The Theory and Practice of Brewing
Volume 17,92
of grist 3,42 3 ----- 10,26 4° for effervescence. 7 effervescing degree 1° for hard corns for malt at 130 3° for new malt hot ----- (see table page 292.) -- 8° to be deduced 17,92) 71,82 (4 degrees of heat from the first 7168 gained in the mash cooling in. ----- by effervescence. 14
Mashes 1st 2d 3d 4th
Deg. of heat. 154 166 170 174 See p. 248.
Whole quantity of water used, barrels 14-1/2 14-1/2 11 11 See p. 280.
Quantity to be cooled in, barrels 3-1/2 3-1/4 2-1/2 2-1/4 See p. 280.
Boiling water by calculation ------ ------ ------ ------ charged, barrels 11 11-1/4 8-1/2 8-3/4 See p. 280.
Allowances for [35] [B] [B] [36] incidents; G. C. G. C. L. C. L. C. inches; less 2; more 2; more 4; more 5.
These computations, perhaps, will appear more troublesome than they really are; but, besides the facility which exercise always gives for operations of this kind, the satisfaction of proceeding upon known principles, will, I hope, encourage the practitioner to prefer certitude to doubt. One advantage must greatly recommend it, and at the same time secure the uniformity of our malt liquors; tables for each sort and season may be made beforehand, and will serve as often as the circumstances are the same. The trouble of the computations will by that means be saved, and by collecting together different brewings of the same kind, the artist will, at any time, have it in his power to see what effect the least deviation from his rules had upon his operations, and to what degree of precision he may hope to arrive.
That nothing may be wanting in this work, to facilitate the intelligence thereof, I shall insert the method of keeping the account of actual brewings, made according to the computations I have here successively traced down. The first column contains the charges of the coppers, and the numbers computed; the next, the brewings made from these numbers, with their dates, and the degrees of heat found by observation; the variations occasioned by unforeseen incidents are supposed to be allowed for, at cooling in, by the artist, upon the principle, that each inch of cooling in answers to four degrees of heat. Noting in this manner the elements of every brewing we make, when the drink comes into a fit state for use, we are enabled to compare our practice with the principles which directed it; by this means, experiments constantly before our eyes will be the most certain and best foundation for improvement.
_Small Beer. Heat of air 60 Degrees. 6 quarters of Malt, 36lb. of Hops, for 30 Barrels 3/4, to go out 56 Inches above Brass._
Observations.
| 1760. | 1760. | 1760. | 1761. | 1761. | | June | June | Aug. | July | July | | 27. | 30. | 3. | 3. | 5. | 1st Liquor. Charge great copper, }| | | | | | 2 inches 1/2 above brass; cool }| | | | | | in to 13 inches 1/2 above brass, }| 151 | 149 | 150 | 153 | 150 | rake 1/2 hour, mash 1 hour, }| | | | | | stand 1 hour 1/2, heat of the }| | | | | | extract intended 150 degrees. }| | | | | | | | | | | | 2d Liquor. Charge great copper }| | | | | | 7 inches above brass, cool in }| | | | | | to 13 inches 1/2 above brass, }| | | | | | mash 3/4 hour, stand 3/4 hour, }| 161 | 163 | 163 | 148 | 162 | heat intended 162 degrees--1 }| | | | | | wort came in 33 inches above }| | | | | | brass, boiled 1 hour 1/2, went }| | | | | | out 28 inches above brass. }| | | | | | | | | | | | 3d Liquor. Charge little copper }| | | | | | 8 inches 1/2 above brass, cool }| in to 13 inches above brass, }| 166 | 165 | 165 | 167 | 165 | mash 1/2 hour, stand 1/2 hour, }| | | | | | heat expected 166 degrees. }| | | | | | | | | | | | 4th Liquor. Charge little copper }| | | | | | 10 inches 1/2 above brass, cool }| | | | | | in to 13 inches above brass, }| | | | | | mash 1/2 hour, stand 1/2 hour, }| 169 | 172 | 170 | 171 | 173 | heat expected 170 degrees--2 }| | | | | | wort came in 39 inches above }| | | | | | brass, boiled down to 28 inches }| | | | | | above brass. }| | | | | | | | | | | | Length 31 barrels. | | | | | |
_Porter. Heat of the Air 40 Degrees. 11 quarters of Malt, 132lb. of Hops for 27 Barrels 1/2, to go out at 3 Worts, 31 Inches above Brass._
| 1761, | 1761, | 1761, | | Nov. 20. | Nov. 22. | Nov. 25. | | 43° | 35° | 40° | 1st Liquor. Charge great copper }| | | | 13 inches above brass, cool in to }| | | | 17 inches 1/2 above brass, rake }| 153 | 151 | 154 | 1/2 hour, mash 1 hour, stand 1 hour }| | | | 1/2, extract expected 153 degrees. }| | | | | | | | 2d Liquor. Charge little copper }| | | | 2 inches 1/2 below brass, cool in }| | | | to 3 inches above brass, mash 3/4 }| | | | hour, stand 3/4 hour, heat expected }| 155 | 157 | 153 | at the tap 154 degrees--1 wort came }| | | | in great copper 16 inches above }| | | | brass, boiled 1 hour, went out 13 }| | | | inches above brass. }| | | | | | | | 3d Liquor. Charge little copper }| | | | 10 inches above brass, cool in to }| | | | 16 inches above brass, mash 1/2 }| | | | hour, stand 1/2 hour, the tap to }| 157 | 157 | 158 | come down 158 degrees--2 wort came }| | | | in great copper 11 inches above }| | | | brass, boiled 2 hours, went out 5 }| | | | inches above brass. }| | | | | | | | 4th Liquor. Charge little copper }| | | | 1 inch 1/2 above brass, cool in to }| | | | 6 inches 1/4 above brass, mash 1/2 }| 160 | 161 | 160 | hour, stand 1/2 hour, to come down }| | | | 160 degrees. }| | | | | | | | 5th Liquor. Charge little copper }| | | | 1 inch 1/2 above brass, cool in to }| | | | 6 inches 1/4 above brass, mash 1/2 }| | | | hour, stand 1/2 hour, tap to come }| 161 | 160 | 161 | down at161 degrees--3 wort came }| | | | in 25inches above brass, went out }| | | | 13 inches above brass. }| | | | | | | | Length 27 barrels 3/4. | | | |
SECTION XIV.
_Of the disposition of the Worts when turned out of the Copper, the thickness they should be laid at in the Backs to cool, and the heat they should retain for fermentation, under the several circumstances._
When a process of brewing is regularly carried on with two coppers, the worts come in course to boil, as the extracts which formed them are produced. It would be tedious and unnecessary to describe the minutest parts of the practice; which, in some small degree, varies as brewing offices are differently constructed, or the utensils are differently arranged. Without the assistance of a brewhouse, it is perhaps impossible to convey to the imagination the entire application of the rules before laid down, but with one, I hope they need little, if any, farther explanation.
The worts, when boiled, are musts possessing an intended proportion of all the fermentable principles, except air; this was expelled by fire, and until their too great heat is removed, cannot be administered to them.
In musts, which spontaneously ferment, the external air excites in their oils an agitation, which, heating and opening the pores of the liquor, expands and puts in action the internal air they possess. The case is not exactly the same with regard to those musts which require ferments. The air wanted in boiled worts must be supplied by the means of yeast. Was the heat of the wort such, as to occasion the immediate bursting of all the air bubbles contained in the yeast, an effervescence rather than a fermentation would ensue. Now a heat superior to 80 degrees has this effect, and is therefore one of the boundaries in artificial fermentation; 40 degrees of heat, for want of being sufficient to free the air inclosed in the yeast bubbles, and to excite their action, is the other. Within these limits, must the wort be cooled to; and the precise degree, which varies according to the different circumstances they are in, and to the intent they are to be applied to, is, together with the means of procuring this heat, the purport of this section.
Worts, when in the copper, boil at a heat somewhat superior to that of 212 degrees; the more this is exceeded, the stronger the liquor is. The instant the wort is suffered to go out of the copper, it loses more heat than in any other equal space of time after it has been exposed to the air. In the course of the natural day, or in 24 hours, the heat of the air varies sometimes, (especially in summer) as much as 20 degrees. If the wort, after having reached the lowest heat in this interval, was suffered to remain in the coolers, till the return of a greater in the air, it would be influenced by this increase, expand, and be put in action; and, should there be at this time any elastic air in any part of the coolers, which sometimes happens, either from the sediment of former worts, from the backs not being clean swept, or from the wood being old and spungy, the wort supposed to be left to cool, will, by receiving the additional heat from the air, and blending with the incidental elastic air adhering to the coolers, bring on, in a lower degree, the act of fermentation; an accident by the artist called the _backs being set_.
For this reason, a wort should never be suffered to lay so long as to be exposed to the hazard of this injury, which generally may happen in somewhat more than twelve hours. Thus are we directed to spread or lay our worts so thin in the backs, as they may come to their due temperature within this space; in summer it is sufficient if the backs be covered; in winter a depth of two inches may oftentimes be allowed with safety.
