_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