The London and Country Brewer by Anonymous
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Anonymous >> The London and Country Brewer
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THE
LONDON and COUNTRY
BREWER
1736
Containing an Account,
I. Of the Nature of the Barley-Corn, and of the proper Soils and
Manures for the Improvement thereof.
II. Of making good Malts.
III. To know good from bad Malts.
IV. Of the Use of the Pale, Amber, and Brown Malts.
V. Of the Nature of several Waters, and their Use in Brewing.
VI. Of Grinding Malts.
VII. Of Brewing in general.
VIII. Of the _London_ Method of Brewing Stout, But-Beer, Pale and Brown
Ales.
IX. Of the Country or Private Way of Brewing.
X. Of the Nature and Use of the Hop.
XI. Of Boiling Malt liquors, and to Brew a Quantity of Drink in a little
Room, and with a few Tubs.
XII. Of Foxing or Tainting of Malt Liquors; their Prevention and Cure.
XIII. Of Fermenting and Working of Beers and Ales, and the unwholesome
Practice of Beating in the Yeast, detected.
XIV. Of several artificial Lees for feeding, fining, preserving, and
relishing Malt Liquors.
XV. Of several pernicious Ingredients put into Malt Liquors to encrease
their Strength.
XVI. Of the Cellar or Repository for keeping Beers and Ales.
XVII. Of Sweetening and Cleaning Casks.
XVIII. Of Bunging Casks and Carrying them to some Distance.
XIX. Of the Age and Strength of Malt Liquors.
XX. Of the Profit and Pleasure of Private Brewing and the Charge of
Buying Malt Liquors.
To which is added,
XXI. A Philosophical Account of Brewing Strong _October_ Beer.
By an Ingenious Hand.
By a Person formerly concerned in a Common Brewhouse at _London_, but for
twenty Years past has resided in the Country.
The SECOND EDITION, Corrected.
LONDON
Printed for Messeurs Fox, at the _Half-Moon and Seven Stars_, in
_Westminster-Hall_. M.DCC.XXXVI.
[Price Two Shillings.]
THE PREFACE.
The many Inhabitants of Cities and Towns, as well as Travellers, that have
for a long time suffered great Prejudices from unwholsome and unpleasant
Beers and Ales, by the badness of Malts, underboiling the Worts, mixing
injurious Ingredients, the unskilfulness of the Brewer, and the great
Expense that Families have been at in buying them clogg'd with a heavy
Excise, has moved me to undertake the writing of this Treatise on Brewing,
Wherein I have endeavour'd to set in sight the many advantages of Body
and Purse that may arise from a due Knowledge and Management in Brewing
Malt Liquors, which are of the greatest Importance, as they are in a
considerable degree our Nourishment and the common Diluters of our Food;
so that on their goodness depends very much the Health and Longevity of
the Body.
This bad Economy in Brewing has brought on such a Disrepute, and made our
Malt Liquors in general so odious, that many have been constrain'd, either
to be at an Expence for better Drinks than their Pockets could afford, or
take up with a Toast and Water to avoid the too justly apprehended ill
Consequences of Drinking such Ales and Beers.
Wherefore I have given an Account of Brewing Beers and Ales after several
Methods; and also several curious Receipts for feeding, fining and
preserving Malt Liquors, that are most of them wholsomer than the Malt
itself, and so cheap that none can object against the Charge, which I
thought was the ready way to supplant the use of those unwholsome
Ingredients that have been made too free with by some ill principled
People meerly for their own Profit, tho' at the Expence of the Drinker's
Health.
_I hope I have adjusted that long wanted Method of giving a due Standard
both to the Hop and Wort, which never was yet (as I know of) rightly
ascertain'd in Print before, tho' the want of it I am perswaded has been
partly the occasion of the scarcity of good Drinks, as is at this time
very evident in most Places in the Nation. I have here also divulg'd the
Nostrum of the Artist Brewer that he has so long valued himself upon, in
making a right Judgment when the Worts are boiled to a true Crisis; a
matter of considerable Consequence, because all strong Worts may be boiled
too much or too little to the great Loss of the Owner, and without this
Knowledge a Brewer must go on by Guess; which is a hazard that every one
ought to be free from that can; and therefore I have endeavor'd to explode
the old Hour-glass way of Brewing, by reason of the several Uncertainties
that attend such Methods and the hazard of spoiling both Malt and Drink;
for in short where a Brewing is perform'd by Ladings over of scalding
Water, there is no occasion for the Watch or Hour-glass to boil the Wort
by, which is best known by the Eye, as I have both in this and my second
Book made appear.
I have here observed that necessary Caution, which is perfectly requisite
in the Choice of good and the Management of bad Waters; a Matter of high
Importance, as the Use of this Vehicle is unavoidable in Brewing, and
therefore requires a strict Inspection into its Nature; and this I have
been the more particular in, because I am sensible of the great Quantities
of unwholsome Waters used not only by Necessity, but by a mistaken Choice.
So also I have confuted the old received Opinion lately published by an
Eminent Hand, that long Mashings are the best Methods in Brewing; an Error
of dangerous Consequence to all those who brew by Ladings over of the hot
Water on the Malt.
The great Difficulty and what has hitherto proved an Impediment and
Discouragement to many from Brewing their own Drinks, I think, I have in
some measure removed, and made it plainly appear how a Quantity of Malt
Liquor may be Brewed in a little Room and in the hottest Weather, without
the least Damage by Foxing or other Taint.
