onducted 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 65 degrees by Fahrenheit's thermometer, add
to them 2 gallons of molasses, with one pint, or a little less, of good
yest, mix these with your wort, and put the whole into a clean barrel,
and fill it up with cold water to within four inches of the bung hole,
(this space is requisite to leave room for fermentation,) bung down
tight, and 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 afterwards; in one fortnight this beer might be drawn, and
will be found to improve to the last.

_Fermenting and Cleansing in the same Vessel._

The following recommendation to brewers is well worth their attention,
that is, to ferment their strong, or what they call their stock beer,
in the vat they propose to keep it in, until fit to turn out; this
practice will be found advantageous to the flavour and preserving
quality of such beer, as close fermentation has a decided preference
over what is termed open. One or more workers may be placed in the side
of such vat, a few inches above the surface of the enclosed liquor;
thus the head as it rises will have the opportunity of running off;
such fermentation should further be conducted coolly and slowly, the
pitching heat, in this case, should not exceed 60 degrees of
Fahrenheit, and the yest one third in quantity less than if applied in
open vessels, but the yest should be mixed with a double quantity of
the wort at 65, in a separate vessel before pitching. When vats are
wanting, the operation may be conducted in hogsheads or butts, allowing
a tin or wooden worker to each cask. In brewing small quantities of
strong beer, this contrivance supersedes the necessity of fermenting
tuns, or troughs, no small saving of expense, whilst it makes the beer
more spiritous and preserving. The annexed plate shows the form and
application of the worker, whether of tin or wood.

[Illus