From the inclination of the coolers or backs to the place, where the worts run off, from their largeness, or from the wind and air warping them, a wort seldom, perhaps never, lays every where at an equal depth, and cannot therefore become uniformly cold in the same space of time. This renders the use of the thermometer difficult, though not impracticable. To supply the want of this instrument with some degree of certainty, the hand intended to feel the worts, is brought to the heat of the body, by placing it in the bosom, until it has fully received it. Then dipping the fingers into the liquor, we judge, by the sensation it occasions, whether it is come to a proper degree of coolness to be fermented. As the external parts of our bodies are generally of about 90 degrees of heat, some degree of cold must be felt, before the worts are ready for the purpose of fermentation. But that degree varies for different drinks, and in different seasons. I will endeavour to point out the rules to form a judgment for the heat of small beer worts. A greater precision, both for that and for other drinks, will be found in the following table.
In July and August, no other rule can be given, than that the worts be got as cold as possible. The same rule holds good in June and September, except the season is unnaturally cold. In May and October, worts should be let down nearly thirty degrees colder than the hand; in April, November, and March, the worts should be about twenty degrees colder than the hand, and only ten in January, February and December.
It may perhaps be thought that the heats here specified are great, but worts cool as they run from the backs to the working tuns, they are also affected by the coldness of the tuns themselves, and perhaps these circumstances are not so trivial, but that an allowance should be made for them. In general, the heat of no must should exceed 60 degrees, because fermentation increases this or any other degree, in proportion to that, under which this particular part of the process begins. To render the thermometer more useful, and to suit it to our conveniency, we have before supposed every first mash for common small beer to be made at four o’clock in the morning: in this case, and where the worts are not laid to cool at more than one inch in depth, the following table may be said to be a measure of time, the first and last worts for this drink should be let down at.
A TABLE, _shewing nearly the times the first and last worts of common small beers should be let down in the working tuns, supposing the first mash of the brewing to be made at four o’clock in the morning, and no uncommon change happens in the heat of the air_.
Vertical headings-- A: Heat of the air at 8 o’clock in the morning. B: Hours in the afternoon, same day as brewing began. C: Hours in the afternoon. D: Hours of the next morning.
[A] Air. 1st Wort. [B] 2nd Wort. [C] 30 3 o’clock. } 5 o’clock } 35 3-1/2 } 6-1/2 } 40 4-1/4 } 8 } 45 4-3/4 } 9-1/4 } 50 5-1/2 } 11-1/2 } 55 6-1/2 } 1-1/2 } [D] 60 7-1/2 } 2-1/2 } 65 8 } 2-1/2 } 70 8-1/2 } 3 } 75 9 } 3 } 80 9 } 4 }
Small beer worts being nearly alike in consistency, the necessary variations from this table must be less frequent. It is true, some difference may happen from the exposition of a brewhouse, or from other circumstances, admitting more or less freely the intercourse of the air, and be such as might alter, upon the whole, the times set down in the preceding page. Brown beer worts, which are more thick and glutinous, and especially amber worts, which are stronger still, will require other and longer terms to come to their due temperature, to be fermented at; but when once observed and noted, according to various degrees of heat in the air, at 8 o’clock each morning, the conveniency of these observations must be such, in this business, which requires long watchings and attendance, that no arguments are necessary to recommend what is rather indulgence than industry.
A TABLE _shewing the degrees of heat worts should be at, to be let down from the coolers into the working tuns, according to the several degrees of heat in the air_.
Heat of the air. Common small. All-keeping beers. Amber or ales.
25 75 59 55 30 70 56 54 35 65 53 53 40 60 50 52 45 55 50 51 50 50 50 50 55 } In these cases, when the medium heat of the air 60 } is greater than that which the worts should ferment at, the cold of the night must be made use of, to bring them as near as possible to their temperature. It has been observed, that the coldest part of the natural day is about one hour before sun rising.
The consequences of worts being set to ferment at, in an undue heat, are the following. In strong beers, or such as are intended for long keeping, if the worts be too cold, a longer time is required for their fermentation, and the drinks grow fine with more difficulty; if, on the contrary, they are too hot, acidity, and a waste of some of the spiritous parts must ensue. Either of these disadvantages appears more conspicuous in common small beer, as, in winter, this drink is seldom kept a sufficient time to correct the defect, and in summer, from being too hot, it becomes putrid, or, in the terms of the brewery, is hereby _foxed_.
SECTION XV.
_Of Yeast, its nature, and contents, and of the manner and quantities in which it is to be added to the worts._
Musts, or worts, though ever so rich, when unfermented, yield no spirit by distillation, nor inebriate, if drank in any quantity. The oils, as yet not sufficiently attenuated for this purpose, become so only by fermentation. Air is absolutely necessary for this process, in the course of which, some of the aerial parts mixing with, and being enveloped by, oils greatly thinned, are enclosed in vesicles not sufficiently strong to resist the force of elasticity, or prevent a bursting and explosion. In the progress of the act, the air joins with oils both coarser, and charged with earthy particles, a coat is formed capable of resisting its expansion, and if the bubbles cannot come to a volume sufficient to be floated in and upon the liquor, they sink to the bottom, and take the appellation of _lees of wine_.
Between these two extremes, there is another case, when the bubbles are sufficiently strong to hold the air, but not weighty enough to sink. After floating in, they emerge, and are buoyed upon the surface of the liquor, and there remaining entire, are termed the _flowers of wine_. Both lees and flowers are, therefore, vesicles formed out of the must, filled with elastic air, and, either separately, or when mixed together, they obtain the general denomination of _yeast_.
We have often mentioned the power of fire, in driving the air out of worts. Yeast, fraught with the principle now wanted for fermentation, is, therefore, the properest subject to be added to the must; but its texture is various, in proportion to the different heats of the extracts it was formed from. Keeping drinks, extracted with hotter waters, yield yeast, the oils of which have a greater spissitude. It is consequently slower, more certain, and most fit to promote a cool and gentle fermentation. That, on the contrary, which is produced from small beer, being weak, and acting at once, is apt to excite a motion like that of effervescence; such yeast ought, therefore, not to be used, but when there is no possibility to obtain the other.
The longer wines or beers are under the first act of fermentation, the greater variety will be found in the texture of the bubbles, which compose their flower and lees. Wines made out of grapes, in general, require a time somewhat longer than the worts of malt, before this first period is at an end; and we have seen, that in them fermentation first brings forth air bubbles, whose constituent parts are most tender, and afterwards some that are of a stronger texture. As malt liquors require a less time to ferment, their bubbles are more similar: on this account, the whole quantity of yeast necessary to a wort should not be applied at once, lest the air bladders, bursting nearly in the same time, should prevent that gradual action, which seems to be the aim of nature in all her operations.
Keeping beers, formed from low dried malts, occasion the greatest variety of heat in the extracts, and from hence these musts form yeast, whose bubbles differ most in magnitude and strength. A drink, then, properly made from pale malt, nearly resembles natural wines, especially when they are so brewed as to require precipitation to become transparent.
_Cleansing_ is dividing the drink into several casks; this checks the motion occasioned by fermentation, and consequently retards it. To prevent this from being too sensibly felt, some yeast should be put to the drink, before it is removed into the casks. As the constituent parts, in strong beers, are more tenacious than in small, and require a greater motion to entertain the fermentation, the drinks, before they be thus divided, should, besides the addition of the yeast, be well roused with a scoop, or by some other means, for one hour. This not only blends all the parts together, but attenuates and heats the liquor, and makes it more ready to begin to ferment again, when in the casks. One sixth part of the whole of the yeast used is generally reserved for this purpose; and the remainder is equally divided as the worts are let down. It must be observed, that this stirring, though as necessary to small, as to strong drinks, is only to be continued for a space of time proportioned to their strength.
We have before seen, when a grist of malt is entirely extracted to form common small beer, soon to be expended, one gallon of yeast to eight bushels of grain affords a sufficient supply of air to perfect the fermentation. This takes place when the heat of the air is at 40 degrees, but, at the highest fermentable degree, experience shews, that half that quantity is as much as is necessary. For some ales, the whole virtue of the malt is not extracted, and what remains is appropriated to the making of small beer: the quantity of yeast used for these drinks must be only in proportion to the strength extracted. From these premises, the following tables have been formed, exhibiting the quantity of yeast proper for the several sorts of drinks, at the different heats of the air.
A TABLE _shewing the quantities of yeast necessary for common small beer in every season_.
Heat of Pints of yeast to one the air. quarter of malt.
35 9 } 40 8 } The whole quantity of yeast to be 45 8 } put into the first wort. 50 7 } ---------------------------------------
55 7 } The first wort to have 3/4 60 6 } The second wort to have 1/4 65 6 } ---------------------------------------
70 5 } The first wort to have one half of the 75 5 } whole quantity. 80 4 } The second wort to have the remainder.
A TABLE _shewing the quantities of yeast necessary for all keeping drinks, both brown and pale, small and strong_.
Heat of Pints of yeast to the worts[37]. one quarter of malt.
30 6 35 6 40 6 45 6 50 6 55 5 60 5[38] 65 4 70 4 75 3 80 3
A TABLE _shewing the quantities of yeast necessary for amber and all sorts of ales, after which small beer is made_.
Heat Pints of yeast of the air. to one quarter of malt.
