The London and Country Brewer Part 4

Here I am to treat of the main Article of shewing the difference between brewing our own Ales and Beers, and buying them, which I doubt not will appear so plain and evident, as to convince any Reader, that many Persons may save well towards half in half, and have their Beer and Ale strong, fine and aged at their own Discretion: A satisfaction that is of no small weight, and the rather since I have now made known a Method of Brewing a Quant.i.ty of Malt with a little Copper and a few Tubs, a Secret that has long wanted Publication; for now a Person may Brew in a little Room, and that very safely by keeping his Wort from Foxing, as I have already explained, which by many has been thought impossible heretofore; and this Direction is the more Valuable as there are many Thousands who live in Cities and Towns, that have no more than a few Yards Square of Room to perform a private Brewing in. And as for the trouble, it is easy to account for by those who have time enough on their Hands, and would do nothing else if they had not done this: Or if a Man is paid half a Crown a Day for a Quant.i.ty accordingly: Or if a Servant can do this besides his other Work for the same Wages and Charge, I believe the following account will make it appear it is over-ballanc'd considerably, by what such a Person may save in this undertaking, besides the Pleasure of thoroughly knowing the several Ingredients and Cleanliness of the Brewer and Utensils. In several of the Northern Counties of England, where they have good Barley, Coak-dryed Malt, and the Drink brewed at Home, there are seldom any bad Ales or Beers, because they have the Knowledge in Brewing so well, that there are hardly any common Brewers amongst them: In the West indeed there are some few, but in the South and East Parts there are many; and now follows the Account, that I have Stated according to my own general Practice, viz.

A Calculation of the Charge and Profit of Brewing six Bushels of Malt for a private Family.

. s. d.

Six Bushels of Malt at 2s. 8d.

per Bushel, Barley being this ) Year 1733. sold for 14s. per ) 0 16 0 Quarter by the Farmer ) Hops one Pound 0 1 6

Yeast a Quart 0 0 4

Coals one Bushel, or if Wood or Furze 0 1 0

A Man's Wages a Day 0 2 6 ------ Total 1 1 4 Of these six Bushels of Malt I make one Hogshead of Ale and another of Small Beer: But if I was to buy them of some common Brewers, the Charge will be as follows, viz.

s. d.

One Hogshead of Ale containing 48 ) Gallons, at 6 d. per Gallon is ) 1 4 0 One Hogshead of Small Beer ) containing 54 Gallons, at 2 d. ) 0 9 0 per Gallon is ) 0 9 0 ___.____.____

1 13 0 ___.____.____

Total Saved 0 11 8

By the above Account it plainly appears, that 11 s. and 8 d. is clearly gained in Brewing of six Bushels of Malt at our own House for a private Family, and yet I make the Charge fuller by 2 s. and 6 d. then it will happen with many, whose Conveniency by Servants, &c. may intirely take it off; besides the six Bushels of Grains that are currently sold for Three-pence the Bushel, which will make the Eleven and Eight-pence more by four Shillings, without reckoning any thing for yeast, that in the very cheapest time sells here for Four-pence the Quart, and many times there happens three Quarts from so much Drink; so that there may possibly be gained in all sixteen Shillings and Eight-pence: A fine Sum indeed in so small a Quant.i.ty of Malt. But here by course will arise a Question, whether this Ale is as good as that bought of some of the common Brewers at Six-pence a Gallon; I can't say all is; however I can aver this, that the Ale I brew in the Country from six Bushels of Malt for my Family, I think is generally full as good, if not better than any I ever sold at that Price in my London Brewhouse: And if I should say, that where the Malt, Water and Hops are right good, and the Brewer's Skill answerable to them, there might be a Hogshead of as good Ale and another of small Beer made from five Bushels as I desire to use for my Family, or for Harvest Men; It is no more than I have many times experienced, and 'tis the common length I made for that Purpose. And whoever makes use of true Pale and Amber Malts, and pursues the Directions of this Book, I doubt not but will have their Expectation fully answered in this last Quant.i.ty, and so save the great Expence of Excise that the common Brewers Drink is always clogg'd with, which is [blotted text] than five Shillings for Ale and Eighteen-pence per Barrel for Small Beer.

CHAP. XXI.

A Philosophical Account for Brewing strong October Beer. By an Ingenious Hand.

In Brewing, your Malt ought to be sound and good, and after its making to lye two or more Months in the Heap, to come to such a temper, that the Kernel may readily melt in the washing.

The well dressing your Malt, ought to be one chief Care; for unless it be freed from the Tails and Dust, your Drink will not be fine and mellow as when it is clean dressed.

