the yard be large enough to admit of it. The vines, when run to the length of four or five feet, should be twisted together, to prevent their bearing the first year, for that would injure them. In the months of March or April, of the second year, the hills must be opened, and all the sprouts or suckers cut off, within one inch of the old root, but that must be left entire with the roots that run down;[6] then cover the hills with fine earth and manure. The hops must be kept free from weeds and the ground mellow by hoeing often through the season, and hills of earth gradually raised around the vines during the summer. The vines must be assisted in running on the poles with woolen yarn, suffering them to run with the sun. By the last of August, or the first of September, the hops will be ripe, and fit to gather. This may be easily known by their colour changing, and having a fragrant smell; their seed grows brown and hard. As soon as ripe, they must be gathered without delay, for a storm or frost will injure them materially. The most expeditious method of picking hops, is to cut the vines three feet from the ground, pull up the poles and lay them on crotches, horizontally, at a height that may be conveniently reached, put under them a bin of equal length, and four may stand on each side to pick at the same time. Fair weather should always be chosen to gather hops and they should never be gathered when dew or moisture is on them, as it subjects them to mould. They should be dried as soon as possible after they are gathered; if not immediately, they must be spread on a floor to prevent their changing colour. The best mode of drying them is with a fire of charcoal and kiln, covered with hair cloth in the manner of a malt-kiln.[7] The fire should be steady and equal, and the hops gently stirred from time to time. Great attention is necessary in this part of the business, that the hops be uniformly and sufficiently dried; if too much dried they will look brown, and, of course, be materially injured in their quality, and proportionably reduced in their price. If too little dried, they will lose their natural colour and flavour. They should be on the hair cloth about six inches thick after it had been moderately warmed, then a steady fire kept up till the hops are nearly dry, lest the moisture or sweat the fire has raised should fall back and change their colour. After the hops have been in this situation seven, eight, or nine hours, and have got through sweating, and when struck with a stick will leap up; then throw them into a heap, mix them well, and spread them again, and let them remain till they are all equally dry. While they are in a sweat, it will be best not to move them for fear of burning, slacken the fire, when the hops are to be turned, and increase it afterwards. Hops are sufficiently dried, when their inner stalks break short, and their leaves become crisp, and fall off easily. They will crackle a little when their seed is bursting, and then they should be removed from the kiln. Hops that are dried in the sun lose their rich flavour, and, if under cover, they are apt to ferment and change with the weather, and lose their strength; moderate fire preserves the colour and flavour of the hops, by evaporating the water, and retaining the oil of the hop. After the hops are taken from the kiln, they should be laid in a heap, to acquire a little moisture to fit them for bagging. It would be well to exclude them from air by covering them with blankets. Three or four days will be sufficient for them to be in that state. When the hops are so moist that they may be pressed together without breaking, they are fit for bagging. Bags made of coarse linen cloth, eleven feet in length, and seven in circumference, which hold about two hundred pounds weight, are most commonly used in Europe: but any size that best suits may be made use of. To bag hops, a hole is made through the floor of a loft, large enough for a man to pass through with ease. The bag must be fastened to a hoop, larger than the hole, that the floor may serve to support the bag; for the convenience of handling the bags, some hops should be tied up in each corner of the bag, to serve as handles. The hops should be gradually thrown into the bag, and trod down continually, till the bag is filled. The mouth of the bag must then be sown up, and the hops are then fit for market. The closer and harder hops are packed, the longer and better they will keep; but they should be kept dry. In most parts of Great Britain where hops are cultivated, they estimate the charge of cultivating one acre of hops at forty-two dollars, for manuring and tilling, exclusive of poles and rent of land; poles they estimate at sixteen dollars per annum, but in this country they would not amount to half that sum; one acre is computed to require three thousand poles, which will last from eight to twelve years, according to the quality of the wood used. The English growers of hops think they have a very indifferent crop if the produce of one acre does not amount to one hundred and thirty-three dollars, but, much more frequently, it amounts to two hundred dollars, and sometimes so high as four hundred dollars per acre. In this country, experiments have been equally flattering. A gentleman in Massachusetts, in the summer of 1791, raised hops, from one acre of ground that sold for three hundred dollars; it is allowed, that land in this state is equally favourable to the growth of hops. Upon a low estimate, we may fairly compute the nett profit of one acre of hops to be eighty dollars, over and above poles, manure, and labour; and in a good year a great deal more might be expected. There is one circumstance further we think has weight, and ought to be mentioned: in the English estimate the expense put down is what they can hire the labour done for by those who make it their business to perform the different parts of the cultivation. A great saving may, therefore, be made by our farmers in the article of labour, for much of it may be performed by women and children. Added to this, we have another advantage of no small moment in this country: the hop harvest will come between our two great harvests, the small grain and Indian corn, without interfering with either but in England the case is otherwise: the small grain and hop harvest come in together, and create a great scarcity of hands, it being then the most busy season of the year. It is found, by experience, that the soil and climate of the eastern states are more favourable to the growth of hops than Great Britain; they not being so subject to moist, foggy weather of long continuance, which is most injurious to hops; and the southern and middle states are still more favourable to the growth of hops than the eastern states, in point of flavour and strength. The State of New-York unites some advantages from either extreme of the union. The cultivators of land in this state have every inducement, which policy or interest can offer, to enter with spirit into the cultivation of hops; as we shall thereby be able to supply our own demand, which is now every year increasing, instead of sending to our neighbours for every bag we consume; a circumstance the more unaccountable, as hops, are on all hands, allowed to be one of the most profitable crops that can be raised; the culture requires but little land, the labour may be performed at intervals, so as not to interfere with other business of the farm, and be generally performed by women and children. There is hardly a farmer in this state but may, with ease, raise from one quarter of an acre, to as much as three or four acres, the advantage of which would, in a few years, be most sensibly felt both by the individual concerned, and the state at large. In the city of New-York there are, at present, a number of large and respectable breweries, and new ones, from time to time, may reasonably be expected to be added to their number. All these establishments are now supplied with hops from Massachusetts and Connecticut; these considerations should certainly stimulate a few spirited cultivators to lead the way, and raise hops; their laudable example would soon be followed by others; so that in a few years we should have prime hops of our own in abundance, for home consumption or exportation. This subject will, I hope, appear sufficiently important to recommend itself; to say more is therefore unnecessary.