30 7-1/2 35 7 40 7 45 6-1/2 50 6 55 5-1/2 60 5 65 4-1/2 70 4 75 3-1/2 80 3
This table is founded on the supposition that, the virtue or strength extracted from one quarter of malt for amber, is equal to 5/6 of the whole. In every heat of the air, the quantity of yeast to be used for common small beer made after ale, must be one fifth part of the quantity which the ale required, the additional strength obtained from reboiling the hops, requiring further proportion; if, for keeping small beer, nearly in the proportion of six pints of yeast to five barrels of beer, this will be found to correspond with the rule delivered in the foregoing table.
SECTION XVI.
_Of practical Fermentation, and the management of the several sorts of Malt Liquors, to the period, at which they are to be cleansed or put into the Casks._
The laws of fermentation are universal and uniform; and when it proceeds regularly, its different periods are known by the different appearances of the fermenting liquor. As a particular appellation is given to each of these, it may not be unnecessary here to describe them.
1. The first sign of a wort fermenting is a fine white line, composed of very small air bubbles, attached to the sides of the tun; the wort is then said to _have taken yeast_.
2. When these air bubbles are extended over the whole surface of the must, it is said to be _creamed over_.
3. Bubbles continuing to rise, a thin crust is formed; but as the fermentation advances rather faster near the sides of the tun, than in the middle, this crust is continually repelled; from which arises the denomination of _the wort parting from the tun side_.
4. When the surface becomes uneven, as if it were rock work, this stage of fermentation, which has no particular use, is distinguished by its _height_.
5. When the head becomes lighter, more open, more uniform, and of a greater depth, being round or higher in the middle, than in any other part, and seeming to have a tendency still to rise, the liquor is denominated to be of _so many inches, head not fit to cleanse_.
6. This head having risen to its greatest height, begins to sink, to become hollow in the middle, and, at the same time, more solid, the colours changing to a stronger yellow or brown; the wort is then said to be _fit to cleanse_.
After this, no farther distinctions are made; if the fermentation is suffered to proceed in the tun, the head continues to sink, and the liquor is often injured.
As the denominations and tastes of liquors brewed from malt are numerous, it is impossible to specify each separate one; we shall therefore only particularize such sorts of drinks, as were taken notice of in the section of extraction, they being most in use; but, from what will be said concerning them, the method of managing any other malt liquor may easily be deduced.
Spontaneous pellucidity arises from a due proportion of the oils to the salts, in the worts, but the advantage of long keeping depends not only on the quantity of oils and hops the musts possess, but also on the fermentation being carried on in a slow and cool manner. All drinks, intended long to be kept, are therefore best formed in cold weather, and made to receive their yeast at such temperature, as is set forth in the table. The yeast is to be divided in proportion to the quantities of wort let down, until the whole, being mixed together, receives its allotted portion, except so much as is to be put in just before cleansing. Under these circumstances, drinks, which are brewed for keeping, are suffered to go through the first process of fermentation, till they are so attenuated, that the liquor becomes light, and the head, or the yeast, laying on the surface of the beer, begins to sink. When, or somewhat before, this head has fallen to nearly half the greatest height it reached to, a remarkable vinous smell is perceived, and the liquor, at this term, is to be put into casks, being first well roused with the remaining part of the yeast, in the manner mentioned in the preceding section.
By the description given of the origin of yeast, it appears that it is formed rather of the coarser oils of the worts. If the cleansing is not done when the head is sunk down to half the greatest height it rose to, by falling lower, some part of these coarser oils return into the beer, then under fermentation, and gives it a flat, greasy taste, technically termed _yeast bitten_. When, on the contrary, beers or ales are removed too soon from the first tumultuous fermentation, for want of having been sufficiently attenuated, and from not having deposited their lees, nor thrown up in flowers their coarser oils, they are less vinous, than otherwise they would have been, appear heavy, aley, and are said _not to have their body sufficiently opened_.
The fermentation of common small beer is, through necessity, carried on so hastily, that it is hardly possible to wait for the signs, which direct the cleansing of other beers. This drink being generally brewed and fermented within twenty four hours, its state, with regard to fermentation, is best judged of, by the quantity of its froth or head at the time of cleansing, which, in proportion to the heat of the air, may be determined by the following table.
A TABLE _shewing the depth of head, which common small beer should have to be properly cleansed, in every season of the year_.
Heat Head on the beer of the air. in the tun.
25 Degrees 6 inches. 30 5 35 4-1/4 40 3-1/2 45 2-3/4 50 2 55 1-1/2 60 1 65 3/4 70 1/2 75 1/4 80 just taken.
As it is chiefly by the action of the air that wines are formed, if we contrive to shift this powerful agent on the surface of a must under fermentation, and to convey it more forcibly and hastily into the wort, its efficacy will be renewed, the fermentation accelerated, the liquor quickly become transparent, and soon be brought to the state of maturity age might slowly make it arrive at.
Amber, or pale ales, require the hottest extracts pellucidity admits of to be made strong, and at the same time soft and smooth to the palate; but, as ales do not admit of any large quantity of hops, which would alter their nature, there is a necessity to perform hastily the act of fermentation, and to carry it on to a higher degree than is common in other malt drinks. The method of exciting and conducting repeated fermentations, with success, is perhaps not only the most difficult, but the most curious, part of the process, I shall therefore conclude, with an account of it, what I have to say with regard to the practice of fermentation.
The amber wort being let down, at its proper degree of heat, into the fermenting tun, out of the whole quantity of yeast allowed for this drink, in the table, page 317, one seventh part must be kept to be used as hereafter shall be mentioned. Suppose the heat of the air is at 40 degrees, and eight quarters of malt have been brewed for this purpose; the whole of the yeast required is seven gallons, from which one is to be reserved.[39] Of the six remaining gallons, one half, or three, are to be put to the wort oh its first coming down, when the whole must be well roused, or mixed, thoroughly to disperse the enlivening principle the yeast conveys, hereby to prevent putrefaction, or foxing in any part, and of the last three gallons, about three quarts must be added to the drink, every twelve hours, until it ferments to the highest pitch of the period mentioned in article 5, page 319. This successive putting in of yeast is called[40]_feeding the drink_; before and about the time the head is got to this height, all the dirt or foul yeast, that rises on the surface, must be carefully skimmed off; it is easily distinguished from the pure white froth, by its color, and by the sinking of the head occasioned by its weight. Length of time might attenuate some of these coarser oils, in a less artificial fermentation, but as this help is not to be waited for, and every obstacle to pellucidity must be removed, the brewer’s attention to this point cannot be too great.--The head of the drink having reached its utmost height, the reserved gallon of yeast is to be used, in order to give to the ale a sufficient power to bear the repeated fermentations it is to undergo, by being beat in, every two hours, with a jett or scoope, for one quarter of an hour, so that the head on the drink is each time to be reduced to the least height it is capable of. This striking in being continued, the drink will periodically require it, and be damaged if it be neglected. After it has undergone more or less of these fermentations, in proportion to the heats of the worts and of the air, the brewer is carefully to observe, when the head ceases to rise to its accustomed height, and then to examine the drink, by having the jett filled with it at the bottom, and brought through the whole body to the top, a small part of which being poured in a handgatherer, he will see whether the lees form themselves in large white flakes, and readily subside, and be informed, by the taste, whether the sweet of the wort is gone off, and the ale become vinous. If these two circumstances concur, the drink is to be beat in with the jett as before, but not roused as porter or other beers are; for the lees, which in this drink are in greater quantity, would, by this management, so intimately be mixed with it, as with difficulty to separate themselves again, if at all. It is then time to cleanse it; but the casks, at all times, more especially in summer, must be well filled up with clean drink, that is, part of the very drink, which was cleansed, avoiding that produced in the stillings, as this, for want of standing a sufficient time, is always yeasty, and the yeast, being greatly attenuated by the working of the drink, easily dissolves in the ale, and renders it foul and ill-tasted.
As the right forming of amber ales is looked upon to be the highest pitch of the art of pale beer brewing, I have dwelt longer on this article than otherwise it might seem necessary, to shew the connexion there is between every sort of malt liquors: but it should be observed, the same method of fermenting it, is to be practised both winter and summer, varying only the quantities of yeast in proportion to the season; for where, in winter time, this drink is fed with three quarts of yeast every twelve hours, half a gallon will answer the same intent in summer. Upon the whole, the process is contrived to accelerate fermentation, yet, the more coolly and gently it is performed, the better will the ales be. I have before hinted, if Madeira wines were fermented in this manner, they would sooner become fit for use, more especially as they need no ferment to excite them. However, this method of forming drink to be soon fit for use, has, either through interest or prejudice, been taxed with being unwholesome, but upon what grounds, I must confess I could never yet discover, as no reason of any moment has ever been alledged for this assertion.
SECTION XVII.
_Of the signs generally directing the processes of Brewing, and their comparison with the forgoing Theory and Practice._
We have now brought our barley wines into the casks, and this on principles, it is thought, agreeable and consonant to each other. As the charge of novelty may be alledged, to invalidate what has been offered, it is but just to pay so much regard to a long, and, upon the whole, successful practice, as to recite, if not all, at least the principal maxims and signs in brewing, which hitherto have guided the artist. By comparing these with the present method, they will not only illustrate each other, but perhaps cause both to be better understood; and though, with respect to the art itself, this may be thought rather a curious than an instructive part, yet we may learn, from hence, that such practice, which long experience has proved to be right, will always correspond with true theory.