The grinding also must be considered according to the high or low drying of the Malt; for if high dryed, then a gross grinding is best, otherwise a smaller may be done; for the Care in grinding consists herein, lest too much of the Husk being ground small should mix with the Liquor, which makes a gross Feces, and consequently your Drink will have too fierce a Fermentation, and by that means make it Acid, or that we call Stale.

When your Malt is ground, let it stand in Sacks twenty-four Hours at least, to the end that the Heat in grinding may be allayed, and 'tis conceived by its so standing that the Kernel will dissolve the better.

The measure and quant.i.ty we allow of Hops and Malt, is five Quarter of Malt to three Hogsheads of Beer, and eighteen Pounds of Hops at least to that Quant.i.ty of Malt, and if Malt be pale dryed, then add three or four Pounds of Hops more.

The Choice of Liquor for Brewing is of considerable advantage in making good Drink, the softest and cleanest water is to be prererr'd, your harsh water is not to be made use of.

You are to boil your first Liquor, adding a Handful or two of Hops to it, then before you strike it over to your Goods or Malt, cool in as much Liquor, as will bring it to a temper not to scald the Malt, for it is a fault not to take the Liquor as high as possible but not to scald. The next Liquors do the same.

And indeed all your Liquors ought to be taken as high as may be, that is not to scald.

When you let your Wort from your Malt into the Underback, put to it a Handful or two of Hops, 'twill preserve it from that accident which Brewers call Blinking or Foxing.

In boiling your Worts, the first Wort boil high or quick; for the quicker the first Wort is boiled, the better it is.

The second boil more than the first, and the third or last more than the second.

In cooling lay your Worts thin, and let each be well cooled, and Care must be taken in letting them down into the Tun, that you do it leisurely, to the end that as little of the Feces or Sediment which causes the Fermentation to be fierce or mild, for Note, there is in all fermented Liquors, Salt and Sulphur, and to keep these two Bodies in a due Proportion, that the Salt does not exalt itself above the Sulphur, consists a great part of the Art in Brewing.

When your Wort is first let into your Tun, put but a little Yeast to it, and let it work by degrees quietly, and if you find it works but moderate, whip in the Yeast two or three times or more, till you find your Drink well fermented, for without a full opening of the Body by fermentation, it will not be perfect fine, nor will it drink clean and light.

When you cleanse, do it by a c.o.c.k from your Tun, placed six Inches from the Bottom, to the end that most of the Sediment may be left behind, which may be thrown on your Malt to mend your Small Beer.

When your Drink is Tunn'd, fill your Vessel full, let it work at the Bung-hole, and have a reserve in a small Cask to fill it up, and don't put any of the Drink which will be under the Yeast after it is work'd over into your Vessels, but put it by itself in another Cask, for it will not be so good as your other in the Cask.

This done, you must wait for the finishing of the fermentation, then stop it close, and let it stand till the Spring, for Brewing ought to be done in the Month of October, that it may have time to settle and digest all the Winter Season.

In the Spring you must unstop your Vent-hole and thereby see whether your Drink doth ferment or not, for as soon as the warm Weather comes, your Drink will have another fermentation, which when it is over, let it be again well stopped and stand till September or longer, and then Peg it; and if you find it pretty fine, the Hop well rotted and of a good pleasant taste for drinking.

Then and not before draw out a Gallon of it, put to it two Ounces of Ising-gla.s.s cut small and well beaten to melt, stirring it often and whip it with a Wisk till the Ising-gla.s.s be melted, then strain it and put it into your Vessel, stirring it well together, stop the Bung slightly, for this will cause a new and small fermentation, when that is over stop it close, leaving only a Vent-hole a little stopp'd, let it stand, and in ten Days or a little more, it will be transparently fine, and you may drink of it out of the Vessel till two parts in three be drawn, then Bottle the rest, which will in a little time come to drink very well. If your Drink in September be well condition'd for taste, but not fine, and you desire to drink it presently, rack it before you put your Ising-gla.s.s to it, and then it will fine the better and drink the cleaner.

To make Drink fine quickly, I have been told that by separating the Liquor from the Feces, when the Wort is let out of the Tun into the Underback, which may be done in this manner, when you let your Wort into your Underback out of your Tun, catch the Wort in some Tub so long, and so often as you find it run foul, put that so catched on the Malt again, and do so till the Wort run clear into the Underback. This is to me a very good way (where it may be done) for 'tis the Feces which causes the fierce and violent fermentation, and to hinder that in some measure is the way to have fine Drink: Note that the finer you make your Wort, the sooner your Drink will be fine, for I have heard that some Curious in Brewing have caused Flannels to be so placed, that all the Wort may run thro' one or more of them into the Tun before working, by which means the Drink was made very fine and well tasted.

Observations on the foregoing Account.