[5] Of the different kinds of hops, the long white is the most
esteemed; it yields the greatest quantity, and is the most
beautiful. The beauty of hops consists of their being of a pale
bright green color. Care should be taken to obtain all of one
sort; but if different sorts are used, they must be kept separate
in the field, for there is a material difference in their time of
ripening; and if mixed in the field, will occasion extra trouble
at the time of gathering them in.

[6] Hops must be dressed every year, as soon as the frost will
permit; on this being well done depends, in a great measure, the
success of the crop. It is thought by many to be the best method
to manure the hop yard in the fall, and cover the hills entirely
with the manure, asserting, with other advantages, that this
prevents the frost from injuring plants during the winter. Hops
had better be gathered before they are full ripe than remain till
they are over ripe, for then they will lose their seed by the
wind, or on being handled. The seed is the strongest part of the
hop, and when they get too ripe will lose their green colour,
which is very necessary to preserve as the most valuable part of
the [remainder of text is illegible]

[7] Kilns covered with the splinters of walnut, or ash, will
answer the purpose, and come cheaper than hair cloth.

_Barley Cultivation._

However unconnected this subject may appear with a treatise on brewing, I cannot help thinking that, in this country, it is much more intimately connected with it than one would, at a first view, incline to suppose, and for the following reasons; first, Because the proper cultivation of barley is not generally known, save in the eastern states, and but very little raised in any of the others; secondly, Without good barley it is impossible to make good malt, consequently, good beer--and it must be acknowledged, that a great proportion of the barley that is raised, even in the eastern states, is but very imperfectly suited to the purposes of the brewery, being what is termed winter barley, and generally a poor, thin, lank grain, by no means qualified to make good malt. This is so well known in England, that it is very rarely met with in the barley markets, and seldom, or ever, purchased by a brewer. The summer, or spring barley, always getting the preference, being the largest bodied grain, and, of course, the best suited to the purposes of making prime malt, the want of which, is frequently severely felt by the brewers of this country, from the impossibility they often find themselves in of procuring good barley, being obliged to use such as they can get, which, for the most part, is very ill suited to their purpose. It will be, then, their interest to give every encouragement to the farmer to raise spring barley in preference to the winter, to procure the best seed, of that description, that he can find, to clean it well, to steep it in well or spring water for twelve hours, stirring it frequently from the bottom of the tub or vessel all around; and previous to each stirring, all the floating grains, seed weeds, &c., should be carefully skimmed off: thus nothing will remain for seed but sound and perfect grain. The first water should be drawn off at the end of six hours, and immediately replaced by fresh; this again drawn off at the end of six hours more; it should be sown, broad cast, the following day, being first previously mixed with a sufficient quantity of wood ashes to dry it as much as will be necessary for the purpose of sowing. Thus managed, if the ground be in proper tilth, and fitly prepared, this grain will make its appearance the fifth or sixth day after sowing; whereas, if the seed be sown dry, it will probably be three weeks or more before it comes up, particularly if the season be dry. I cannot more forcibly recommend this practice than by giving a brief