Chapter IV: Part 4
The following process, I confess, I never myself tried, but, from the manner it was spoken of by the party giving it, I would strongly recommend a trial of it on a small scale, at first, until its advantages and superiority was well ascertained over the old and long established mode of boiling wort. Mash your full complement of malt, or rather one third more, and that in the usual way, (suppose you are brewing strong beer,) and while your mash stands, let your copper have as much cold water run into it as will save it from burning; rouse your fire, salt and rub your hops, as recommended in previous processes; let their quantity be increased one third more than if brewed in the ordinary way; and when got into your copper, cover close, and let these hops simmer for two hours, _but not boil_; then run down your first wort in sufficient quantity as, when added to the water and the extract of the hops, will give you the length you contemplate; you will observe the malt is increased to meet the quantity of water in the copper; but this cannot be considered a loss, as the second mash will answer for single ale, or good table beer; the hops in the same way. When you have got your intended complement of strong wort in your copper, rouse it well, cover close, and let your copper stand two hours more, keeping up a moderate fire just enough to make it simmer _but not boil_; during this time your second mash may be going on with water from your second copper; this, as already stated, will make single ale, or good table beer; if the latter, it may be boiled in the usual way, but not longer than half an hour, on account of the increased quantity of hops; which hops should be all retained in the copper after the first worts are run off, by means of a strainer placed at the mouth of the cock hole; one hour strong boiling will be sufficient for the succeeding wort, if single ale be wanted; the remainder of the process for both worts is the same as already directed for such quality of drinks. It was further stated to me that unboiled beer will appear very turbid and unpromising for some time after it is brewed, and will take three months at least to come round; but that after that period it will improve rapidly, and become transparently fine; when second worts are found too weak, they may be assisted with good Muscovado sugar, of which eight pounds is considered equivalent to one bushel of malt. In fact, pleasant beer might be made from sugar alone, without any malt.
_Strong Beer, of an excellent quality and flavour, brewed from the extract of the Hop only, rejecting the substance._
This extract was obtained by the hot infusion, in a close covered wooden vessel set to infuse the evening before brewing; in this process one third more hops should be allowed; these hops need not be wasted, as they will answer well for table beer, or single ale, brewed according to the preceding processes; but, in either case, one hour's strong boiling will answer for single ale, half an hour for table beer will be sufficient, on account of the increased quantity of hops.
When you have got up your first wort in your copper, that you intend to preserve with extract, boil the first half hour without it, and one hour with it, very hard in both instances. It should have been mentioned that, in preparing your first, or mashing liquor, two pounds of rice is to be added to your water in the copper before boiling, supposing the length of your brewing 20 barrels, or in that proportion.
Strong beer brewed with the extract alone, as here recommended, has turned out remarkably well, and if the hops are good, will be found more delicately flavoured than other beer; supposing the malt alike good. Pitching, cleansing, and filling, to be conducted as already recommended in preceding processes, with the tun close covered during the fermentation.
_Table Beer._
Table beer, of a superior quality, may be brewed in the following manner, a process well worth the attention of the brewer, the gentleman and the farmer, whereby the beer is altogether prevented from working out of the cask, and the fermentation conducted without any apparent admission of the external air. I have made the scale for one barrel, in order to make it more generally useful to the community at large; however, the same proportions will answer for a greater or less quantity, only proportioning the materials and utensils. Take one peck of good malt ground, one pound of hops, put them in twenty gallons of water, and boil them for half an hour, then run them into a hair cloth bag, or sieve, so as to keep back the hops and malt from the wort, which, when cooled down to 65 degrees by Fahrenheit's thermometer, add to them 2 gallons of molasses, with one pint, or a little less, of good yest, mix these with your wort, and put the whole into a clean barrel, and fill it up with cold water to within four inches of the bung hole, (this space is requisite to leave room for fermentation,) bung down tight, and if brewed for family use, would recommend putting in the cock at the same time, as it will prevent the necessity of disturbing the cask afterwards; in one fortnight this beer might be drawn, and will be found to improve to the last.
_Fermenting and Cleansing in the same Vessel._
The following recommendation to brewers is well worth their attention, that is, to ferment their strong, or what they call their stock beer, in the vat they propose to keep it in, until fit to turn out; this practice will be found advantageous to the flavour and preserving quality of such beer, as close fermentation has a decided preference over what is termed open. One or more workers may be placed in the side of such vat, a few inches above the surface of the enclosed liquor; thus the head as it rises will have the opportunity of running off; such fermentation should further be conducted coolly and slowly, the pitching heat, in this case, should not exceed 60 degrees of Fahrenheit, and the yest one third in quantity less than if applied in open vessels, but the yest should be mixed with a double quantity of the wort at 65, in a separate vessel before pitching. When vats are wanting, the operation may be conducted in hogsheads or butts, allowing a tin or wooden worker to each cask. In brewing small quantities of strong beer, this contrivance supersedes the necessity of fermenting tuns, or troughs, no small saving of expense, whilst it makes the beer more spiritous and preserving. The annexed plate shows the form and application of the worker, whether of tin or wood.