This Excellent Philosophical Account of Brewing October Beer, has. .h.i.therto remained in private Hands as a very great Secret, and was given to a Friend of mine by the Author himself, to whom the World is much obliged, altho' it comes by me; In justice therefore to this ingenious Person, I would here mention his Name, had I leave for so doing; but at present this Intimation must suffice. However, I shall here take notice, that his Caution against using tailed or dusty Malt, which is too commonly sold, is truly worthy of Observation; for these are so far from producing more Ale or Beer, that they absorb and drink part of it up.

In Grinding Malts he notifies well to prevent a foul Drink.

The quant.i.ty he allows is something above thirteen Bushels to the Hogshead which is very sufficient; but this as every body pleases.

The Choice of Liquors or Waters for Brewing, he says, is of considerable advantage; and so must every body else that knows their Natures and loves Health, and pleasant Drink: For this purpose, in my Opinion, the Air and Soil is to be regarded where the Brewing is performed; since the Air affects all things it can come at, whether Animal, Vegetable or Mineral, as may be proved from many Instances: In the Marshes of Kent and Ess.e.x, the Air there is generally so infectious by means of those low vaesy boggy Grounds, that seldom a Person escapes an Ague one time or other, whether Natives or Aliens, and is often fatally known to some of the Londoners and others who merrily and nimbly travel down to the Isles of Grain and Sheppy for a valuable Harvest, but in a Month's time they generally return thro' the Village of Soorne with another Mien. There is also a little Moor in Hertfordshire, thro' which a Water runs that frequently gives the Pa.s.sant Horses that drink of it, the Colick or Gripes, by means of the aluminous sharp Particles of its Earth; Its Air is also so bad, as has obliged several to remove from its Situation for their Healths: The Dominion of the Air is likewise so powerful over Vegetables, that what will grow in one Place won't in another, as is plain from the Beech and Black Cherry Tree, that refuse the Vale of Ailesbury tho' on some Hills there, yet will thrive in the Chiltern or Hilly Country: So the Limes and other Trees about London are all generally black-barked, while those in the Country are most of them of a Silver white. Water is also so far under the Influence of the Air and Soil, as makes many excellent for Brewing when others are as bad. In Rivers, that run thro' boggy Places, the Sullage or Washings of such Soils are generally unwholsome as the nature of such Ground is; and so the Water becomes infected by that and the Effluvia or Vapour that accompanies such Water: So Ponds are surely good or bad, as they are under too much Cover or supply'd by nasty Drains, or as they stand situated or exposed to good and bad Airs. Thus the Well-waters by consequence share in the good or bad Effects of such Soils that they run thorough, and the very Surface of the Earth by which such Waters are strained, is surely endowed with the quality of the Air in which it lies; which brings me to my intended purpose, to prove that Water drawn out of a Chalky, or Fire-stone Well, which is situated under a dry sweet loamy Soil, in a fine pure Air, and that is perfectly soft, must excel most if not all other Well-waters for the purpose in Brewing. The Worts also that are rooted in such an Air, in course partakes of its nitrous Benefits, as being much exposed thereto in the high Backs or Coolers that contain them. In my own Grounds I have Chalks under Clays and Loams; but as the latter is better than the former, so the Water proves more soft and wholsome under one than the other. Hence then may be observed the contrary Quality of those harsh curdling Well-waters that many drink of in their Malt Liquors, without considering their ill Effects, which are justly condemn'd by this able Author as unfit to be made use of in Brewing October Beer.

The boiling a few Hops in the first Water is good, but they must be strained thro' a Sieve before the Water is put into the Malt; and to check its Heat with cold Liquor, or to let it stand to cool some time, is a right Method, lest it scalds and locks up the Pores of the Malt, which would then yield a thick Wort to the end of the Brewing and never be good Drink.

His putting Hops into the Underback, is an excellent Contrivance to prevent foxing, as I have already hinted.

The quick boiling of the Wort is of no less Service, and that the smaller Wort should be boiled longer than the strong is good Judgment, because the stronger the Wort, the sooner the Spirits flie away and the waste of more Consequence; besides if the first Wort was to be boiled too long, it would obtain so thick a Body, as to prevent in great measure its fining hereafter after so soon in the Barrel; while the smaller sort will evaporate its more watry Parts, and thereby be brought into a thicker Confidence, which is perfectly necessary in thin Worts; and in this Article lies so much the Skill of the Brewer, that some will make a longer Length than ordinary from the Goods for Small Beer, to shorten it afterwards in the Copper by Length of boiling, and this way of consuming it is the more natural, because the remaining part will be better Cured.

