Table beer of a superior quality may be brewed in the following
manner, a process well worth the attention of the gentleman, the
mechanic, and the farmer, whereby the beer is altogether prevented
from working out of the cask, and the fermentation conducted without
any apparent admission of the external air. I have made the scale for
one barrel, in order to make it more generally useful to the community
at large; however the same proportions will answer for a greater or
less quantity, only proportioning the materials and utensils. Take one
peck of good malt, ground, one pound of hops, put them in twenty
gallons of water, and boil them for half an hour; then run them into a
hair-cloth bag or sieve, so as to keep back the hops and malt from the
wort, which when cooled down to sixty-five degrees by Fahrenheit's
thermometer, add to it two gallons of molasses, with one pint, or a
little less, of good yeast. Mix these with your wort, and put the
whole into a clean barrel, and fill it up with cold water to within
six inches of the bung hole (this space is requisite to leave room for
fermentation), bung down tight. If brewed for family use, would
recommend putting in the cock at the same time, as it will prevent the
necessity of disturbing the cask afterward. In one fortnight this beer
may be drawn and will be found to improve to the last.