A The cask in which the worker is placed.
B The spout of the worker, which takes off the yest.
C The plug at the angle of the worker to admit the pipe of a
tundish, in order to fill the cask as it works.]
_Another Method of fermenting Strong Beer that might be expected to produce a pure and excellent liquor._
Mash, run down, and boil in the usual way, suffer your worts, after drawing your fire, to remain on your copper two hours, doors and hatch open. If in winter, the deeper your worts lie on the cooler the better; when they have come down to the proper heat of pitching, give your yest to them on the cooler, mixing it gently with the whole guile, and when properly headed with yest, which will probably happen within twenty-four hours, run off your worts gently into barrels, leaving your top and bottom yest on the cooler undisturbed, till all the cooler is cleared; but previous to running your worts into the barrels, put half a pint of good solid yest into each, and when full, clap your tin workers into the bung holes, and so let it finish its fermentation for about a week longer, filling the casks occasionally as they work. When done working, bung down or vat them; if you wish to add any kind of flavouring substance to this beer, the best time to do it is at commencing the second fermentation, experience teaching that all fermented liquors should have such substances added to them during, or at the commencement of their fermentation, which is preferable to adding these substances in the boil; I mean spices, and delicate flavouring substances.
_Process of Brewing Windsor Ale on a small scale._
Windsor ale is a very pale, light, agreeable ale, as fine as wine, and unquestionably the best fermented of any malt liquor sent to the London market.
Length drawn, three barrels per quarter of eight bushels, the malt pale, with two pounds of hops of the first quality; heat of the first liquor 182, two barrels of which is generally allowed to each quarter of malt, for the first mash; one barrel per quarter for the second; the same quantity for the third is as little liquor as can be dispensed with in three mashings; for short liquor and stiff mashes are essential to this quality of ale, in order to leave as little as possible in the copper for evaporation on account of the short boiling. Mash quick, run down quick, get your wort as fine as possible into your underbank; let your first mash stand two hours, your second one hour and three quarters. Give your second mashing liquor at 190; if you mash a third time, give your liquor at 175; stand half an hour; these worts should be pitched from 52 to 60, but not higher. The mode of doing so is also different from the generality of other malt liquor; your yest should be fresh, smooth, and solid. Begin yesting this ale a few barrels at a time, and when that has caught, add the remainder gradually, in about 48 hours, or from that to 60. This guile of ale will assume a close head of yest, which should be carefully skimmed off as fast as it forms after the first skimming: by this is not meant the first or worty head formed soon after the yest has taken, but the close yesty head already mentioned, which usually takes the time stated, say from 48 to 60 hours, when no more yest rises, and the guile remains quite flat; you will find the heat you pitched at, say 56, 58, or 60 degrees will by this time have increased to 80, or even more, and the specific gravity of the wort diminished from 26 or 27 pound per barrel, to six or seven pound per barrel; this attenuation will give it all the pungency and spirituosity it stands in need of. At this time your cleansing operation commences; after which it will work but little in the casks. It should be filled regularly every two or three hours, after cleansing, for the first twenty-four. After it has done working, you should immediately start it into an air-tight vat, with about one pound of hops well rubbed to every three barrels of ale in your brewing; if you use spent hops, such as has been boiled on the first mash, you may use a greater quantity, say half a pound more to each three barrels of beer, taking the precaution that they are become quite cool. This ale, thus treated, will be found glass fine in the course of a fortnight, and fit to be racked off into hogsheads or barrels. It will improve by age both in flavour and quality. But it should not be boiled more than fifteen minutes.
_Reading Beer, how made._
Reading beer is made in a town of that name about thirty miles distant from London; the quality of its beer is much spoken of, the mode of brewing it is stated to be as follows:
Scale of Brewing, suppose 22 Barrels.
80 Bushels of Pale Malt.
98 lb. of Hops.
3 lb. of Grains of Paradise, pounded or ground.
5 lb. of Coriander Seed, do.
14 lb. of the best brown Sugar.
Your malt should be some days ground, and if exposed on an open loft, after grinding, so much the better. Boil your first copper, run on your mash tun till you have your complement, then occasionally rouse your water with your mashing oars, or dashers, till you get it down to 175: put your malt in slowly, for fear of setting; keep mashing all the time, which should be continued full one hour, stand two hours, run your worts, when you set tap, as fine as you can get them into your underbank; this you will effect by drawing off successively five or six buckets of the first run, and throwing them over your grains in the mash tun; when you perceive they come off glass fine, lay by your bucket. Give your second mashing liquor at 178 degrees, mash three quarters of an hour, stand one hour. Give your third liquor at 158, mash half an hour, stand one hour; boil your first copper of worts, which should take the half of your three runs, one hour as hard as you can; your second, two hours in the same way; run the two boilings into one cooler, and pitch at 64, giving one gallon of solid smooth yest; skim off the yest, as in the case of Windsor ale, until the attenuation rises to 80 degrees, which will have advanced it, from the pitching heat of 64, sixteen degrees. Before you commence the operation of cleansing, mix one quarter of a pound of bay salt, with half a peck of malted bean flour, scatter this mixture over the surface of your tun, rouse well, cleanse, and fill in the usual way.