sketch of an experiment made in England, and taken from the Bath and West of England Society's reports. A farmer selected four acres of the same field, treated and prepared it for seeding exactly in the same way, he then divided it into two equal parts; he sowed one part with dry seed, in the common way, the other with steeped seed, as here recommended, and the consequence was, that the latter produced a double crop, although the seed in both cases was the same, save the difference of treatment. The superior quality and condition of the crop seemed to keep pace with the increased quantity. The beginning or middle of March, if the weather be dry, is the best time to sow spring or summer barley. This mode of preparing seed wheat, is highly recommended as an assured preservative against the smut, fly, &c., insuring a sound good crop of grain. Barley should be always cut in dry weather, yet not suffered to be too ripe before cutting; stacking it in the field for a few weeks before removing it to the barn, helps and prepares it for malting, by sweating and drying it. Barley, immediately brought to the malt house from the field, rarely makes good malt, as a great proportion of it becomes staggy, and will not grow. Those who can corroborate the truth of these remarks, and sufficiently appreciate them, will readily justify and excuse this seeming departure from the original plan of this little work.

_Table Beer._

There is no production of the brewery more important to society than good table beer, whether it be considered as a diluent to animal food, or a diet drink in fever cases, even of the most malignant kind, where, to my knowledge, it has been preferred to all others, and that with the greatest success, sanctioned by the advice of some of the most eminent physicians. This justifies my recommending it, and giving several processes for making this useful liquor.

_Small Beer for Shipping._

12 Bushels of Pale Malt.
12 Bushels of Amber Malt.
--
24
--
14 lb. of Hops.

Cleansed 24 Barrels.

Let your malt be fine ground; first liquor 172; mash one hour, stand one hour, run down smartly; beat of second mash 180; mash one hour, stand two hours, boil two hours; making your length sufficiently long to give one barrel of beer to each bushel of malt. Pitch your tun at 70 degrees, giving one gallon of solid yest; cleanse within twenty-four hours. The fresher this beer is sent out the better: being very thin in body and low priced, it cannot be expected to last long.

_Keeping Table Beer._

PROCESS.

Commenced brewing at six in the morning, heat of the air 60
degrees, per Fahrenheit's Thermometer.

48 Bushels of Pale Malt.
16 Bushels of Amber Malt.
--
64
--
72 lb. of Hops.

Cleansed 45 Barrels of Table Beer.

10 lb. liquorice ball, which was previously melted down in boiling water, by frequent stirring, to a liquid, and then put in with the hops when added to the worts. Ran the necessary quantity of boiling water into the mash tun for the first mash, and when cooled down to 168, commenced mashing, which continued three quarters of an hour, stood one hour, ran down briskly; mashed a second time at 180, for half an hour; stood half an hour; mixed both worts, boiled one hour and a half as hard as possible, throwing into the copper, before boiling, half a pound of ground ginger, with half a pound of ground mustard; pitched these worts at 70 degrees, giving 3 gallons of solid yest; remained in the tun 36 hours, and was headed over, before cleansing, with four pounds of flour and one pound of salt mixed together. This kind of beer will have attenuated sufficiently in from 30 to 36 hours.

_Small Beer of the best kind, how brewed, which, in a good cellar, will keep as long as can be reasonably wanted._

MATERIALS.

15 bushels of Pale Malt.
7 lb. Hops.

Cleansed 10 1/2 Barrels Beer, heat of the air 50 by Fahrenheit's
Thermometer.

