water _boil_. You then put into the mashing-tub water sufficient _to stir
and separate the malt in_. But now let me say more particularly what this
mashing-tub is. It is, you know, to contain _sixty gallons_. It is to be a
little broader at top than at bottom, and not quite so deep as it is wide
across the bottom. Into the middle of the bottom there is a hole about two
inches over, to draw the wort off through. In this hole goes a stick, a
foot or two longer than the tub is high. This stick is to be about two
inches through, and _tapered_ for about eight inches upwards at the end
that goes into the hole, which at last it fills up closely as a cork. Upon
the hole, before any thing else be put into the tub, you lay a little
bundle of _fine birch_, (heath or straw _may_ do,) about half the bulk of
a birch broom, and well tied at both ends. This being laid over the hole
(to keep back the grains as the wort goes out,) you put the tapered end of
the stick down through into the hole, and thus _cork_ the hole up. You
must then have something of weight sufficient to keep the birch steady at
the bottom of the tub, with a hole through it to slip down the stick;
otherwise when the stick is raised it will be apt to raise the birch with
it, and when you are stirring the mash you would move it from its place.
The best thing for this purpose will be a _leaden collar_ for the stick,
with the hole in the collar plenty large enough, and it should weigh three
or four pounds. The thing they use in some farm-houses is the iron box of
a wheel. Any thing will do that will slide down the stick, and lie with
weight enough on the birch to keep it from moving. Now, then, you are
ready to begin brewing. I allow _two bushels_ of malt for the brewing I
have supposed. You must now put into the mashing-tub as much boiling water
as will be sufficient to _stir the malt in_ and _separate it well_. But
here occur some of the nicest points of all; namely, the _degree of heat_
that the water is to be at, before you put in the malt. This heat is _one
hundred and seventy degrees_ by the thermometer. If you have a
thermometer, this is ascertained easily; but, without one, take this rule,
by which so much good beer has been made in England for hundreds of years:
when you can, by looking down into the tub, _see your face clearly in the
water_, the water is become cool enough; and you must not put the malt in
before. Now put in the malt and _stir it well in the water_. To perform
this stirring, which is very necessary, you have a stick, somewhat bigger
than a broom-stick, with two or three smaller sticks, eight or ten inches
long, put through the lower end of it at about three or four inches
asunder, and sticking out on each side of the long stick. These small
cross sticks serve to search the malt and separate it well in the stirring
or _mashing_. Thus, then, the _malt is in_; and in this state it should
continue for about a quarter of an hour. In the mean while you will have
filled up your copper, and made it _boil_; and now (at the end of the
quarter of an hour) you put in boiling water sufficient to give you your
eighteen gallons of _ale_. But, perhaps, you must have thirty gallons of
water in the whole; for the grains will retain at least ten gallons of
water; and it is better to have rather too much wort than too little. When
your proper quantity of water is in, stir the malt again well. Cover the
mashing-tub over with _sacks_, or something that will answer the same
purpose; and there let the mash stand for _two hours_. When it has stood
the two hours, you draw off the wort. And now, mind, the mashing-tub is
placed on a _couple of stools_, or on something, that will enable you to
put the _underbuck_ under it, so as to receive the wort as it comes out of
the hole before-mentioned. When you have put the underbuck in its place,
you let out the wort by pulling up the stick that corks the whole. But,
observe, this stick (which goes six or eight inches through the hole) must
be raised by degrees, and the wort must be let out _slowly_, in order to
keep back the _sediment_. So that it is necessary to have something to
_keep the stick up_ at the point where you are to raise it, and wish to
fix it at for the time. To do this, the simplest, cheapest and best thing
in the world is a _cleft stick_. Take a _rod_ of ash, hazel, birch, or
almost any wood; let it be a foot or two longer than your mashing-tub is
wide over the top; _split_ it, as if for making hoops; tie it round with a
string at each end; lay it across your mashing-tub; pull it open in the
middle, and let the upper part of the wort-stick through it, and when you
raise that stick, by degrees as before directed, the cleft stick _will
hold it up_ at whatever height you please.
44. When you have drawn off the _ale-wort_, you proceed to put into the
mashing tub water for the _small beer_. But, I shall go on with my
directions about the _ale_ till I have got it into the _cask_ and
_cellar_; and shall then return to the small-beer.
45. As you draw off the ale-wort into the underbuck, you must lade it out
of that into the tun-tub, for which work, as well as for various other
purposes in the brewing, you must have a _bowl-dish_ with a handle to it.