1. _When a white flour settles, either in the underback or copperback, which sometimes is the case of a first extract, it is a sure sign such an extract has not been made sufficiently hot, or, in technical terms, that_ the liquor has been taken too slack.
Malt, when dried, has its oils made tenacious, in proportion to the power of heat it has been affected with; the grain, though ground, if the water for the extraction is not at least as hot as what occasioned this tenaciousness, must remain in great measure undissolved in the first extract, and deposit itself as just now was mentioned.
2. _The first extract should always have some froth or head in the underback._
The oils and salts of the malt, being duly mixed, form a saponaceous body, the character of which is that, on being shook, it bears a froth on its surface.
3. _The head or froth in the underback appearing red, blue, purple, or fiery, shews the liquors to have been taken too hot._
The hotter the water is, when applied to the malt, the more must the extract abound with oils, and consequently be more capable to reflect colors in a strong manner. But how precarious this method of estimating the quality of an extract is, in comparison to that which the thermometer affords, will appear from the following observation of Sir Isaac Newton: “Saponaceous bubbles will, for a while, appear tinged with a variety of colors, which are agitated by the external air, and those bubbles continue until such time as, growing excessive thin, by the water trickling down their sides, and being no longer able to retain the enclosed air, they burst.” Now as these bubbles vary in their density, in proportion to their duration, the colors they reflect must continually change, and therefore it is not possible to form an accurate judgment of the condition and saponaceousness of the extracts, by the appearance of their froth.
4. _When the grist feels slippery, it generally is a sign that the liquors have been taken too high._
This appearance proceeds from an over quantity of oil being extracted, and is the effect of too much heat.
5. _Beer ought always to work kind, out of the cask, when cleansed, but the froth, in summer time, will be somewhat more open than in winter._
The higher and hotter the extracting water is, the more oils doth it force into the must; when a wort is full charged with oils, the fermentation is neither so strong nor so speedy, and consequently the froth, especially the first, is thin, open, and weak. This improves as the liquor is more attenuated, and heat, which expands all bodies, must rarify the yeasty vesicles, the principal part of which is elastic air; but this open head, even in summer time, improves to one more kind, as the first, the most active period of fermentation, draws nearer to its conclusion.
However vague and indeterminate these signs are, it would not be impossible to bring them to some degree of precision; but, upon the whole, this method would increase our difficulties, and yet, as to certitude, be inferior to the rules we have endeavoured to establish, we think it unnecessary to pursue any farther a research most likely neither entertaining nor useful.
SECTION XVIII.
_An enquiry into what may be, at all times, a proper stock of Beer, and the management of it in the cellars._
The business of a brewer is not confined to the mere manufacture of his commodity; his concerns, as a trader, deserve no less regard, and, in a treatise like this, should not be entirely omitted.
As it is a fault not to have a sufficient stock of beers it the cellars, to serve the customers, it is one also to have more than is needful. By the first of these errors, the beers would be generally new and ill disposed for precipitation; by the other, quantities of stale beer must remain, which, becoming hard, will at last turn stale, and be unfit for use, unless blended with new brewed beers, to their detriment. These faults, if continued, may in time affect a whole trade, and ought therefore carefully to be avoided. For these reasons, the whole quantity to be moved, or expected to be supplied from the brewer’s store cellars, during the space of one twelvemonth, should be calculated, as near as possible; half this quantity ought to be the stock kept up from November to May inclusive, and nearly one third part thereof be remaining in September. From hence a table may be formed, by which it will be easy, at one view, to know the quantity that should be maintained at every season of the year, and to avoid almost every inconveniency, which otherwise must arise. Suppose, for example, the number of casks expected to be moved in a year, to be 320 butts, and 248 puncheons, the store cellars ought to be supplied, as to time and quantity, in the following proportion.
Butts. Puncheons.
January 160 124 February 160 124 March 160 124 April 160 124 May 160 124 June 146 113 July 133 103 August 120 93 September 107 82 October 133 103 November 160 124 December 160 124
After beers have been started in the cellars, the casks should be well and carefully stopped down, as soon as the repelling force of fermentation is so much lessened, as not to be able to oppose this design. Otherwise the elastic air, which is the vivifying principle of the drink, being lost, it would become vapid, and flat; and if left a long time in this condition, perhaps grow sour.
It has already been observed, that cellars, in winter, are more hot than the exterior air by 10 degrees, and more cold in summer by 5 degrees. But besides this general difference, repositories of beer vary surprisingly in their temperature; from the nature of the soil in which they are built, from their exposition to the sun, or from other incidental causes. As heat is a very powerful agent in accelerating fermentation, it is by no means surprising, not only that some cellars do ripen drinks much sooner than others, but also that a difference is often perceived in the same cellar. The persons entrusted with the choice of beers, with which the customers are to be served, should not be satisfied to send out their guiles in the progressive order in which they were brewed, but ought, on every occasion, to note any alteration that happens in the drink, as this is doing justice both to the commodity, and to the consumer, who has a constant right to expect his beer in due order.
Section XIX.
_Of Precipitation, and other remedies, applicable to the diseases incident to Beers._
No accident can be so detrimental as leaky or stinking casks, which lose or spoil the whole or part of the contained drink. The necessity of having, on these occasions, a remedy at hand, was undoubtedly the reason, why coopers were first introduced in store cellars. Constant practice might have qualified their palates so as to make them competent judges of the tastes of wines and beers, and to enable them to know which were the fittest for immediate use. The preparing or forcing them for this service, was a matter, which the profit gained thereby made them ready enough to undertake. Chymists, whom they consulted on this occasion, gave them some informations, from whence the coopers became the possessors of a few nostrums, the effects of which they were supposed to have experienced. But, ignorant of the causes of most, if not all the defects they undertake to remedy, and unacquainted with the constituent parts of beers, it is not to be expected that their success should be constant and uniform. The brewer, earnest to do his duty, and to excel, ought to keep a particular account of every brewing; by this means he best can tell how he formed the drink, and ought consequently, in any disorder, to be prepared to direct the properest remedy.
The intent of this treatise has been to discover the means by which errors may be avoided. Chymical applications are intended to remedy those errors, which may be occasioned either by carelessness or accident. The wholesomeness or propriety of the applications, which will be indicated, must be left to the judgment of my readers; it is most likely that there is sufficient room for improvement, and we might expect it from those, whose profession it is to study every thing, that may be conducive to the safety of mankind.
Whatever vegetables wines are produced from, whenever they deviate from the respective perfection, a well-conducted fermentation might have made them arrive at, they may be said to be distempered. Foulness, or want of transparency, is not the least evil, but, according to its degree, it obtains various appellations, and requires different helps. From what has been said, nothing can be more plain, than that it is always in our power to form beers and ales, which will be bright. Yet porter or brown beer is constantly so brewed as to need precipitation: the reasons for this management have before been offered. Were we to wait till the liquor became transparent by age, a more real disorder would ensue, that of acidity. Precipitation is then serviceable, especially when beers are to be removed from one cellar to another, a short space of time before they are to be used. By being shook, and the lees mixed with the liquor, a strong acid taste is conveyed therein, and the power of subsiding, which is wanted, renders the forcing them, in that case, of absolute necessity. In beers brewed with liquors sufficiently heated, no flatness is occasioned thereby; as the case is, under like circumstances, with liquors produced by low extracts, from grain not sufficiently dried. The degree of foulness in porter should however be limited; its bounds ought not to exceed the power of one gallon of dissolved isinglass, to a butt. Isinglass is dissolved in stale beer, and strained through a sieve, so as to be of the consistence of a jelly. The beer is set in motion with a stick, which reaches one third part down the cask, before and after this jelly is put in; and a few hours should be sufficient to obtain the desired effect. We have before observed, that this quantity of jelly of isinglass is equal to a medium of 10 degrees dryness in the malt, and heat of the extracts. When the opacity exceeds this, the liquor is termed _stubborn_; the same quantity of dissolved isinglass repeated, is often sufficient, if not, six ounces of the oil of vitriol are mixed with it. An effervescence is, by this addition, produced; the oils of the drink become more attenuated, and the weight added to the precipitating matter, is a means to render it more efficacious. Instead of the oil of vitriol, six or eight ounces of the concrete of vitriol, pounded and mixed with the isinglass, are sometimes used with success.
A foulness in beer beyond that which is called _stubborn_, gives to the drink the denomination of _grey beer_. This arises from the oils which float upon the surface, and which the liquor has not been able to absorb. In this case, the same methods as before mentioned are repeated; the quantity of dissolved isinglass is often increased to three gallons, that of vitriol to more than 12 ounces, and sometimes a small quantity of _aqua fortis_ is added to these ingredients.
The next stage of opacity is _cloudiness_; when the cooper confesses that the distemper exceeds the power of his menstruums, and that his attempts extend no farther than to hide the evil, tournsol and cochineal, were they not so expensive, might in this case be used with success; but what is less known, and would greatly answer the intent of hiding the dusky colour of the drink, is madder;--about three or four ounces of this is the proper quantity for a butt of beer. Calcined treacle, by the coopers called blacking, from its acidity, is of some small service, for, by coloring the drink, it somewhat lessens the grey hue thereon; a quart is generally used in a butt; and, to prevent the defect in the beer being noticed by the consumer, the practice is to put thereon what is called _a good cauliflowered head_. This might be done by using as much pounded salt of steel as will lay upon a shilling; but the difference in price between this salt and copperas makes the last generally to be preferred. The strong froth on the top of the pot, and that which foams about it, together with somewhat of a yellow cast, are often mistaken for the signs of a superior merit and strength, though, in fact, they are those of deceit. A little reflection that the natural froth of beer cannot be yellow, nor continue a long time, especially if the liquor has some age, would soon cure mankind of this prejudice. Cloudy beers, under these circumstances, though not cured, are generally consumed.