Boiled the first copper; drew the fire; then ran ten inches of boiling hot water into the keeve; added two inches of cold water, mixed both well together, which made up at 168; then put in the malt gradually, mashing all the time, for about half an hour; the mash being thin, did not require a longer operation. Before mashing, rubbed the 7 pounds of hops in a tub, sprinkling over them, when rubbed, about one quarter of a pound of white salt, then poured on boiling water in sufficient quantity to saturate them well, after which they were close covered; the keeve having stood two hours, the tap was set, and ran down twelve inches. Did not boil the second copper, but raised its heat to 184, mashed a second time, and stood one hour, ran down as before, and completed the length in the underbank, cleared the copper, had it rinced out, got up the worts, put in the hops, extract and all, made up the fire, and boiled one hour and a half as hard as possible, previously adding to them four pounds of brown sugar that had been dissolved in a bucket with hot water, also half a pound of ground mustard; this beer remained on the coolers about eight hours, pitched it next morning at 72 degrees, adding only one gallon of solid yest, ran slowly into the tun which made up at 61 degrees; came on gradually, remained in the tun 31 hours, and raised to 66, affording but two degrees of attenuation. Notwithstanding this beer worked well in the casks, yet moderately, was frequently filled at close intervals, and was glass fine the fifth day. The sugar was added to assist the colour as well as the strength, the mustard to give flavour.

_Another Method._

To brew small beer somewhat stronger, take 30 bushels of pale malt, (have it ground fine,) 10 pound of hops, steep them as in the preceding process. Turn out of your copper 16 barrels of beer, give your first liquor at 165, your second at 175, mash, run down, stand, and boil as before. But before you commence brewing, take five pounds of brown sugar, put it into a metal pot with some water, set it on the fire, keep it constantly stirring till it begins to smell strong, then take it off the fire, and add to it, gradually, three gallons of water, at the temperature of blood heat, stirring the water and the sugar well together, till the whole be perfectly blended; this prepared liquor should be added to the worts in the copper before boiling. The fermentation, &c., to be conducted as before, save only the pitching, yest, to be increased by half a gallon, which half gallon is not to be added to the worts until twelve hours after the first gallon. Attenuation should proceed until the heat rises four degrees above the pitching heat, which should be the same as in the preceding process. In both instances, the tuns should be covered during the period of fermentation, but taken off for the purpose of rousing before cleansing; these covers should be put on again, in order to prevent the dispersion or waste of the gasses, which is always a loss of spirituosity.

_A good sound keeping Table Beer may be Brewed from wheaten Bran and Shorts, and, in many situations, when Malt cannot be procured, would be found an excellent substitute. This process is well worth the attention of housekeepers._

PROCESS AS FOLLOWS:

40 Bushels of Shorts.
20 Bushels of Bran.

16 lb. of Hops will give 25 Barrels of Small Beer.

Boil your first copper, run into your mash tun as much boiling water as, when reduced with cold, will bring it to the temperature of 1.0, then commence your mashing operation, putting in two bushels of shorts, and one bushel of bran at a time; when these are well mixed with the water, put in more, mash again, and so continue to do till all is in; it will take from half an hour to three quarters to mash this quantity properly; let your mash stand two hours, run down as in the preceding processes, and give your second liquor 165; mash a second time, stand one hour, boil your first wort one hour very hard with half your hops, which should have been steeped, rubbed, and salted, as before directed; boil your second wort one hour and a half in the same way, putting on the remainder of your hops, with one pound of ground mustard, and five pounds of brown sugar, reduced, by boiling, to a colouring matter, as already directed in the previous process; make up your two boilings in your tun at the heat of 65, giving three gallons of solid yest; let your attenuation proceed ten degrees, or to 75, then cleanse, and continue to fill your casks in the usual way. It has been found that beer brewed from these materials has stood the summer heats much better than beer brewed from malt alone; this may be accounted for by the extract of malt possessing a much larger proportion of saccharine matter than that obtainable from bran and shorts. In families, this beer may be brewed in the proportion of one or two barrels at a time; and in the country, where brewer's yest may not be procurable, leaven, diluted with blood-warm water, may be substituted for brewer's yest, and will answer, but not so well; neither will attenuation go so high, as fermentation with leaven, when applied to liquids, is generally languid and slow.

_Single Ale and Table Beer._

100 Bushels of Malt.
60 lb. of Hops.

Heat of the air 50 degrees.

Cleansed or tunned 30 Barrels of Single Ale; with 16 Barrels of
Table Beer after.