The underbuck will not hold the whole of the wort. It is, as before
described, a shallow tub, to go _under_ the mashing-tub to draw off the
wort into. Out of this underbuck you must lade the ale-wort into the
_tun-tub_; and there it must remain till your _copper_ be emptied and
ready to receive it.
46. The copper being empty, you put the wort into it, and put in after the
wort, or before it, _a pound and a half of good hops_, well rubbed and
separated as you put them in. You now make the copper boil, and keep it,
with the lid off, at a good _brisk_ boil, for a _full hour_, and if it be
an hour and a half it is none the worse.
47. When the boiling is done, put out your fire, and put the liquor into
the _coolers_. But it must be put into the coolers _without the hops_.
Therefore, in order to get the hops out of the liquor, you must have a
_strainer_. The best for your purpose is a small _clothes-basket_, or any
other wicker-basket. You set your coolers in the most convenient place. It
may be in-doors or out of doors, as most convenient. You lay a couple of
sticks across one of the coolers, and put the basket upon them. Put your
liquor, hops and all, into the basket, which will _keep back the hops_.
When you have got liquor enough in one cooler, you go to another with your
sticks and basket, till you have got all your liquor out. If you find your
liquor deeper in one cooler than the other, you can make an alteration in
that respect, till you have the liquor so distributed as to cool equally
fast in both, or all, the coolers.
48. The next stage of the liquor is in the _tun-tub_, where it is _set to
work_. Now, a very great point is, the _degree of heat_ that the liquor is
to be at when it is set to working. The proper heat is seventy degrees; so
that a thermometer makes this matter sure. In the country they determine
the degree of heat by merely putting a finger into the liquor. Seventy
degrees is but _just warm_, a gentle _luke-warmth_. Nothing like _heat_. A
little experience makes perfectness in such a matter. When at the proper
heat, or nearly, (for the liquor will cool a little in being removed,) put
it into the _tun-tub_. And now, before I speak of the act of setting the
beer to work, I must describe this _tun-tub_, which I first mentioned in
Paragraph 42. It is to hold _thirty gallons_, as you have seen; and
nothing is better than an old _cask_ of that size, or somewhat larger,
with the head taken out, or cut off. But, indeed, any tub of sufficient
dimensions, and of about the same depth proportioned to the width as a
cask or barrel has, will do for the purpose. Having put the liquor into
the tun-tub, you put in the _yeast_. About _half a pint_ of good yeast is
sufficient. This should first be put into a thing of some sort that will
hold about a gallon of your liquor; the thing should then be nearly filled
with liquor, and with a stick or spoon you should mix the yeast well with
the liquor in this bowl, or other thing, and stir in along with the yeast
a handful of _wheat or rye flour_. This mixture is then to be poured out
clean into the tun-tub, and the whole mass of the liquor is then to be
agitated well by lading up and pouring down again with your bowl-dish,
till the yeast be well mixed with the liquor. Some people do the thing in
another manner. They mix up the yeast and flour with some liquor (as just
mentioned) taken out of the coolers; and then they set the little vessel
that contains this mixture down _on the bottom of the tun-tub_; and,
leaving it there, put the liquor out of the coolers into the tun-tub.
Being placed at the bottom, and having the liquor poured on it, the
mixture is, perhaps, more perfectly effected in this way than in any way.
The _flour_ may not be necessary; but, as the country people use it, it
is, doubtless, of some use; for their hereditary experience has not been
for nothing. When your liquor is thus properly put into the tun-tub and
set a working, cover over the top of the tub by laying across it a sack or
two, or something that will answer the purpose.