Beers become _sick_, from their having so large a portion of oils, as to prevent the free admission of the external air into them. The want of this enlivening element makes them appear flat, though not vapid. Such beers should not, if possible, be brought immediately into use, as age alone would effect their cure. But when this cannot be complied with, every means that will put the beer upon the fret, or under a new fermentation, must be of service. By pitching a butt head over head, the lees of the beer, which contain a large proportion of air, being mixed again with the drink, help to bring on this action, and to remove the _sickness_.
Burnt hartshorn shavings, to the quantity of two-penny-worth, put into a butt, are often of use.
Balls made with eight ounces of the finest flower, and kneaded with treacle, convey likewise air to the drink, and promote its briskness.
Beers, by long standing, often acquire so powerful an acid, as to become disagreeable. The means of correcting this defect is by alkaline, or testaceous substances, and in general by all those which have the property of absorbing acids. To a butt of beer in this condition, from four to eight ounces of calcined powder of oyster-shells may be put, or from six to eight ounces of salt of wormwood. Sometimes a penny-worth or two of whiting is used, and often twenty or thirty stones of unslacked lime; these are better put in separately, than mixed with the isinglass.
From two to six pounds of treacle used to one butt of beer, has a very powerful effect, not only to give a sweet fulness in the mouth, but to remove the acidity of the drink. Treacle is the refused sweet of the sugar baker, part of the large quantities of lime used in refining sugars, undoubtedly enter in its composition, and is the occasion of its softening beers.
In proportion as beers are more or less forward, from two to four ounces of salt of wormwood and salt of tartar, together with one ounce of pounded ginger, are successfully employed. All these substances absorb acids, but they leave a flatness in the liquor, which in some measure is removed by the use of ginger.
Sometimes, in summer, when beer is wanted for use, we find it on the fret; as it is then in a repelling state, it does not give way to the finings, so as to precipitate. For this, about two ounces of cream of tartar are mixed with the isinglass, and if not sufficient, four ounces of oil of vitriol are added to the finings next used, in order to quiet the drink.
Some coopers attempt to extend their art so far as to add strength to malt liquors; but let it be remembered, that the principal constituent parts of beer should be malt and hops. When strength is given to the liquor by any other means, its nature is altered, and then it is not beer we drink. Treacle in large quantities, the berries of the _Cocculus Indicus_, the grains of paradise, or the Indian ginger pounded fine, and mixed with a precipitating substance, are said to produce this extraordinary strength. It would be well if the attempts made to render beers strong by other means than by hops and malt, were to be imputed to none but coopers; Cocculus Indicus, and such like ingredients, have been known to be boiled in worts, by brewers who were more ambitious to excel the rest of the trade, than to do justice to the consumers. Were it not that pointing out vice is often the means to forward the practice of it, I could add to this infamous catalogue, more ingredients, it were to be wished practitioners never knew either the name or nature of, for fining, softening, and strengthening.
Formerly brown beers were required to be of a very dark brown, inclinable to black. As this color could not be procured by malt properly dried, the juice of elder berries was frequently mixed with the isinglass. This juice afterwards gave way to calcined sugar; both are needless, as time and knowledge remove our prejudices, when the malt and hops have been properly chosen; and applied to their intended purpose.
Such are the remedies chiefly made use of for brown beers. Drinks formed from pale malts are always supposed to become spontaneously fine, and when they are so, by being bottled, they are saved from any farther hazard. As it is impossible for any fermented liquor to be absolutely at rest, the reason of beers being preserved by this method, is, thereby they are deprived of a communication with the air, and, without risk, gain all the advantages which age, by slow degrees, procures, and which art can never imitate. Were we as curious in our ales and beers as we are in the liquors we import, did we give to the produce of our own country the same care and attendance which we bestow on foreign wines, we might enjoy them in a perfection at present scarcely known, and perhaps cause foreigners to give to our beers a preference to their own growth.
SECTION XX.
_OF TASTE[41]._
Doctor Grew, who has treated of this matter, divides taste into simple and compound; he mentions the different species of the first, and calculates the various combinations of the latter, the number of which exceeds what at first might be expected. Without entering into this detail, I think that the different tastes residing in the barleys, or formed by their being malted, and brewed with hops, may be reduced to the following; the acid, which is a simple taste; the sweet, which is an acid smoothed with oils; the aromatic, which is the compound of a spiritous acid, and a volatile sulphur; the bitter, which, according to our author, is produced by an oil well impregnated either with an alkaline or an acid salt, shackled with earth; the austere, which is both astringent and bitter; and, lastly, the nauseous and rank, which is, at least in part, sometimes found in beers, which have either been greatly affected by fire, or, by long age, have lost their volatile sulphurs; and have nothing left but the thicker and coarser oils, resembling the empyreumatic dregs of distilled liquors not carefully drawn.
The number of circumstances on which the taste of fermented liquors depends, are so various, that perhaps there never were any two brewings, or any two vintages, which produced drinks exactly similar. But as, in this case, as well as in many others, the varieties may be reduced under some general classes; the better to distinguish them, let us enquire which taste belongs to different malt liquors, according to the several circumstances in which they are brewed.
In beers and ales, the acid prevails in proportion as the malt has been less dried, and heat was wanting in the extracting water. The sweet will be the effect of a balance preserved between the acids and the oils. When, by the means of hotter waters, oils more tenacious are extracted from the grain, whereby the more volatile sulphur is retained, the taste becomes higher in relish, or aromatic. If the heat is still increased, the acids, and the most volatile oils, will in part be dissipated, and in part be so enveloped with stronger oils, as the bitter of the hops appears more distinct. A greater degree of fire will impress the liquor with an austere, rough, or harsh taste; and a heat beyond this so affects the oils of the grain, as to cause the extracts to be nauseous to the palate. Besides these, there may be other causes which produce some variation in taste; as a superior dryness in the hops; an irregularity in the ordering of the heat of the extracts; too great an impetuosity or slowness in the fermentation; the difference of seasons in which the drink is kept; but as these causes affect the liquor, in a low degree, in comparison to the drying and extracting heats of the grain, an enquiry into their consequences is not absolutely material.
Beers or ales, formed of pale malt, in which a greater portion of acids is contained, with less tenacious oils, are not only more proper to allay thirst, but in general more aromatic than brown drinks. The oils of these last, being, by the effect of fire, rendered more compact, and more tenacious of the terrestrial parts raised with them, are attended with something of an austere and rank taste. This seems to be the reason why brown beers require more time, after they have been fermented, to come to their perfection. The air, by degrees, softens and attenuates their oils, and, by causing the heterogeneous particles to subside, makes them at last, unless charring heats have been used, pleasing to the palate, whereas they were before austere, rank, and perhaps nauseous.
By means of the thermometer, we have endeavoured to fix the different colors of malt, the duration of the principal sorts of drink, and the tendency each has to become transparent. The same instrument cannot probably have the same use, when applied to distinguish the different tastes, as these depend on a variety of causes not easy to be ascertained. Yet something of this nature may be attempted, upon the following principles.
As the chief circumstance which produces a variety of tastes in malt liquors, is fire or heat acting on the malt and hops, and the effect of the air, put in motion by the same element, the table here subjoined may point out what tastes are in general occasioned by the combination of these two causes.
A TABLE _determining the tastes of Malt Liquors_.
Heat of Dryness and Predominant the air. extracting heat. tastes.
80° 119° Acid. 76 124 Ac. ac. sweet. 73 129 Ac. sw. 70 134 Ac. sw. sw. bitter. 66 138 Sw. sw. bitter. 63 143 Sw. bit. 60 148 Bit. bit. aromatic. 56 152 Bit. arom. 53 157 Bit. arom. austere. 50 162 Arom. aust. aust. 46 167 Aust. aust. nauseous. 43 171 Aust. nau. 40 176 Nauseous.
The first column of the table shews the fermentable degrees reversed, as the hotter the season is, the more fermented drinks tend to acidity, the direct contrary of which is the consequence of an increase in the heat, malt or hops are dried or extracted with.
The assistance of this table, though small, ought perhaps not to be entirely slighted, as it seems at least to shew that the useful is seldom separated from the elegant, and that a medium between extremes is most agreeable both to the operations of nature, and the constitution of our organs.
The impressions of tastes are less in proportion as the drinks are weak. The strongest wine yields the most acid vinegar. Time wears away this acidity much sooner, than it doth the nauseousness occasioned by vehement heats. This circumstance shews how necessary it is, in the beginning of the process of brewing, to avoid extracts which are too weak, as from hence, in its conclusion, such would be required whose great heat would render the drink rank and disagreeable. That proportion between the salts and the oils, which constitutes soundness and pellucidity, is most pleasing to the taste, and seems to be the utmost perfection of the art. As the sun never occasions a heat capable of charring the fruits of the vine, we never meet with wines endued with a taste resembling the empyreumatic, which we have here represented. This error, being inexcusable in any liquor, ought carefully to be guarded against, and, from what has here been said, we should learn this important truth, that nature is the best guide, and that, by imitating, as near as possible, her operations, we shall never be disappointed in our ends.
