ing more quickly.

43. You begin by filling the copper with water, and next by making the
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;