_Two-penny Amber Beer, as brewed in London._
This beer is in great demand, and large quantities of it consumed, and is supposed more profitable to the brewer than any other species of malt liquor, it being generally brewed, drank, and paid for within the fortnight.
PROCESS.
200 Bushels of Pale Malt.
112 lb. of Hops.
20 lb. of Liquorice Ball
30 lb. of Molasses,
4 lb. of Grains of Paradise, ground.
Cleansed 81 Barrels.
Heat of first mashing liquor 169; mash one hour, stand two hours, run down smartly; specific gravity of this wort 26 pound per barrel; second mash 170, mash half an hour, stand one hour, run down as before; specific gravity of this wort 11 pound and a half per barrel; third mash 160, mash twenty minutes, stand half an hour; gravity six pound per barrel; divide these three runnings into two boilings; boil the first copper for three quarters of an hour, the second one hour, in both cases as hard as possible; the hops and other ingredients should be put in at the first boil, and so retained in the copper by means of a strainer; pitch these worts at 64 degrees, giving two gallons of solid yest at first, with two gallons more in twelve hours after: remained in the tun about 60 hours, or until its attenuation reached 80 degrees; used over the surface of the tun, before cleansing, four pound of ground ginger, half a pound of bay salt, and about half a peck of wheaten flour, mixed all together, and scattered over the surface of the tun; roused well, and cleansed 81 barrels. This quality of beer, when brewed from good materials, and managed as directed, makes a wholesome and a pleasant beverage; but, to do it justice, should have more time allowed it for coming to perfection.
_London Ale, how brewed._
Ale is, of all other malt liquor, the most delicate, and will bear less tampering with. It will therefore require your nicest care through every part of the process. Transparency, pungency, and flavour, are qualities that highly recommend this liquor, and should be particularly aimed at by the brewer. Hard water is, by some, supposed to be more favourable for making this kind of ale than soft.
Heat of the air 60 degrees.
200 Bushels of Pale Malt
206 lb. of Hops.
4 lb. of Grains of Paradise, pounded or ground.
4 lb. of Coriander Seed, do.
1 lb. of Orange Powder, do.
Cleansed 65 Barrels of Beer.
First mash 173, mashed one hour, stood one hour, ran down smartly; specific gravity of this wort 32 pounds per barrel; the heat appears more favourable for obtaining the whole sweet of the mash than the preceding one by six pounds per barrel, an object well worth the attention of the brewer; second mash 172, specific gravity of this wort 22 pounds per barrel; mashing, standing, &c., the same as in the preceding process; boiled the first wort one hour; the second wort two hours, very hard in both instances; pitched the tun at 62 degrees giving two gallons of yest at first, and two gallons twelve hours after.
Remained in the tun about 80 hours, or until it attenuated to 74, or twelve degrees over the heat it was pitched at; used over the surface of the tun, at cleansing, four pound of ground ginger, half a pound of bay salt, with half a peck of wheat flour well mixed, roused the tun well.
You should observe, in working amber beer, to cleanse with the sweets on, but in ale you should work it low in order to get the sweets off. This ale should be carefully filled as it works and closely attended to until done working; then put into each cask, if of a large size, two handfuls of spent hops, that have been previously cooled, and but a short time boiled; then bung down, and it will be fit to send out.
_Windsor Ale, brewed on a large Scale._
This ale has experienced so great a demand in London and its vicinity for a few years back, as materially to affect the London pale beer brewery; it is a liquor better calculated for winter than the summer season. The London brewers have been induced to brew on the same principle, and in many instances they exceed the original. Here follows the London process for brewing this kind of beer, which, I apprehend, will be well worth the American brewers' imitation, as good ale is a species of malt liquor rarely met with in this country.
200 Bushels of Pale Malt.
224 lb. of Hops.
40 lb of Honey.
4 lb. of Coriander Seed, ground.
2 lb. of the Grains of Paradise, ground.
65 Barrels Cleansed.
Procure your hops of the best quality, rub them in one or more large tubs, pour cold water on them in sufficient quantity to wet them all over, and so let them infuse till the next day, which should be the day on which you brew. When your first copper has just boiled, run a sufficient quantity of water into your mash tun for your first mash; and when this has cooled down to 176 degrees, run in your malt slowly, and mash well for one hour and a quarter; after which, let your mash tun stand two hours, run down smartly and fine; keep your mash tun close covered from the time you have done mashing till you begin to set tap; give your second mashing liquor at 186, mash one hour, stand one hour, run down as before; give your third liquor for the last mash at 160, mash one hour, stand one hour run down as before; divide these three worts into two parts, boil your first copper one hour, putting in your ingredients with your hops, save the 40 pounds of honey, which should be reserved to be put into the copper a few minutes before striking off; rouse your copper well at the time of putting in the honey, and continue the same till run off, otherwise, it will pitch to the bottom of the copper, and likely be the cause of burning; your second worts should boil two hours on the same hops and ingredients, which should be retained in the copper by a strainer, pitch your tun at 62 degrees, giving two gallons of good yest at first, and two gallons more in twelve hours after; let your fermenting heat rise to 80 degrees; thus your attenuation will have gained 18 degrees, which will probably cause your guile to remain in the tun from 60 to 80 hours. Use salt and bean meal flour as directed in the preceding process, and in the same proportion, before cleansing; fill, &c., as already directed.