APPENDIX.
Though this work has already been carried to a great length, I hope those of my readers, who may have done me the honor to go attentively through the whole of it, will pardon me the addition of a few incidental thoughts and queries. The chain of arts is so well connected, that researches originally intended for the illustration of any one of them, can hardly fail of throwing some light upon others.
1. The seed of plants cannot be put in a fitter place, for perfect vegetation, than when buried under ground, at a depth sufficient to defend the young shoots from the vicissitudes of heat and cold, and the disadvantage of too much moisture. The manuring of the earth, and the steeping the seed into solutions of salts, have been found, in some cases, to increase the strength of the grain, to correct its original defects, and to prevent the noxious impressions of a vicious ground. Plants are made to germinate in water alone, and this experiment so successfully carried on every winter, in warm apartments, may still be improved by dissolving salts in the water.--Could the barley used for malting be put in the ground, its growth would be more natural, and its oils becoming more miscible with water, by the saline nourishment derived from the earth, might yield more vinous, more strong, and more lasting liquors. But as this method is impracticable, would it be impossible to increase the efficacy of that which is used? Consult Home on agriculture: might not either nitre or salt petre be added to the water, with which the grain is moistened? are they not used with success to manure land? Are not solutions of them in water employed by the farmer to steep his sowing seed? I barely mention these as some of the substances, that might be employed in the malting of barley, and am far from thinking there are none other. Perhaps different salts should be used, according to the nature of the soil, from which the corn was produced; but a variety of experiments seems to be required, in order to discover how far art might in this case imitate and improve nature.
2. A small quantity of malt, at all times, but especially when brewed in large vessels, parts too readily with the heat which extraction requires; and, on the contrary, if the quantity of malt be very great, the heat may not be uniformly spread. A forward beer inclinable to acidity is often the result of too short a grist; a thick, stubborn, and rank liquor many times is produced from too large a one. Every advantage may be had in brewing, properly, five or six quarters of malt; it is difficult to succeed if the number exceeds fifty.
3. The strong pungent volatile spirit, which exhales from a must, when under full fermentation, has been supposed to be a loss, which might be prevented; and accordingly attempts have been made to retain these flying impetuous particles, by stopping the communication between the atmosphere and the fermenting drink. That there is a dispersion of spirits is beyond doubt, and that these exhaling vapors consist of the finest oils, which the heat forces out of the must, is equally certain. But this loss seems to be abundantly repaid by the stronger oils, which the same degree of heat attenuates and substitutes, in a larger quantity, to the former. The last oils could never come under the form of a vinous liquor, but by a power, which sooner or later dissipates some of the first. Pale ales or amber not only lay, for many days, exposed to the open air, but suffer, by the periodical renewal of the action of the air, every two or four hours, a much more considerable loss of spirits, than when fermentation is carried on uniformly. Yet experience shews, that so many oils are, by this method, attenuated, that the strength acquired greatly surpasses that which is lost.
4. The practice of fermenting _by compression_, recommended to distillers, seems, on this account, less useful, than might be concluded from theory alone; the intent of the distiller, as well as of the brewer, is to extract the greatest quantity of spiritous oils. It is impossible to ferment a must _in vacuo_; air is absolutely necessary to carry on this operation, even a superabundant quantity of oils admitted into the must, by obstructing the free admission of the air, impedes fermentation, prevents the wine from reaching pellucidity, and sometimes is the occasion of its becoming putrid.
5. When the purest spirit is intended to be drawn from the grain, the fermented wash ought to be suffered to settle, till it becomes transparent. The dispatch, with which the distillery is generally carried on, often prevents this useful circumstance taking place, and occasions a want of vinosity in the liquor. In many cases, the extraordinary charges of extracting the grist from malted corn, in the manner, which has been directed for drinks intended a short space to be kept, and of suffering the fermented wash to be meliorated by time, until it becomes vinous and spontaneously transparent, might be abundantly repaid. Yet, if hurry must be a part of the distiller’s business, he should at least make such extractions as admit of the speediest fermentation and the readiest pellucidity. He cannot expect corn spirits to equal the brandies of France, unless his worts are similar to the wines distilled in that kingdom, where those used for this purpose are weak, fine, and tending to acidity.[42] He would therefore secure to himself the greatest probability of success, if he employed only malted corn in his grist, this of the best kind, well germinated to form a saccharine basis, slack dried, and resolved, with weak extracts, to preserve into the must a proper proportion of vinosity. If he intended this wash to be formed into a pure spirit, it should be allowed time to become transparent; he might regulate his extracts by such heats as have been fixed for common small beer, brewed when the heat of the air is at the lowest fermentable degree, though perhaps heats less than these, when dispatch is required, might better answer his purpose, especially as the length used in the distillery is nearly the same with that which brewers use for the liquor here referred to. With hot waters to attempt to force from the grain more strength or more oils, than such as will form a clean tasteless spirit, is, in the distillery, a real loss and a fundamental error. By too strong heats, more oils are forced into the must than can be converted in spirits; and fermentation being, by this over charge, in some measure, clogged and impeded, a less yield is made, and the liquor obtained of a rank and often empyreumatic taste.
6. Why are the brandies of Spain inferior to those prepared in France? The wines of the last country are the growth of a weaker sun; they contain no more oils than can be assimilated by fermentation, and form a clean, dry, nutty spirit. The Spanish wines abounding with more oleaginous than acid parts, this over proportion becomes not only useless, but hurtful in the still, and produces the rankness observed in Spanish brandies. The cleanness of the spirit arises, in great measure, from the weakness of the must, and its vinosity from a less proportion of oils to the salts. This seems to be the reason why the most grateful spirits are produced from wines unable to bear the sea, or to be long kept.
7. The native spirits of vegetables, says Boerhaave, are separated by heats between 94 degrees, and 212. To obtain the whole of these, the fire must be gradually increased; for a superior heat dissipates the spirits raised by an inferior one. Such parts as might be obtained by 100 degrees, are lost if the heat applied be much greater. It is true, the parts of vegetables immersed in water, cannot so easily be dissipated as if they were in open air, yet, by the rarefaction of the liquid, a proportional evaporation, however small, must ensue, or the oils raised by a greater heat may so effectually envelope the finer ones, as to make them hardly perceptible either to our smell or taste. Thus, though heated water is able to extract all the virtues residing in the vegetables, the different application of the fire will alter not only their proportions, but their properties also, when we consider that pure spirit of wine boils at so low a heat as 175 degrees. If the above principles be true, that surely must be the cleanest spirit which is brought over in the slowest and coolest manner; and it is more than probable, if the rules here laid down be put in practice, the grain of England will be found to yield spirits that may vie with the brandies of France, be more pure than those of the Indies, and excel those of Holland.
8. The vinegar maker is equally concerned with the distiller in the brewing process. Vinegar is produced in the last stage of fermentation, when a gross, tartareous, unctous matter, consisting of the coarser oils extracted either from the grain or the grapes, generally falls to the bottom of the liquor, and no longer prevents its acidity, or affects its flavor. Though the best vinegar proceeds either from the strongest wines or beers, this strength consists in the quantity of fermentable principles, and not in that of mere oleaginous parts. By properly adapting the extracting waters, this hurtful impediment may be removed, and the vinegar from malt liquors become as neat and as strong as that which is made from wine.
9. As the acid taste of vinegar is the effect of a continued fermentation, many people have thought it immaterial how speedily the first parts of the operation were carried on. But violent fermentations not only dissipate some of the fine oils, which should be retained in the vinegar, but also cause the must to tend towards putrefaction. Boerhaave, after he has directed a frequent transvasion of the liquor, observes that, whenever the weather or the workhouse is very hot, it is often necessary to fill the half emptied vessels every twelve hours, not only to procure a supply of acids from the air, but also to cool the wine, and check the too violent fermentation, which arising in the half full casks, might dissipate the volatile spirits, before they are properly secured and entangled by the acid. Hence the liquor might be sour indeed, but at the same time flat, and would never become a sharp and strong vinegar.
10. Application and uses have frequently been found for materials, which before were supposed to be of no value. The grains, after the brewer has drawn his worts out of them, are generally used for the feeding of cattle; but I do not know that hops, after boiling, have been employed to any purpose. Is there nothing more left in this vegetable, after it has imparted the virtue wanted to the beer? All plants burnt in open air yield alkaline salts, though in a greater or less quantity, according to the quality of the plants. Boerhaave says that those which are austere, acid, or aromatic, yield in their ashes a great abundance of salts, and these being put in fusion, and mixed with flint or sand, run into glass. Hops thrown, after decoction, in no great quantity on the fire, cause the coals to vitrify, or as it is generally termed, to _run into clinkers_. If therefore the remains of the hops were burnt in open air, or in a proper furnace, it seems most likely that no inconsiderable quantity of somewhat like pot ashes might be obtained, and this, considering the many tun weight of hops employed in large cities, and thrown away as useless, might become an object of private emolument to the brewer, and of public benefit to the kingdom.
