172
_To make elderberry beer or ebulum._ 173
_To make improved purl._ 174
_To brew strong beer._ 175
_To make china ale._ 176
_To make any new liquor drink as stale._ 177
_To recover sour ale._ 177
_To recover liquor that is turned bad._ 178
_Directions for bottling._ 178
_To make ale or beer of cooked malt._ 179
_To make treacle (or molasses) beer._ 181

PREFACE.

When I first entered on the business of Distilling, I was totally
unacquainted with it. I was even so ignorant of the process, as not to
know that fermentation was necessary, in producing spirits from grain. I
had no idea that fire being put under a still, which, when hot enough,
would raise a vapour; or that vapour when raised, could be condensed by
a worm or tube passing through water into a liquid state. In short, my
impressions were, that chop-rye mixed with water in a hogshead, and let
stand for two or three days; and then put into a still, and fire being
put under her, would produce the spirit by boiling up into the worm, and
to pass through the water in order to cool it, and render it palatable
for immediate use--and was certain the whole art and mystery could be
learned in two or three weeks, or months at farthest, as I had
frequently met with persons who professed a knowledge of the business,
which they had acquired in two or three months, and tho' those men were
esteemed distillers, and in possession of all the necessary art, in this
very abstruse science; I soon found them to be ignorant blockheads,
without natural genius, and often, without principle.

Thus benighted, and with only the above light and knowledge, I entered
into the dark, mysterious and abstruse science of distilling, a business
professed to be perfectly understood by many, but in fact not
sufficiently understood by any. For it presents a field for the learned,
and man of science, for contemplation--that by a judicious and
systematic appropriation and exercise of certain elements, valuable and
salutary spirits and beverages may be produced in great perfection, and
at a small expense, and little inconvenienc