_Welsh Ale, how brewed._
This it a luscious and richly flavoured ale, much liked, but very heady.
PROCESS.
72 Bushels of Pale Malt.
70 lb. of Hops.
20 lb. of best brown Sugar.
2 lb. of Grains of Paradise, ground.
Heat of the first mashing liquor 175, mash one hour and a half, putting in your malt very gradually, and mash uncommonly well, and let it stand two hours; second liquor at 190, mash one hour, and stand two more; run down as before, boil these two runs together for one hour and a half, putting in your hops, &c., save the sugar, which is to be put in but a few minutes before striking off, at which time the rousing of the copper should commence, and so continue until the worts are nearly run off. Small beer may be brewed, in the usual way, after both these worts, in which case, cold water will answer full as well as hot; pitch your strong worts at 62, with a small proportion of good yest, and let your fermenting heat rise to 80; thus your attenuation will proceed 18 degrees; cleanse with salt and bean flour as already directed, but in suitable proportion in point of quantity to your malt, fill in the usual way, and when nearly done working, use fine ale to top with, before you bung down, putting into each barrel one large handful of scalded hops, that have been previously cooled down.
_Wirtemberg Ale._
BREWED AS FOLLOWS:
128 Bushels of Pale Malt.
32 Bushels of Amber Malt.
---
160 Bushels of Malt.
---
188 lb. of Hops.
28 lb. of Honey.
20 lb. of Sugar.
4 lb. of Hartshorn Shavings.
4 lb. of Coriander Seed, ground.
1 lb. of Caraway Seed, ground.
Cleansed 50 Barrels of Ale.
Give your first mashing liquor at 172, mash for one hour and a half, stand two hours, run down fine, but smartly.
Second mashing liquor 180, mash one hour, stand two hours, run down as before; get up your two worts; put in, with your hops, the other ingredients, save the honey and sugar, which is to be put into your copper but a few minutes before striking off, rousing your copper while any wort remains in it. This ale should be boiled hard for one hour and a half; pitch your tun at 62, raise your fermenting heat to 80, which will generally rise in the course of 70 hours. Give of good solid yest four gallons, two gallons at first, and two gallons more in twelve hours after, rouse your tun each time.
_Hock._
This is a beer that has within a few years had a great run, particularly in Germany.
PROCESS AS FOLLOWS:
112 Bushels of Pale Malt.
48 Bushels of Amber Malt.
---
160 Bushels.
---
206 lb. of Hops.
4 lb. of Cocculus Indicus Berry, ground.
2 lb. of Fabia Amora, or Bitter Bean.
20 lb. of Brown Sugar, of good quality.
Cleansed 54 Barrels.
First liquor 176, mash one hour and a quarter, stand one hour and a half; second liquor 182, mash one hour, stand two hours; when both worts are in the copper, add your hops and other ingredients, except the sugar, which is to be put in as already directed a little time before striking off, boil two hours and a quarter as hard as you can. Pitch your tun at 64, giving four gallons of solid yest at once, and cleanse the second day, or in forty-eight hours; fill as already directed, and put into each barrel one handful of fresh steeped hops before bunging down.
_Scurvy Grass Ale._
This species of ale is considered a great sweetener of the blood, has been much approved of, and is strongly recommended as a wholesome and pleasant medicine.
PROCESS AS FOLLOWS:
40 Bushels of Pale Malt.
25 lb. of Hops.
10 lb. of Molasses.
2 lb. of Alexandrian Senna.
5 Bushels of Garden Scurvy Grass.
Cleansed 14 Barrels of Ale.
Your malt should be fine ground; give your first liquor at 170, mash one hour, stand one hour; heat of your second liquor 172, mash three quarters of an hour, stand one hour; give your third mashing liquor at 160, mash twenty minutes, stand half an hour; these three worts should be run into your copper together, and boil together for one hour gently, for one quarter of an hour more as hard as you can; all your ingredients to be put in with your hops, except the molasses, which should only be put in a few minutes before striking off; from the time you put in your molasses, keep stirring your copper until its contents is nearly off. About the middle of your fermentation, procure one pound of horse-radish, wash it well, dry it with a cloth, after which slice it thin, and throw it into your tun, rousing immediately after; when done, replace your tun cover, pitch your worts at 66 degrees, with about two gallons of solid yest; cleanse the third day, with the sweets on. This ale is drank both hot and cold.
_Dorchester Ale._
This quality of ale is by many esteemed the best in England, when the materials are good, and the management judicious.
54 Bushels of the best Pale Malt.
50 lb. of the best Hops.