First, or mashing liquor, 168, run your whole quantity of boiling liquor into your mash tun, and when it cools down to the above point of 168, begin to run in your malt gradually from your malt bin; this quantity will require four or five hands to mash it well, which will generally take three quarters of an hour; when sufficiently mashed, cover your tun, let it stand two hours; run down this first mash smartly by two cocks within the hour; let your hops be rubbed, steeped, and salted, as before directed; added to these worts, as they began to boil, three gallons of the essentia bina or liquid colouring, with one pound and a half of ground mustard, and one pound of liquorice root finely powdered, boiled the whole two hours as hard as possible, there being a second copper for this operation, there was liquor prepared for the small beer and run on the keeve at the heat of 185; mashed well a second time, and stood two hours; by this time the first wort was let run into the hop back, and so on the cooler. After which, ran down the small beer, got it into the small copper, adding about six hand buckets of the hops that had been boiled on the single ale; these answered to preserve the beer, with one pound of ground mustard to assist flavour, and two gallons of the essentia bina to give colour; boiled the small beer one hour smartly. The strong worts were let into the tun in three portions, there being three coolers; the first division, at 65, had two gallons and a half of yest given to it; the second, at 66, the same quantity of yest; the third, at 65, was let down without yest, when all were in the tun made up at 64; in thirteen hours the tun had a handsome appearance of work; came on regularly, and attenuated to 76, having gained 12 degrees within sixty hours, then cleansed and filled the casks every three hours for the first eight fillings. Thus managed, this single ale was fit to send out the fifth day after brewing. When this ale is racking off the butts, to be sent out, would recommend putting two ounces of ground rice into each barrel which will create briskness, and much improve the beer. Ran the small beer into the hop back of the strong beer, and so on the coolers, thereby giving it a chance to lick up all the strong ale it met with in its progress to the tun, which it entered at 65 with three gallons of yest, and was cleansed within thirty-six hours. The quantity of beer here mentioned would be much improved by the addition of six or seven pounds of brown sugar or molasses; but if good table beer is wanted, it can be only obtained from whole grists of malt, and is well worth the difference of expense to those who can afford it, and appreciate quality.

_Strong Beer._

Brewed, November, 1810, the following materials. Heat of the air 50
degrees.

40 Bushels of Pale Malt.
20 Bushels of Amber Malt.
--
60
--
40 lb. of Hops, the best quality.

Cleansed 20 Barrels of Beer.

Rubbed, salted, and steeped the hops, as already directed, in a close vessel, ran a sufficient quantity of boiling water on the mash tun for the first mash, which was suffered to cool down to 165; mashed well for nearly one hour, stood two hours; ran down smartly, boiled the first wort one hour very hard, with about half the hops; mashed a second time at about 185: took about half an hour in the operation, ran down smartly after two hours' standing, got up this second mash smartly into the copper, taking the necessary precaution of rincing the copper out clean, for the reception of the second wort, which was boiled two hours very hard, with the remainder of the hops; these two worts were run together on the same cooler; after standing a few hours, were run on a second cooler, and there suffered to remain till they came down to 65; were then let into the tun, with two gallons of solid yest, by a large plug hole in a few minutes so as to have scarcely suffered any diminution of their heat; in twelve hours after, there was added two gallons more of yest, roused the tun a second time, came on gradually, and attenuated within 56 hours ten degrees, and so was cleansed at the heat of 75, this beer was filled every two hours, for the first twenty-four, and in a few days more became transparently fine; this beer should have added to it, before sending out, four ounces of steeped hops, and two ounces of ground rice to each barrel; the five pounds of hops wanted for this operation is previously put to steep in a clean tub with some of the beer. This beer, if thus brewed with good materials, and treated as directed, will be found to give satisfaction. During the winter half year, the fermenting tun should be always covered; in summer, only partially so; the less strong beer is attempted to be brewed in that season the better, as it will not keep, necessity alone should compel the brewer to work, in this country, during the summer months; and then at small beer only.

_Table Beer, English method of brewing it._

Take 8 bushels of Malt, and 6 lb. of Hops.

This quantity of materials should deliver four barrels of beer.

First liquor 161; mash the first time one hour.

Second liquor 170; mash the second time half an hour.

Third liquor 152; mash the third time twenty minutes.

Boil the three runnings together for two hours in a close covered copper; three pints of good solid yest will be sufficient to pitch this quantity, mixing it, before adding, with about one gallon of the wort, then add this to the rest; a low attenuation for this kind of beer will not answer, the specific gravity being too light, the fermentation rarely exceeding 30 hours in the tun. It being generally wanted for immediate use; it is pitched high, and worked quick. It is further important to bung it down close as soon as it has done working. This kind of beer may be securely and advantageously administered to fever patients, instead of other drink: I have known it to be attended with the happiest consequences.

_Unboiled beer, how Brewed._