FINIS.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Vide Dr. Pringle’s experiments in his book of observations on the diseases of the army, p. 350, 351 & seq.
[2] There is a very singular exception in regard to iron itself, in this respect. It is only a certain degree of heat that expands this metal; (and that much less than any other either more or less dense) when melted, it occupies a less space than when in a solid form. This ought to caution us against an entire dependence on general rules, by which nature doth not appear to be wholly restricted. See Mem. de l’Acad. des Scienc. p. 273.
[3] See Dr. Lewis’s Philosophical Commerce of Arts, p. 42.
[4] See Martine’s Dissertation on Heat. What the degree of cold was which fixed mercury at St. Petersburg, I do not recollect.
[5] It requires seven or eight days. (See Dissertation sur la glace par Mons. de Mayran.) Paris edition, 1749. Page 191.
[6] Lately, indeed, by such intense cold as can only be procured with the greatest art, and in the coldest climates, mercury is said to have been stagnated, or fixed.
[7] By Dr. Hales’s experiments made for discovering the proportion of air generated from different bodies, it appears that raisin wine, absorbed, in fermenting, a quantity of air equal to nearly one third of its volume; and ale, under the like circumstances, absorbed one fifth.
[8] In the northern part of England, the usual time of steeping barley in the cistern is about 80 hours.
40 bushels of barley wetted 1 hour, will guage then in the couch 40 bushels, that is, if drained from its exterior moisture.
40 bushels ---- 20 hours, ---- ---- 42-1/2 bushels. 40 bushels ---- 40 hours, ---- ---- 45 bushels. 40 bushels ---- 60 hours, ---- ---- 47-1/2 bushels. 40 bushels ---- 80 hours, ---- ---- 50 bushels.
Here the barley is supposed to be fully saturated with the water; and these 40 bushels of barley, guaged (after 80 hours wetting in the cistern) in the couch, will be 50 bushels; but when again guaged on the floor, from the effect of the roots, and sometimes the shoots, occasioning the corn to lie hollow, here the 40 bushels of barley will shew as 80 bushels. Vide Ramsbottom, page 113, &c.
[9] Boerhaave Elem. of Chym. Vol. I. p. 195-199. Exp. 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, and 13.
[10] When the medium heat of the dryness of the malt, and of the heat of the extracts, are so high as to require the liquors to be forced or precipitated, in order to become pellucid, part of the oils which supported them sound, being carried down by the precipitant, they will be less capable of preserving themselves, after having been precipitated, than they were before.
[11] I chose this manner of expressing the quantity of moisture received in ground malt from the air, as it is the most easy for the direction of the first extract.
[12] Part I. Sect XII. p. 124.
[13] See page 56.
[14] For the properties answerable to the degrees, see page 124.
[15] It may be observed that, in the first and last degrees for drying malt, sometimes we say one degree more, sometimes a degree less.--The experiments we have made do not admit of a geometrical exactness, nor does the practice of brewing require it; small errors in beers are effectually removed by age, and these variations have often been adopted in the tables, for the conveniency of dividing into whole numbers.
[16] See p. 124.
[17] _Purl_, is pale ale, in which bitter aromatics, such as wormwood, orange peel, &c. are infused, used by the labouring people, chiefly in cold mornings, and a much better and wholesomer relief to them, than spiritous liquors.
[18] 152, to which 2 degrees must be added, for what is lost in the extracts coming away, or 154 degrees, being the heat of the mash for keeping small beer, after amber; as this number is less than 166 degrees, the last mash of the amber, consequently, in the computation made, to find how much of the quantity of the liquor used, is to be made to boil, to give the true degree of heat to the mash of small, the difference of heat required in this mash, 154, and the heat of the goods 162 or 8, is to be multiplied by the volume of the goods, and the product in this case subtracted; whereas, in the operations for brewing, whose heat gradually increased every mash, it is to be added.
[19] We had rather attribute to this cause, the inferior quality of the Worcestershire hops, than to what is reported. That some planters in that county suffer their hops to be so ripe on the poles, that they become very brown before they are gathered: to recover their color, on the fire of the kiln they strew brimstone, which brings them to a fine yellow; the dryness and harshness this acid occasions, they correct by sprinkling the hops with milk, from whence they bag closer, and require little straining, but two ingredients more pernicious to the forming good beers, perhaps, could not have been thought of, than milk and brimstone.
[20] This rule only takes place for such climates as are of the same heat with ours; for when drinks are brewed to be expended in more southern countries, or to undergo long voyages, twenty pounds of hops to one quarter of malt have been used with success.
[21] If, of the whole quantity of hops grown in one year, one half is put into bags, whose tare is one tenth of their whole weight, and the other half is put in pockets, whose tare is one fortieth of their whole weight; if the excise office allows one tenth for tare upon the whole, and the excise or weighing officers, are content with one ninth, as by their marks, and the weight when sold to the brewer, appears to be the fact; then somewhat like one twentieth part more hops are grown, than what pays duty, or than the excise officers report to be the case.
[22] Forty shillings per hundred weight, are supposed to be the mean difference between new and old hops, and ought to be estimated in proportion to the quantity of old left in hand, and that of new hops grown, in order to ascertain the value of the last.
[23] B. stands for Barrels, F. for Firkins, G. for Gallons.
[24] When there are but two worts in brown strong, keeping strong, keeping pale small, or common small, the boiling is to be observed as marked for the second and third worts.
[25] The small cask, called a _pin_, is one eighth part of a barrel.
[26] By new malt, I understand such, as has not lost the whole of the heat received on the kiln, and by old, such as is of equal heat with the air, or such which has laid a sufficient time to imbibe part of its moisture.
[27] At the time when the first edition of this work was published, porter or brown beers were brewed with very high dried malts; experience has shewn to the generality of the trade and to the author, this practice to be erroneous, the reasons why have before, and perhaps hereafter will again, be spoken of. In compliance with this improvement (though between the two proposed brewings, so great a variety will not appear) I have founded my calculations for porter, on malts dried so as best will answer this purpose.
[28] B. stands for barrels, F. for firkins, G. for gallons, and the numbers past the comma, where the inches are expressed, for decimals; 34 gallons are here allowed to the barrel, in compliance to the excise gauging, as these calculations were made without the bills.
[29] The half degree omitted in this mash will be added to the next.
[30] Different quantities of water are differently affected by the same portion of fire; when the ebullition is just over, and the surface of the liquor is become smooth; if some of it is, by a cock, drawn from the bottom of the copper, where the coldest water always is, the remaining part, having a greater proportion of fire than before, again begins to boil, though not affected by any increase of heat.
[31] See page 267.
[32] G. C. stands for great copper, L. C. stands for little copper.
[33] Deduction from the first mash for heat created by effervescence and hard corns. See the calculation above.
[34] Additions to the mashes on account of heat lost, by the liquor coming from little copper, and by mashing and standing. See page 293.
[35] The charge of the first liquor is for 11 barrels, with a deduction of 2 inches, according to the gauges of the coppers, page 221. These two inches answer to the 8 degrees of heat for the effervescence, hard corns, and new malt. See computation above.
[36] The second and following mashes are to be charged with as many more inches of boiling water, as answer to the fourth part of the number of degrees of heat lost by the refrigeration of the mashes. See page 294.
[37] In beers intended for long keeping, the fermentation is to be governed by the heat of the worts or musts, more than by that of the exterior air.
[38] A must or wort, when under fermentation, from its internal motion, increases in heat 10 degrees, and no keeping beers, when under this act, should exceed a heat of 60 degrees; for this reason, worts of this sort should at first be set to ferment at a heat of 50 degrees, and 50 degrees is nearly the mean of the heats these liquors are impressed with, when deposited in cellars, from the time of their being formed, to that of their coming into use. Their long continuance in this state is the reason why six pints of yeast per quarter of malt is a sufficient quantity to be used when the heat of the air is at or below 50 degrees. If, through necessity, processes of this sort are to be carried on when the mean heat of the natural day is more than this, the quantities indicated in the table will be the fittest rule.
[39] Though the air bubbles produced from malt liquors are more uniform, as to their size or consistence, than those of natural wines, yet they are not perfectly so; for this reason, and because it requires a greater power to cause a wort or must of malt to ferment, than it does to keep this act continued, after it is once begun, it is necessary, at first, to apply such a sufficient quantity of yeast as will obtain this purpose; therefore, one half of the remaining six gallons of yeast is put to the wort on its first coming down.
[40] The yeast or air bubbles produced from natural wines, vary not only in their consistence, but also in their volume; so that, in their act of fermentation, a progressive effect is the consequence of this want of uniformity. The yeast or air bubbles of barley wines are more uniform; to imitate nature, it is necessary to apply this principle of fermentation by degrees, to cause a progressive effect only. Feeding of drink is the only means to gain this end; thereby the newly applied yeast maintains the drink in its required agitation, in a similar manner as the increased heat and action raised by fermentation causes the air bubbles in natural wines to act and explode, in proportion to their consistence, and to the quantity of elastic air the bubbles contain; and so requisite it is periodically to apply more yeast to this sort of liquor, or regularly to feed it with this enlivening principle, that, in very hot weather, when this, through carelessness, has been omitted, I have known this ale to become foxed or putrefied, and could attribute this accident to no other cause but to a neglect of this sort, as the worts had been regularly brewed, laid thin in the coolers, received all the cold the night could give them, and the tun in which the drink was worked was perfectly clean.