The laying Worts thin is a most necessary Precaution; for this is one way to prevent their running into Cohesions and Foxing, the want of which Knowledge and Care has undoubtedly been the occasion of great Losses in Brewing; for when Worts are tainted in any considerable degree, they will be ropy in time and unfit for the human Body, as being unwholsome as well as unpleasant. So likewise is his Item of great Importance, when he advises to draw the Worts off fine out of the Backs or Coolers, and leave the Feces or Sediments behind, by reason, as he says, they are the cause of those two detested Qualities in Malt Liquors, staleness and foulness, two Properties that ought to imploy the greatest Care in Brewers to prevent; for 'tis certain these Sediments are a Composition of the very worst part of the Malt, Hops and Yeast, and, while they are in the Barrel, will so tincture and impregnate the Drink with their insanous and unpleasant nature, that its Drinkers will be sure to partic.i.p.ate thereof more or less as they have lain together a longer or a shorter time. To have then a Malt Drink balsamick and mild, the Worts cannot be run off too fine from the Coolers, nor well fermented too slow, that there may be a Medium kept, in both the Salt and Sulphur that all fermented Malt Drinks abound with, and herein, as he says, lies a great part of the Art of Brewing.

He says truly well, that a little Yeast at first should be put to the Wort, that it may quietly work by degrees, and not be violently forc'd into a high Fermentation; for then by course the Salt and Sulphur will be too violently agitated into such an Excess and Disagreement of Parts, that will break their Unity into irregular Commotions, and cause the Drink to be soon stale and harsh. But if it should be too backward and work too moderate, then whipping the Yeast two or three times into it will be of some service to open the Body of the Beer, for as he observes, if Drink has not a due fermentation, it will not be fine, clean, nor light.

His advice to draw the Drink out of the Tun by a c.o.c.k at such a distance from the bottom is right; because that room will best keep the Feces from being disturb'd as the Drink is drawing off, and leaving them behind; but for putting them afterwards over the Malt for Small Beer, I don't hold it consonant with good Brewing, by reason in this Sediment there are many Particles of the Yeast, that consequently will cause a small Fermentation in the Liquor and Malt, and be a means to spoil rather than make good Small Beer.

What he says of filling up the Cask with a reserve of the same Drink, and not with that which has once worked out, is past dispute just and right.

And so is what he says of stopping up the Vessel close after the Fermentation is over; but that it is best to Brew all strong Beer in October, I must here take leave to dissent from the Tenet, because there is room for several Objections in relation to the sort of Malt and Cellar, which as I have before explained, shall say the less here.

As he observes Care should be taken in the Spring to unstop the Vent, lest the warm Weather cause such a Fermentation as may burst the Cask, and also in September, that it be first try'd by Pegging if the Drink is fine, well tasted and the Hop rotted; and then if his Way is liked best, bring the rest into a transparent Fineness; for Clearness in Malt Liquors, as I said before, and here repeat it again, is a most agreeable Quality that every Man ought to enjoy for his Health and Pleasure, and therefore he advises for dispatch in this Affair, and to have the Drink very fine, to rack it off before the Ising-gla.s.s is put in; but I can't be a Votary for this Practice, as believing the Drink must lose a great deal of its Spirits by such shifting; yet I must chime in with his Notion of putting the Wort so often over the Malt till it comes off fine as I have already taught, which is a Method that has been used many Years in the North of England, where they are so curious as to let the Wort lie some time in the Underback to draw it off from the Feces there; nor are they less careful to run it fine out of the Cooler into the Tun, and from that into the Cask; in all which three several Places the Wort and Drink may be had clear and fine, and then there will be no more Sediments than is just necessary to a.s.sist and seed the Beer, and preserving its Spirits in a due Temper. But if Persons have Time and Conveniency, and their Inclination leads them to, obtain their Drink in the utmost Fineness, it is an extraordinary good way to use Hippocrates Sleeve or Flannel Bag, which I did in my great Brew-house at London for straining off the Feces that were left in the Backs. As to the Quant.i.ty of Malt for Brewing a Hogshead of October Beer, I am of Opinion thirteen Bushels are right, and so are ten, fifteen and twenty, according as People approve of; for near Litchfield, I know some have brewed a Hogshead of October Beer from sixteen Bushels of Barley Malt, one of Wheat, one of Beans, one of Pease and one of Oat Malt, besides hanging a Bag of Flower taken out of the last four Malts in the Hogshead for the Drink to feed on, nor can a certain Time Be limited and adjusted for the Tapping of any Drink (notwithstanding what has been affirmed to the contrary) because some Hops will not be rotted so soon as others, and some Drinks will not fine so soon as others; as is evident in the Pale Malt Drinks, that will seldom or never break so soon in the Copper as the Brown sort, nor will they be so soon ripe and fit to Tap as the high dryed Malt Drink will. Therefore what this Gentleman says of trying Drink by first Pegging it before it is Tapp'd, in my Opinion is more just and right than relying on a limited time for Broaching such Beer.