49. We now come to the _last stage_; the _cask_ or _barrel_. But I must
first speak of the place for the tun-tub to stand in. The place should be
such as to avoid too much warmth or cold. The air should, if possible, be
at about 55 degrees. Any cool place in summer and any _warmish_ place in
winter. If the weather be _very cold_, some cloths or sacks should be put
round the tun-tub while the beer is working. In about six or eight hours,
a _frothy_ head will rise upon the liquor; and it will keep rising, more
or less slowly, for about forty-eight hours. But, the _length of time_
required for the working depends on various circumstances; so that no
precise time can be fixed. The best way is, to take off the froth (which
is indeed _yeast_) at the end of about twenty-four hours, with a common
skimmer, and put it into a pan or vessel of some sort; then, in twelve
hours' time, take it off again in the same way; and so on till the liquor
has _done working_, and sends up no more yeast. Then it is _beer_; and
when it is _quite cold_ (for _ale_ or _strong beer_) put it into the
_cask_ by means of a _funnel_. It must be cold before you do this, or it
will be what the country-people call _foxed_; that is to say, have a rank
and disagreeable taste. Now, as to the _cask_, it must be _sound_ and
_sweet_. I thought, when writing the former edition of this work, that the
_bell-shaped_ were the best casks. I am now convinced that that was an
error. The bell-shaped, by contracting the width of the top of the beer,
as that top descends, in consequence of the draft for use, certainly
prevents the _head_ (which always gathers on beer as soon as you begin to
draw it off) from breaking and mixing in amongst the beer. This is an
advantage in the bell-shape; but then the bell-shape, which places the
widest end of the cask uppermost, exposes the cask to the admission of
_external air_ much more than the other shape. This danger approaches from
the _ends_ of the cask; and, in the bell-shape, you have the _broadest_
end wholly exposed the moment you have drawn out the first gallon of beer,
which is not the case with the casks of the common shape. Directions are
given, in the case of the bell-casks, to put _damp sand_ on the top to
keep out the air. But, it is very difficult to make this effectual; and
yet, if you do not keep out the air, your beer will be _flat_; and when
flat, it really is good for nothing but the pigs. It is very difficult to
_fill_ the bell-cask, which you will easily see if you consider its shape.
It must be placed on the _level_ with the greatest possible _truth_, or
there will be a space left; and to place it with such truth is, perhaps,
as difficult a thing as a mason or bricklayer ever had to perform. And
yet, if this be not done, there will be an _empty space_ in the cask,
though it may, at the same time, run over. With the common casks there are
none of these difficulties. A common eye will see when it is well placed;
and, at any rate, any little vacant space that may be left is not at an
_end_ of the cask, and will, without great carelessness, be so small as to
be of no consequence. We now come to the act of putting in the beer. The
cask should be placed on a stand with legs about a foot long. The cask,
being round, must have a little wedge, or block, on each side to keep it
steady. _Bricks_ do very well. Bring your beer down into the cellar in
buckets, and pour it in through the funnel, until the cask be full. The
cask should _lean a little on one side_, when you fill it; because the
beer will _work again_ here, and send more yeast out of the bung-hole;
and, if the cask were not a little on one side, the yeast would flow over
both sides of the cask, and would not descend in _one stream_ into a pan,
put underneath to receive it. Here the bell-cask is extremely
inconvenient; for the yeast works up all _over the head_, and _cannot run
off_, and makes a very nasty affair. This _alone_, to say nothing of the
other disadvantages, would decide the question against the bell-casks.
Something will _go off in this working_, which may continue for two or
three days. When you put the beer in the cask, you should have a _gallon
or two left_, to keep filling up with as the working produces emptiness.
At last, when the working is completely over, _right_ the cask. That is to
say, block it up to its level. Put in a handful of _fresh hops_. Fill the
cask quite full. Put in the bung, with a bit of _coarse linen_ stuff round
it; hammer it down tight; and, if you like, fill a coarse bag with sand,
and lay it, well pressed down, over the bung.
50. As to the length of time that you are to keep the beer before you
begin to use it, that must, in some measure, depend on taste. _Such beer_
as this _ale_ will keep almost any length of time. As to the mode of
_tapping_, that is as easy almost as _drinking_. When the cask is _empty_,
great care must be taken to cork it _tightly up_, so that no air get in;
for, if it do, the cask is _moulded_, and when once moulded, it is
_spoiled for ever_. It is never again fit to be used about beer. Before
the cask be used again, the grounds must be poured out, and the cask
cleaned by several times scalding; by putting in _stones_ (or a _chain_,)
and rolling and shaking about till it be quite clean. Here again the round
casks have the decided advantage; it being almost impossible to make the
bell-casks thoroughly clean, without _taking the head out_, which is both
troublesome and expensive; as it cannot be well done by any one but a
_cooper_, who is not always at hand, and who, when he is, must be _paid_.
51. I have now done with the _ale_, and it remains for me to speak of the
_small beer_. In Paragraph 47 (which now see) I left you drawing off the
_ale-wort_, and with your copper full of boiling water. Thirty-six gallons
of that boiling water are, as soon as you have got your ale-wort out, and
have put down your mash-tub stick to close up the hole at the bottom; as
soon as you have done this, thirty-six gallons of the boiling water are to
go into the mashing-tub; the grains are to be well stirred up, as before;
the mashing-tub is to be covered over again, as mentioned in Paragraph 43;
and the mash is to stand in that state for _an hour_, and not two hours,
as for the ale-wort.