1 lb. of Ginger.
1/4 of a lb. of Cinnamon, pounded.
Cleansed 14 Barrels, reserving enough for filling.
Boil your copper, temper your liquor in the same to 185, and when ready, run it on your keeve a little at a time, putting in the malt and the water gradually together, mashing at the same time; when the whole of your malt is thus got in, continue the operation of mashing half an hour, cap with dry malt, and let your mash stand one hour and a half. Second liquor 190, mash three quarters of an hour, stand two hours; in both mashes get your worts as fine as you can into your underbank; rub and salt, before mashing, 30 pounds of your hops; infuse them in boiling water before mashing, and let the vessel containing them be close covered. The other twenty pounds of hops should have been rubbed the evening before brewing, but not salted, put into another close vessel, covered with boiling water, and there suffered to digest for 12 hours: at the time of putting the hops in your copper, the extract, in both cases, is to be added; but the first 30 pounds of hops in substance _only_ to be added; these, with the two extracts will be sufficient for the brewing; the remaining 20 pounds of hops will answer for single ale, or table beer, but should be used on the same day. Your worts being now in the copper, with the hops and extract, boil hard for one hour; after which, draw your fire, open your copper and ash-pit doors, and so let it stand one hour, then strike off gently on your cooler; when your worts are cooled down to 55, prepare your puncheons, suppose four, containing four barrels each; see that they are dry, sweet, and clean; take three pints of solid yest for each puncheon, to which you should add three quarts of the wort at 65, mix and blend the wort and yest together, putting this proportion to each cask, containing four barrels, then fill up with the wort, at the heat of 55, already mentioned; put in your tin workers, one into each puncheon, and when you perceive it begins to work freely, which probably will not be till the third or fourth day, begin to fill up your casks, and so continue doing from time to time, till they have done working. (The tin worker is described in page 139.) This mode of brewing appears to be peculiarly adapted for shipping to warm climates; the fermentation being slowly and coolly conducted: it is also well calculated for bottling.
Table beer may be made, after this strong, of good quality, with cold water, if not over drawn; 10 pound of the steeped hops will be sufficient to preserve this beer; one hour's boiling will be enough; ferment as already directed, and add six pounds of sugar just before striking off, rousing, as already directed, while any remains in the copper.
_Porter._
In England, is a liquor of modern date, which has nearly superseded the use of brown stout, and very much encroached on the consumption of other malt liquors, till it has become the staple commodity of the English brewery, and of such consequence to the government, in point of revenue, that it may be fairly said to produce more than all the rest. Porter, when well brewed, and of a proper age, is considered a wholesome and pleasant liquor, particularly when drank out of the bottle; a free use is made of it in the East and West Indies, where physicians frequently recommend the use of it in preference to Madeira wine: the following three processes are given under the denomination of No. I., II., and III., the first and second of which I knew to be the practice of two eminent houses in the trade. The third I cannot so fully answer for. An essential object to attend to, in order to ensure complete success to the porter process, is the preparation of the malt. Directions for that purpose will be found at the end of these processes.
_Porter Process._
No. I.
MATERIALS.
186 Bushels of Pale Malt.
94 Bushels of Brown Malt.
---
280 Bushels of Malt.
---
300 lb. of Hops.
10 lb. of Gentian Root, sliced.
10 lb. of Calamus.
10 lb. of the essence of Gentian.
Cleansed 121 barrels. The hops, with the other ingredients, to be
put in with the first boil, and retained in the copper by wire
strainers, or otherwise, for the succeeding worts.
First mashing liquor 165, mash one hour, stand one hour, run down smartly; second mash 170, mash one hour, stand one hour, run down as before; third mash 180, mash half an hour, stand half an hour, run down smartly; divide these three runs into two boilings, boil your first copper as hard as you can for half an hour, the second for three hours as hard as possible; pitch your first wort at 65 degrees, with 10 gallons of smooth yest; pitch your second at 70 degrees, with six gallons, both runs to mix in the same tun, as soon as the head of your tun begins to fall and close, which will possibly happen from thirty to forty hours, at which time it is expected the fermenting heat will rise to 80, but in no case should it be suffered to exceed it; two pecks of bean meal flour, with two pounds of bay salt mixed together, should be evenly scattered over the surface of the tun, before cleansing, and then well roused. After cleansing, this drink should be filled every two hours, for the first twelve fillings, after which, twice a day will be sufficient; and, in about a week after cleansing, porter so brewed, and treated as here directed, will be glass fine, and in a week more may be vatted. As porter is generally sent out in iron-bound hogsheads of seventy gallons each, there should, at the time of going out, be three half pints of finings, with as much heading mixed through the finings at will go on a two shilling piece; this fining and heading should be well stirred in the hogshead by means of a fining brush used for the purpose, with a long iron handle; treated thus, porter will fall fine in a few days. The faster draught porter is drawn off the cask the better it will drink; for when too long, it is apt to get flat, and sour.
_Porter Process._
No. II.
