s to bid defiance
to the hottest temperature of the air, and to render its turning sour
almost impossible. Clean casks are also essential to the preservation of
good beer. To keep the casks sweet and in order, never allow them to
remain open; but whenever the beer is drawn off, bung them up tight with
the lees within them. In a good cellar they will never spoil. Should the
casks get musty, the following method will remedy the evil. Soak them
well for three or four days in cold water, then fill them full of
boiling hot water; put in a lump or two of lime, shake it thoroughly
till quite dissolved, let the casks stand about half an hour, then wash
them out with cold water, and they will be clean and sweet. If still
apprehensive of the beer getting flat or sour, put into a cask
containing eighteen gallons, a pint of ground malt suspended in a bag,
and close the bung perfectly. This will prevent the mischief, and the
beer will improve during the whole time of drawing it. When beer has
actually turned sour, put in some oyster shells, calcined to whiteness,
or a little powdered chalk. Either of these will correct the acidity,
and make it brisk and sparkling. Salt of tartar, or soda powder, put
into the beer at the time of drinking it, will also destroy the acidity,
and make it palatable.

SOUR KROUT. Take some full-grown hard cabbages of the closest texture,
and cut them into slices about an inch thick, opening them a little,
that they may receive the salt more effectually. Rub a good deal of salt
amongst them, lay them into a large pan, and sprinkle more salt over
them. Let them remain twenty-four hours, turning them over four or five
times, that every part may be alike saturated. Next day put the cabbage
into a tub or large jar, pressing it down well, and then pour over it a
pickle made of a pint of salt to a quart of water. This pickle must be
poured on boiling hot, and the cabbage entirely covered with it. Let it
stand thus twenty-four hours longer, when it will have shrunk nearly a
third. Then take the cabbage out, and put it into a fresh tub or jar,
pressing it down well as before, and pour over it a pickle made as
follows. To one quart of the salt and water pickle which had been used
the day before, put three quarts of vinegar, four ounces of allspice,
and two ounces of carraway seeds. This must be poured on cold, so as to
cover the cabbage completely. Let it stand one day loosely covered, and
then stop it down quite