52. When the small beer mash has stood its hour, draw it off as in
Paragraph 47, and put it into the tun-tub as you did the ale-wort.
53. By this time your copper will be _empty_ again, by putting your
ale-liquor to cool, as mentioned in Paragraph 47. And you now put the
small beer wort _into the copper_, with the hops that you used before, and
with _half a pound of fresh hops_ added to them; and this liquor you boil
briskly for _an hour_.
54. By this time you will have taken the grains and the sediment clean out
of the mashing-tub, and taken out the bunch of birch twigs, and made all
clean. Now put in the birch twigs again, and put down your stick as
before. Lay your two or three sticks across the mashing-tub, put your
basket on them, and take your liquor from the copper (putting the fire out
first) and pour it into the mashing-tub through the basket. Take the
basket away, throw the hops to the dunghill, and leave the small beer
liquid _to cool in the mashing-tub_.
55. Here it is to remain to be _set to working_ as mentioned for the ale,
in Paragraph 48; only, in this case, you will want _more yeast in
proportion_; and should have for your thirty-six gallons of small beer,
three half pints of good yeast.
56. Proceed, as to all the rest of the business, as with the ale, only, in
the case of the small beer, it should be put into the cask, not _quite
cold_, but a _little warm_; or else it will not work at all in the barrel,
which it ought to do. It will not work so strongly or so long as the ale;
and may be put in the barrel much sooner; in general the next day after it
is brewed.
57. All the utensils should be well cleaned and put away as soon as they
are done with; the _little_ things as well as the great things; for it is
_loss of time_ to make new ones. And, now, let us see the _expense_ of
these utensils. The copper, _new_, 5_l._; the mashing-tub, _new_, 30_s._;
the tun-tub, not new, 5_s._; the underbuck and three coolers, not new,
20_s._ The whole cost is 7_l._ 10_s._ which is ten shillings less than the
_one bushel machine_. I am now in a farm-house, where the _same set_ of
utensils has been used for _forty years_; and the owner tells me, that,
with the same use, they may last for _forty years longer_. The machine
will not, I think, last _four years_, if in any thing like regular use. It
is of sheet-iron, _tinned on the inside_, and this tin _rusts_
exceedingly, and is not to be kept clean without such _rubbing_ as must
soon take off the tin. The great advantage of the machine is, that it can
be _removed_. You can brew without a _brew-house_.--You can set the boiler
up against any fire-place, or any window. You can brew under a cart-shed,
and even out of doors. But all this may be done with _these utensils_, if
your _copper_ be moveable. Make the boiler of _copper_, and not of
sheet-iron, and fix it on a stand with a fire-place and stove-pipe; and
then you have the whole to brew out of doors with as well as in-doors,
which is a very great convenience.
58. Now with regard to the _other_ scale of brewing, little need be said;
because, all the principles being the same, the utensils only are to be
proportioned to the _quantity_. If only one sort of beer be to be brewed
at a time, all the difference is, that, in order to extract the whole of
the goodness of the malt, the mashing ought to be at _twice_. The two
worts are then put together, and then you boil them together with the
hops.
59. A Correspondent at _Morpeth_ says, the whole of the utensils used by
him are a twenty-gallon _pot_, a mashing-tub, that also answers for a
tun-tub, and a shallow tub for a cooler; and that these are plenty for a
person who is any thing of a contriver. This is very true; and these
things will cost no more, perhaps, than _forty shillings_. A nine gallon
cask of beer can be brewed very well with such utensils. Indeed, it is
what used to be done by almost every labouring man in the kingdom, until
the high price of malt and comparatively low price of wages rendered the
people too poor and miserable to be able to brew at all. A Correspondent
at Bristol has obligingly sent me the model of utensils for _brewing on a
small scale_; but as they consist chiefly of _brittle ware_, I am of
opinion that they would not so well answer the purpose.
60. Indeed, as to the country labourers, all they want is the ability to
_get the malt_. Mr. ELLMAN, in his evidence before the Agricultural
Committee, said, that, when he began farming, forty-five years ago, there
was not a labourer's family in the parish that did not brew their own beer
and enjoy it by their own fire-sides; and that, _now, not one single
family did it, from want of ability to get the malt_. It is the _tax_ that
prevents their getting the malt; for, the barley is cheap enough. The tax
causes a monopoly in the hands of the maltsters, who, when the tax is
_two_ and _sixpence_, make the malt, cost 7_s._ 6_d._, though the barley
cost but 2_s._ 6_d._; and though the malt, tax and all, ought to cost him
about 5_s._ 6_d._ If the tax were taken off, this _pernicious monopoly_
would be destroyed.