160 Bushels of Pale Malt.
120 Bushels of Brown Malt.
---
280
---
350 lb. of Hops.
Cleansed 121 Barrels of Porter.
Heat of the first mashing liquor one hundred and seventy-two, mash one hour, stand one hour, run down smartly; second mashing liquor one hundred and eighty, mash one hour, stand two hours, run down as before; third mash one hundred and sixty-four, mash half an hour, stand half an hour, run down smartly; boil the extract of the first, with half the extract of the second mash; boil as hard as you can for one hour and a quarter, then strike off, retaining your hops in the copper for your second boil, which includes half your second wort, and the whole of your third; these should be boiled for four hours as hard as you can make them; pitch your first wort at seventy, or so high that, when in the tun, it will make up at sixty-four, to which give six gallons of smooth yest; pitch your second wort at sixty-five, giving seven gallons more of yest; when all your worts are in your tun, it should make up at sixty-four. Thus managed, it will be fit to cleanse in thirty-six or forty hours; the closing and falling in of the head will direct the period of performing this operation; fill, &c., as in the foregoing process.
_Porter Process._
No. III.
88 Bushels of Pale Malt.
102 lb. of Hops.
12 Gallons of Essentia Bina, or sugar colouring.
Cleansed twenty-seven and a half Barrels of Porter.
First mashing liquor one hundred and sixty, mash one hour, stand one hour; second mashing liquor one hundred and seventy, mash one hour, stand one hour and three quarters; third mashing liquor one hundred and seventy-five, mash half an hour, stand one hour; divide these three runs into two equal parts, boil the first one hour, the second two hours and a half, as hard as you can in both instances; pitch your first wort at sixty, giving two gallons of solid yest; your second at sixty-five, giving the same complement of yest; let your fermenting heat rise to eighty, then cleanse, first topping your tun with two pounds of bean meal flour, and half a pound of bay salt pounded and mixed with the flour; fill fine, and head your porter casks, as already directed to do with hogsheads; let your finings and heading be in that proportion with lesser casks.
_Porter Malt._
This species of malt should be made from strong, well-bodied barley, the process exactly the same as for pale malt, until it is about half dried on the kiln; you then change your fuel under the kiln from coak or coal to ash or beech wood, which should be split into small handy billets, and a fierce, strong fire kept up, so as to complete the drying and colouring in three hours, during which time it should be frequently turned; when the colour is found sufficiently high, it may be thrown off; the workmen should be provided with wooden shoes, to protect their feet from the uncommon heat of the kiln in this last part of the process, which requires the grain to snap again from the excessive heat of the kiln. For the better performing this part of the process, I would recommend a wire kiln to be placed adjoining the tiled one, from which it may be cast on the wire; this would be a better and more certain mode of conveying the porter flavour to the malt, than if the drying was finished on the tiled kiln. Where a wire kiln was thought too dear, a tiled one might be made to answer.
_Porter Colouring._
In modern language, is termed _essentia bina_. This is made from brown sugar, and is now generally substituted by the London brewers for porter malt, as more economical, and full as well calculated to answer all the purposes of flavour and colouring. Muscovado, or raw sugar, with lime water, are the usual ingredients of this colouring matter. Another kind, of inferior quality, is prepared from molasses, boiled until it is considerably darker, bitter, and of a thicker consistence; and when judiciously made, at the close of the boiling, it is set on fire and suffered to burn five or six minutes, then it is extinguished, and cautiously diluted with water to the original consistence of treacle. The burning or setting on fire gives it the greater part of its flavour, which is an agreeable bitterness, and burns out the unassimilating oil. Muscovado, or raw sugar, when treated in a similar manner, and diluted to the same consistence before it sets, obtains a bitterness that more nearly strikes the porter flavour on the palate; it is of a deep dark colour, between black and red. To prepare it to advantage, take three pounds, or three hundred weight of Muscovado sugar, for every two pounds, or two hundred pounds, of essentia bina intended to be made, put it into an iron boiler set in brick work, so that the flue for conveying the smoke of the fire into the chimney, rises but about two thirds of the height of the boiler in its passage to the chimney. The boiler should have a socket or pivot in the centre of its bottom to receive the spindle of wrought iron, with a crank in it, above the brim of the boiler, the upper end of which turns on a corresponding pivot in an iron bar fixed across several feet above the boiler, with a transverse iron arm to reach from the crank for some feet over the boiler for a man to stand, and turn it with its scraper of iron also, which works on the bottom of the boiler to keep the sugar from burning on the bottom before the upper part melts; this arm may be placed in a wooden handle at the end, and held by the man, lest it become too hot for his hand. Put one gallon of pure water into the boiler with every hundred weight of sugar to be employed, that is, one pint to every fourteen pounds weight of sugar, then add the sugar, light the fire, and keep it stirring until it boils, regulating the fire so as not to suffer it to boil over; as it begins to lessen in quantity, dip the end of the poker into it, to see if it candies as it cools, and grows proportionably bitter to its consistence; mark the height of the sugar in the boiler when it is all melted, to assist in judging of its decrease; when the specimen taken out candies, or sets hard pretty quickly, put out the fire under the boiler, and set the vapour or smoke arising from the boiler on fire, which will communicate to the boiling sugar, and let it burn for ten or twelve minutes, then extinguish it with a cover ready provided for the purpose, and faced with sheet iron, to be let down on the mouth of the boiler with a chain or rope, so as exactly to close the boiler.