[41] I confess this chapter is rather a matter of curiosity, an effusion of fancy, than of any use to me known; if I have suffered it to remain, it has been to shew that when we have long reflected upon a subject, our ideas often lead us beyond power of practice; and with this farther view, that, perhaps, it may become of service in the hands of some more ingenious and more penetrating artist than myself. However, if I trouble my reader with it, it may be said to be in imitation of an author far superior to myself in rank and knowledge.
[42] It must be observed, the wines of France in general make the best brandies, and of these, such which justly are termed green wines, (and soon would become acid) this leads us to the nature of the grain, and of the extractions to procure an equal, pure, nutty spirit. Barley, dried scarcely to the denomination of malt, and extracted with the lowest medium, or perhaps one inferior to this, most likely would answer this purpose. I have tried the experiment in a very imperfect manner, and found it answer beyond expectation.
INDEX.
A. Page
Acids, what, 2
Air, principal agent in fermentation, 19, 23
---- why it slacks malt, 20
---- is not easily expelled from bodies, 21
---- expelled from worts by long boiling, 84
---- heat of, relative to brewing, 145
Alcohol, what, 2
---- most effectually dissolves resins, 38
Algebraic rules of proportion for mixing cold and hot water, 271-285
Alkali, what, 2
---- its great power as a solvent, 37
B.
Backs _being set_, reason, 306
Barley, defined, 89
---- viscous and replete with acids, 90
---- consequence of its germinating, 90
---- its state in the field, 91
---- Effect of heating in the mow, 92
---- heat which destroys its vegetative power, 92, 93
---- mow-burned, unfit for malting, 93
---- how much it loses by malting, 100
---- may be dried without germinating, 102
Beers, why deposited in cellars, 47
---- best brewed in pure air, 85, 86
Bird, Mr. his thermometer, 43
Body of a wort _not opened_, what, 320, 321
Boiling, how effected, 3
---- necessary for worts, and management, 224
Brandies of France and Spain compared, 353
Brown ale, what, 198
---- stout, what, 199
Burton ale, what, 196
C.
Cellars, temperature, 156, 186
---- management of beer, 331
Cleansing keeping beers, 319
---- common small, 321
---- amber, 325
Cloudy beer, how to be treated, 337
Cocculus Indicus, infamous practice of using it, 340
Cold greatest, at London, 145
Cooling-in explained, 254
Coppers, method of calculating heights, 220
D.
Division of water for a brewing, 235-239
Dorchester beer, what, 200
E.
Earths defined, 33
---- sometimes used in precipitation, 33
Effervescence, whence, 79
Elements, for forming pale beers, 172
---- brown do., 177
---- porter, 178, 180, 245
---- small beer, 190, 248
---- purl, 194
Elements for forming amber, 195, 251
---- keeping small beer, 197
---- pale keeping strong and small, 239
Expansion, singular exception in, 14
---- differs in different fluids, 18
---- of water just boiling, 26
Experiments on Thames, New River, and Hampstead water, 31
Extraction defined, 160
---- four different modes, 163
---- 1st mode, 169
---- 2d ----, 173
---- 3d ----, 181
---- 4th ----, 192
Extracts under and over-heated shew similar signs, 29
F.
Feeding drink, what, 323
Fermentation, what, 6, 66
---- its several stages, 66-73
---- its effects, 78
---- term too generally applied, 78
---- artificial, defined, 80
---- signs and effects, 318
Ferments, what, 84
Fining beers, 336
Fire, nature and properties, 13
---- expands all bodies, 14
---- how it strengthens some bodies, 15
---- loosens the texture of malt, 15
---- preserves bodies, 15
---- how to regulate its degrees, 16
Flowers of wine, what, 311
Foxed, what, 7
G.
Germinating heats of France, Spain, &c., 57-59
---- England, 59
Grapes, their taste in different states, 51
---- under what heat produced and ripened, 51, 55
---- why not produced at Jamaica, 54, 60
---- how to discover their properties, 64
Grey beer, how to be treated, 337
Grinding malt, 157
H.
Hard corns, heat they cause in mashes, 295
Heat, medium of London, 17, 145, 148, 150
---- dissolves more parts than water can contain, 26
---- difference in shade and sun, 52, 156
---- greatest at London, in the shade, 145
Hops, nature and properties, 201
---- whence difference of Worcestershire & Kentish, 203
---- useful in extraction, 213
---- calculation to regulate purchasing, 13
---- imposition on purchasers, 216
---- volume estimated when boiled, 222
---- perhaps useful after being boiled, 356
I.
Incidents causing heat of extracts to vary from calculation, 289
Isinglass, what, 7
---- use and application, 336
L.
Lees of wine, what, 311
Lengths in brewing, explanation, 217
M.
Malting, process, 94, 126
Malts, alter in color the more they are dried, 48
---- incapable of retaining more fire than is in external air, 99
---- cannot be made in hot weather, 103
---- first degree of heat that constitutes them, 105
---- degree which charrs them, 107
---- effect different degrees has upon them, 108-112
---- properties, 113
---- defective, 131-137
---- their virtue in wort contained in amazing small space, 270
Mashes, four, their different heats, 62
---- last heat, 293
Mashing, 286
Maturating and germinating heats, 57-59
Menstruums, doctrine of, 34-38
---- water, oils, and salts, the principal in brewing, 35
Must from grapes, constituent parts, 66
O.
Oils, constituent principles, 35
Old hock, what, 199
P.
Precipitation, what, 9
---- a remedy for diseased beer, 334
Processes of two brewings computed, 271
---- reduced to one point of view, 297-303
Purl, what, 193
Putrefaction, whence, 78
R.
Rain, which most fruitful, 53, 54
Remedies for diseased beer, 334
S.
Salts, a principal menstruum, 36, 37
---- their nature, 37, 38
Sealing hermetically, how performed, 7
Sick beers, how to be treated, 338
Signs general, directing the processes in brewing, 327
Spirits’ pungent, exhaling from a fermenting must, 350, 351
---- of malt might equal those of wine, 352
Spontaneous pellucidity, how produced, 319
Stale beers, how to be treated, 339
Steeping barley, how practised in the north, 94
Stock of beer proper, 331
Stubborn beers, how to be treated, 337
T.
Table of changes of color in malt by heat, 115
---- shewing the age beers will require with medium heats, 119
---- shewing the tendency beers have to become fine, 124
---- shewing medium heat at London at eight in the morning, 148
Table shewing medium heat of the air at London, 150
---- of incidents affecting heat in brewing, 155
---- shewing proper dryness of malt, 162
---- shewing the quantity of fermentable principles residing in malt, 168
---- to determine heat of first and last extract, 170
---- ditto for porter, 175
---- shewing color of grain, 184
---- shewing medium heat of each process, 185
---- shewing heat of first and last extracts in common small beer, 191
---- shewing value of hops in degrees, 208
---- shewing the quantity of hops to a quarter of malt in porter, 209
---- ditto common small beer, 210
---- ---- amber, 211
---- ---- Burton ale, 212
---- shewing the medium price hops should bear, 215
---- of lengths, 219
---- of gauges of coppers, 221
---- of time of boiling each beer, 228
---- of volume of malt to reduce grist to liquid measure, 254
---- shewing great evaporation of water in brewing, 256
---- shewing volume of malt equal to one barrel of water, 267
---- of effervescence of malt, 292
---- shewing the _times_ worts should be let down, 308
---- shewing _heat_ at which they should be let down, 309
---- shewing depth of head in cleansing small beer, 321
---- determining taste of malt liquors, 345
Taste, reason of the difference in malt liquors, 342
Technical terms explained, 1-12
Thermometer, when first known in England, 39
---- its improvements, 40-43
---- assists to discover the heat of bodies when blended, 45
---- discovers the strength of a wort, 47
---- ---- quality of hops, 48
---- absurdity of brewers to reject it, 49
Times proper for brewing, 146
Two brewings, circumstances relating to them brought into one point of view, 297-303
V.
Vegetables, why fit for wines, 74-76
Vinegar of beer equal to that of wine, 355
---- best made from strongest liquors, 355
W.
Waste water in brewing each beer, 230-233
Water, its expansion by boiling, 14
---- becomes of equal heat with the air, 21
---- at what degree it changes to ice, 21
---- boiled, its appearance when froze, 21
---- which makes the strongest extracts, 22
---- being light, a good property, 24
---- great quantities evaporated in brewing, 25
---- its ultimate parts less than those of air, 25
---- necessary to fermentation, 27
---- excellency of drinks too often attributed to, 29
---- how examined, 30
---- its division into worts and mashes, 234-252
Water, boiling--the proper state and time for cooling in, 290
Wines, general definition, 50
---- Tockay and Canary, 52
---- Madeira, 63
---- the most certain signs of their wholesomeness, 86
---- their basis, 160
Worts, sometimes over-hopped, 27
---- height in coppers cast up to fix the length, 223
---- cooling-management, 304
Y.
Yeast, replaces the air lost by boiling worts, 22
---- heat at which it acts, 305
---- nature and contents, 311
---- quantity for small beer, 315
---- ---- strong beer and porter, 316
---- ---- ales and amber, 317
---- bitten, what, 320