ARTICLE I.
_Observations on Wood for Hogsheads._
The cheapest and easiest wrought wood is generally most used for making
mashing tubs, or hogsheads, and very often for dispatch or from
necessity, any wood that is most convenient is taken, as pine or
chesnut; indeed I have seen poplar tubs in use for mashing, which is
very wrong, as a distiller by not having his hogsheads of good wood, may
lose perhaps the price of two sets of hogsheads in one season. For
instance, a farmer is about to erect a distillery, and is convenient to
a mountain, abounding in chesnut or pine, which from its softness and
the ease with which it may be worked, its convenience for dispatch sake,
is readily chosen for his mashing hogsheads.--To such selection of wood,
I offer my most decided disapprobation, from my long experience, I
know that any kind of soft wood will not do in warm weather. Soft porus
wood made up into mashing tubs when full of beer and under fermentation,
will contract, receive or soak in so much acid, as to penetrate nearly
thro' the stave, and sour the vessel to such a degree, in warm weather,
that no scalding will take it out--nor can it be completely sweetened
until filled with cold water for two or three days, and then scalded; I
therefore strongly recommend the use of, as most proper
_White Oak._
Disapproving of black, tho' next in order to white oak staves for all
the vessels about the distillery ... as being the most durable of close
texture, easily sweetened ... and hard to be penetrated by acids of any
kind, tho' sometimes the best white oak hogsheads may sour, but two or
three scaldings will render them perfectly sweet ... if white oak cannot
be had, black oak being of the next best in quality may be used ... and
again I enter my protest against pine, chesnut, poplar, and every kind
of soft porus wood.
If possible, or if at all convenient, have the vessels iron bound and
painted, to prevent worms and the weather from injuring them, using one
good wood hoop on the bottom to save the chine.
ART. II.
_To sweeten Hogsheads by scalding._
When you turn your vessels out of doors (for it is esteemed slothful and
a lazy mode to scald them in the still house,) you must wash them clean
with your scrubbing brush, then put in sixteen or twenty gallons boiling
water--cover it close for about twenty minutes, then scrub it out
effectually with your scrubbing broom, then rinse your vessel well with
a couple buckets clean cold water, and set them out to receive the
air--this method will do in the winter, provided they are left out in
the frost over night--but in summer, and especially during the months of
July and August, this mode will not do--it is during those extreme warm
months in our latitude, that the vessels are liable to contract putrid
particles, which may be corrected by the following mode of making
_Hogsheads perfectly sweet._
Scald them twice, as above directed, then light a brimstone match, flick
it on the ground, turn your hogshead down over it, let it stand until
the match quits burning, this operation is necessary once a week--a
method I have found effectual.
ART. III.
_To sweeten Hogsheads by burning._
When you have scalded your hogsheads well, put into each, a large
handful of oat or rye straw, set it on fire, and stir it till it is in
a blaze, then turn the mouth of the hogshead down; the smoke will purify
and sweeten the cask. This process should be repeated every other day,
especially during summer--it will afford you good working casks,
provided your yeast be good, and your hogsheads are well mashed.
There ought always to be in a distillery more vessels than are necessary
for immediate use, that they may alternately be exposed to the frost and
air one night at least before brought into service, always bearing in
mind that the utmost attention to cleanliness is necessary, in order to
afford such yield from the grain, or fruit, as may be requisite to
compensate for the expense and labor of extracting spirits--and
moreover, that the exercise of the finest genius possessed by man is
scarcely capable of taking from small grain, all the spirit it
contains:.... good materials will not suffice ... the most marked
attention is indispensably necessary to yeast; a mind capable of judging
of fermentation in all its stages ... a close adherence to the manner of
using the ingredients ... preparing them, and the use of sweet vessels,
with great industry and a knowledge to apply it at the proper moment,
are all necessary to enable the accomplishment of the desired end.
Note ... In scalding your hogshead I would recommend the use of a shovel
full of ashes, which will scald more sharply.