As soon as it is extinguished, cautiously add _strong lime water_ by a little at a time, working the iron stirrer well all the time the water is adding, so as to mix and dilute it all alike to the consistence of treacle; before it sets in the boiler, which it would do, as the heat declined, in a manner that would give a great deal of trouble to dilute it after, and be imperfectly done then, it is easy to conceive this kind of work requires to be done in an open place, or out-house, to prevent accidents from fire. If the _essentia bina_ is neither burned too little nor too much, it is a rich, high-flavoured, grateful bitter, that preserves and gives an inimitable flavour and good face to porter; to be added in proportion as the nature and composition of the grist is varied with a greater or less proportion of pale malt. _To convert old hock into brown stout_, it will take three pounds of _essentia bina_ of middling or ordinary kind, and but two pounds of the best made from Muscovado raw sugar as directed, it should weigh ten pounds to the gallon. The _essentia bina_ should be mixed with some finings, and roused into the tun soon after the yesty head gathers pretty strong, in order to undergo the decomposing power of fermentation, part of it being prone to float on the surface of the beer under the form of a flying lee. When employed in the usual way of colour, with this precaution, the colouring and preserving parts unite with the beer, and the gross charry parts precipitate with the lees, and other feculencies in the tun, previous to cleansing, adding a firm and keeping quality to the beer. Lime water for diluting the burnt sugar, in the proportion of _essentia bina_: thirty pounds of lime will make one puncheon, or one hundred and twenty gallons of lime water: put fresh lime from the kiln, previously slaked into coarse powder, into an airtight cask, gradually add the water, stirring up the lime to expose a fresh surface to the solvent powers of the water, which will rarely dissolve more than one ounce troy weight in the gallon, or retain so much when kept ever so closely excluded from the external air. If Roche lime was first grossly pounded, and slaked in the cask, the lime water might be made still stronger; the reason for directing the water to be slowly and cautiously added at the first, is for the more conveniently mixing the lime with the water, which otherwise would not be properly wet. Do not fill the vessel within a few gallons of the bung-hole, that it may be rolled over and over with effect, fifteen or twenty different times before left to settle, in order to have the water fully saturated with the lime; when settled it should be perfectly clear. It is important, as well at necessary to state, that when the lime water is about to be added to the _essentia bina_ in the kettle, it should be hot, otherwise there would be danger of cracking the cast iron, of which the kettle is composed, as well as causing a partial explosion and waste of the sugar when coming in contact with the cold medium of the lime water; this precaution should be carefully attended to.
_Strong Beer._
Process for brewing strong beer, alleged to be the practice in Switzerland, by which it is asserted that an excellent and preserving beer will be produced. I would recommend a small experiment to be made at first, in order to establish its character and success on a more extended scale. At a first view, there appears to be one serious objection to this process, and that is, that it requires but a small quantity of oily or fatty matter to destroy the fermentation of any guile of beer. In answer, it may perhaps be truly said, that the precaution of skimming off the fatty matter, as it rises on the surface of this beer while in the copper, as well as the time allowed it there to settle, also, its straining through the hops before getting on the cooler, gives another chance to deposite this matter in the hops, if any should remain in the copper after the skimming off.
PROCESS AS FOLLOWS:
60 Bushels of Pale Barley Malt.
20 Bushels of Pale Wheat Malt.
---
80 Bushels.
---
170 lb. of the best Hops, to be rubbed, salted, and steeped in
one or more close vessels before mashing, or the evening
before brewing, still better.
54 lb. of lean Beef to be put into the copper with the worts,
this will average two pounds to the barrel.
7 lb. of Rice, also, to be put in with the Beef.
1 lb. of ground Mustard to be put in with the Hops.
Cleansed 27 Barrels.
These worts are to be boiled one hour without the hops, in order to afford the greater facility of skimming the fat off the surface. After they have boiled the first half hour, the fire is damped, the boil left to subside, and the copper to be then carefully skimmed. (This points out the necessity of an open copper for this operation.) After which, the fire is started again, and the worts made to boil another half hour, and skimmed a second time in the same way; after which the hops and mustard are added with three gallons of the _essentia bina_, and then boiled for one hour and a half, as hard as the copper will allow without boiling over or wasting; the fire is then drawn, ash-pit and copper doors left open, the copper covered, and suffered to stand two hours, then struck off on the hop back. The temperature of the external air at the time you brew this quality of beer should not be higher than fifty degrees. Your first, or mashing liquor, should boil, then run your whole complement into your mash tun, which when cooled down to one hundred and sixty-five, begin putting in your malt, one sack at a time, and mash for one hour and a quarter, stand one hour, run down as fine as you can, yet smartly; second mash one hundred and eighty-five, need not boil, but when brought to that heat in your copper, begin mashing, and mash well for three quarters of an hour, stand two hours; boil, skim, and hop, as already directed. It is to be understood that the produce of these two mashes are to be boiled together, forming a clear length, when cleansed, of twenty-seven barrels; pitch your worts at sixty, previously mixing in a tub, fifteen gallons of your wort at seventy, with one gallon of solid yest, some time before pitching, which will give it time to catch before adding to the remainder of the wort. Twelve hours after another gallon of pure yest is to be added, and the tun well roused, then covered; the attenuation suffered to proceed to eighty degrees, _but not higher_. This mode of pitching worts might be successfully applied to other qualities of beer and ale, and will be found a safe and good process.