61. The reader will easily see, that, in proportion to the quantity wanted
to be brewed must be the size of the utensils; but, I may observe here,
that the above utensils are sufficient for three, or even four, bushels of
malt, if stronger beer be wanted.
62. When it is necessary, in case of falling short in the quantity wanted
to fill up the ale cask, some may be taken from the small beer. But, upon
the _whole brewing_, there ought to be no falling short; because, if the
casks be not _filled up_, the beer will not be good, and certainly will
not _keep_. Great care should be taken as to the _cleansing_ of the
_casks_. They should be made perfectly _sweet_; or it is impossible to
have good beer.
63. The cellar, for beer to keep any length of time, should be cool. Under
_a hill_ is the best place for a cellar; but, at any rate, a cellar of
good depth, and _dry_. At certain times of the year, beer that is kept
long will ferment. The vent-pegs must, in such cases, be loosened a
little, and afterwards fastened.
64. Small beer may be tapped almost directly. It is a sort of joke that it
should _see a Sunday_; but, that it may do before it be two days old. In
short, any beer is better than water; but it should have some strength and
some _weeks_ of age at any rate.
65. I cannot conclude this Essay without expressing my pleasure, that a
law has been recently passed to authorize the general retail of beer. This
really seems necessary to prevent the King's subjects from being
_poisoned_. The brewers and porter quacks have carried their tricks to
such an extent, that there is _no safety_ for those who drink brewer's
beer.
66. The best and most effectual thing is, however, for people to _brew
their own beer_, to enable them and induce them to do which, I have done
all that lies in my power. A longer treatise on the subject would have
been of no use. These few plain directions will suffice for those who have
a disposition to do the thing, and those who have not would remain unmoved
by any thing that I could say.
67. There seems to be a _great number of things to do_ in brewing, but the
greater part of them require only about a _minute_ each. A brewing, such
as I have given the detail of above, may be completed in _a day_; but, by
the word _day_, I mean to include the _morning_, beginning at four
o'clock.
68. The putting of the beer into barrel is not more than an hour's work
for a servant woman, or a tradesman's or a farmer's wife. There is no
_heavy_ work, no work too heavy for a woman in any part of the business,
otherwise I would not recommend it to be performed by the women, who,
though so amiable in themselves, are never quite so amiable as when they
are _useful_; and as to beauty, though men may fall in love with girls at
_play_, there is nothing to make them stand to their love like seeing them
at _work_. In conclusion of these remarks on beer brewing, I once more
express my most anxious desire to see abolished for ever the accursed tax
on _malt_, which, I verily believe, has done more harm to the people of
England than was ever done to any people by plague, pestilence, famine,
and civil war.
69. In Paragraph 76, in Paragraph 108, and perhaps in another place or two
(of the last edition,) I spoke of the _machine_ for brewing. The work
being _stereotyped_, it would have been troublesome to alter those
paragraphs; but, of course, the public, in reading them, will bear in mind
what has been _now_ said relative to the _machine_. The inventor of that
machine deserves great praise for his efforts to promote private brewing;
and, as I said before, in certain confined situations, and where the beer
is to be merely _small beer_, and for _immediate use_, and where _time_
and _room_ are of such importance as to make the _cost_ of the machine
comparatively of trifling consideration, the machine may possibly be found
to be an useful utensil.
70. Having stated the inducements to the brewing of beer, and given the
plainest directions that I was able to give for the doing of the thing, I
shall, next, proceed to the subject of _bread_. But this subject is too
large and of too much moment to be treated with brevity, and must,
therefore, be put off till my next Number. I cannot, in the mean while,
dismiss the subject of _brewing beer_ without once more adverting to its
many advantages, as set forth in the foregoing Number of this work.
71. The following instructions for the making of _porter_, will clearly
show what sort of stuff is sold at _public-houses_ in London; and we may
pretty fairly suppose that the public-house beer in the country is not
superior to it in quality, "A quarter of malt, with these ingredients,
will make _five barrels of good porter_. Take one quarter of high-coloured
malt, eight pounds of hops, nine pounds of _treacle_, eight pounds of
_colour_, eight pounds of sliced _liquorice-root_, two drams of _salt of
tartar_, two ounces of _Spanish-liquorice_, and half an ounce of
_capsicum_." The author says, that he merely gives the ingredients, as
_used by many persons_.