_Filtering Operation._
(With a Plate.)
A The fountain. B B The cocks. C The trunk communicating with the space between the two bottoms. D The filtering tub. E The false bottom. F The spout for carrying off the ascending liquor. G The receiver of the filtered liquor by ascent. H The receiver of the filtered liquor by descent.]
This simple operation, if my view of its effects on malt liquors, as well as other fermented liquors, be correct, will do more towards their improvement and preservation, than any thing hitherto attempted to be tried on them, after their fermentation has been completed; and for this plain reason, that it will at once disengage them from all fermentable matter, and render them transparently fine and preserving; thus immediately fitting them for the bottle, or putting up into tight casks, for home consumption or exportation, which will soon recover the beer or ale so treated from the flatness that will necessarily be induced by a long exposure to the air during the continuance of the operation; further to remedy which, I would recommend putting into each barrel, before the cask is filled with this beer, half a pound of ground rice, then fill, bung down tight, and in a short time briskness and activity will be restored to the liquor, whether intended for draft or bottle. This mode might, with equal success, be applied to every kind of fermented liquor, particularly to cider, wine, and perry, also to river and rain water. There are two modes of filtration, one by descent, the other by ascent; the latter operation seems to be the most perfect, though not the most economical or expeditious.
The preparation of the filtering medium is as follows. Your filtering vessel should be in proportion to the scale of work you intend operating on. The vessel containing the filter, should have the form somewhat of an inverted cone, in proportion wider at top than at bottom; over the bottom of this vessel should be placed a false one, about three or four inches distant from the other; this upper bottom should be perforated with holes, rather large bored, at the angles of every square inch of its surface; your fake bottom being laid, provide two pieces of clean thick blanketing the full size of the vessel, lay these pieces one over the other, over them a stratum six inches deep, of rather coarsely pounded charcoal; this should be previously wetted with some of the beer or ale, till brought to the consistence of coarse mortar; over this lay another stratum of fine clean pit sand, and so on, stratum super stratum, of sand and charcoal, till you have reached within six inches of the top; the cover of this vessel, which is also perforated with holes somewhat smaller than those of the bottom, is let down in the vessel to within one inch of the filtering medium, and in that position is well secured by buttons, or otherwise. When you filter by descent, you run your liquor over this cover, which, by means of the holes, will be distributed evenly over the upper surface of the filter; and so you continue running on your liquor as fast as you see the operation will take it.
When you wish to filter by ascent, you introduce the liquor to be filtered between the two bottoms. As the fountain which supplies this liquor is higher than the filtering vessel, it will naturally force its way through the false bottom, filtering medium, &c., until it runs off pure at spout F into the receiver G. Those persons who live on the banks, or in the vicinity of our great rivers, such as the Missouri, Ohio, Mississippi, &c., may purify their drinking water in this way, with great advantage to their health, and consequent increase of comfort to themselves and families. It is also well adapted to the use of those who navigate these waters, particularly such as proceed in steam-boats, where convenient room can be always found for such useful and salutary purposes, and to them I strongly recommend its use. It may also be advantageously applied to filtering rain water, which, to some constitutions, may be more congenial than either spring or river water.
_Returned Beer, to make the most of, and double its value._
Suppose, for example, you have one hundred and fifty barrels of this beer, (or in that proportion, adjust your mixing ingredients accordingly,) put the whole into one vat that it will fill; then take half a barrel of colouring, twenty-eight pounds cream of tartar, twenty-eight pounds of ground alum, one pound of salt of steel, otherwise called green copperas, with two barrels of strong finings; mix these ingredients well together, put them into your vat, and rouse well; after which, let the vat remain open for three days; then shut down the scuttle close, and sand it over; in one fortnight it will be fit for use; your own good sense will then direct its application.
_To bring several sorts of Beer which have been mixed to one uniform taste._
EXAMPLE.
Suppose you have one hundred barrels of this description in your vat; take six pounds of porter extract, six pounds of orange peel, ground, one pound of heading, composed of half a pound of alum, with half a pound of green copperas mixed, six pounds of Indian bark; mix these ingredients with one butt of finings, rouse your vat well, let it remain open three days, then close down your vat, and sand it over; it will be fit in one fortnight to use.
_Finings, the best method of preparing them._
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The American Practical Brewer and TannerChapter IV: Part 4
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