The Benefit of Brewing entire Guile small Beer from fresh Malt, and the
ill Effects of that made from Goods after strong Beer or Ale; I have here
exposed, for the sake of the Health and Pleasure of those that may easily
prove their advantage by drinking of the former and refusing the latter.
By the time the following Treatise is read over and thoroughly considered,
I doubt not but an ordinary Capacity will be in some degree a better Judge
of good and bad Malt Liquors as a Drinker, and have such a Knowledge in
Brewing that formerly he was a stranger to; and therefore I am in great
Hopes these my Efforts will be one Principal Cause of the reforming our
Malt Liquors in most Places; and that more private Families than ever will
come into the delightful and profitable Practice of Brewing their own
Drinks, and thereby not only save almost half in half of Expence, but
enjoy such as has passed thro' its regular Digestions, and is truly
pleasant, fine, strong and healthful.
I Question not but this Book will meet with some Scepticks, who being
neither prejudiced against the Introduction of new Improvements, or that
their Interests will be hereby eclipsed in time; To such I say I do not
write, because I have little hopes to reform a wrong Practice in them by
Reason and Argument. But those who are above Prejudice may easily judge of
the great Benefits that will accrue by the following Methods, I have here
plainly made known, and of those in my Second Book that I have almost
finished and hope to publish in a little time, wherein I shall set forth
how to Brew without boiling Water or Wort, and several other Ways that
will be of considerable Service to the World_.
[Illustration]
CHAP. I.
_Of the Nature of the Barley-Corn, and of the proper Soils and Manures for
the Improvement thereof_.
This Grain is well known to excel all others for making of Malts that
produce those fine _British_ Liquors, Beer and Ale, which no other Nation
can equalize; But as this Excellency cannot be obtain'd unless the several
Ingredients are in a perfect State and Order, and these also attended with
a right judgment; I shall here endeavour to treat on their several
particulars, and first of Soils.
This Grain I annually sow in my Fields on diversities of Soils, and
thereby have brought to my knowledge several differences arising
therefrom. On our Red Clays this Grain generally comes off reddish at both
ends, and sometimes all over, with a thick skin and tuff nature, somewhat
like the Soil it grows in, and therefore not so valuable as that of
contrary qualities, nor are the black blewish Marly Clays of the Vale much
better, but Loams are, and Gravels better than them, as all the Chalks are
better then Gravels; on these two last Soils the Barley acquires a whitish
Body, a thin skin, a short plump kernel, and a (unreadable) flower,
which occasions those, fine pale and amber Malts made at _Dunstable_,
_Tring_ and _Dagnal_ from the Barley that comes off the white and gravelly
Grounds about those Places; for it is certain there is as much difference
in Barley as in Wheat or other Grain, from the sort it comes off, as
appears by the excellent Wheats that grow in the marly vale Earths, Peas
in Sands, and Barley in Gravels and Chalks, &c. For our Mother Earth, as
it is destinated to the service of Man in the production of Vegetables, is
composed of various sorts of Soils for different Seeds to grow therein.
And since Providence has been pleased to allow Man this great privilege
for the imployment of his skill and labour to improve the same to his
advantage; it certainly behoves us to acquaint ourselves with its several
natures, and how to adapt an agreeable Grain and Manure to their natural
Soil, as being the very foundation of enjoying good and bad Malts. This is
obvious by parallel Deductions from Turneps sown on rank clayey loamy
Grounds, dressed with noxious Dungs that render them bitter, tuff, and
nauseous, while those that grow on Gravels, Sands and Chalky Loams under
the assistance of the Fold, or Soot, Lime, Ashes, Hornshavings, &c. are
sweet (unreadable) and pleasant. 'Tis the same also with salads,
Asparagus, Cabbages, Garden-beans and all other culinary Ware, that come
off those rich Grounds glutted with the great quantities of _London_ and
other rank Dungs which are not near so pure, sweet and wholsome, as those
produced from Virgin mould and other healthy Earths and Manures.
There is likewise another reason that has brought a disreputation on some
of the Chiltern-barley, and that is, the too often sowing of one and the
same piece of Ground, whereby its spirituous, nitrous and sulphureous
qualities are exhausted and worn out, by the constant attraction of its
best juices for the nutriment of the Grain: To supply which, great
quantities of Dungs are often incorporated with such Earths, whereby they
become impregnated with four, adulterated, unwholsome qualities, that so
affect the Barley that grows therein, as to render it incapable of making
such pure and sweet Malts, as that which is sown in the open
Champaign-fields, whose Earths are constantly rested every third Year
called the Fallow-season, in order to discharge their crude, phlegmatick
and sour property, by the several turnings that the Plough gives them part
of a Winter and one whole Summer, which exposes the rough, clotty loose
parts of the Ground, and by degrees brings them into a condition of making
a lodgment of those saline benefits that arise from the Earths, and
afterwards fall down, and redound so much to the benefit of all Vegetables
that grow therein, as being the essence and spring of Life to all things
that have root, and tho' they are first exhaled by the Sun in vapour from
the Earth as the spirit or breath thereof, yet is it return'd again in
Snows, Hails, Dews, etc. more than in Rains, by which the surface of the
Globe is saturated; from whence it reascends in the juices of Vegetables,
and enters into all those productions as food, and nourishment, which the
Creation supplies.
Here then may appear the excellency of steeping Seed-barley in a liquor
lately invented, that impregnates and loads it with Nitre and other Salts
that are the nearest of all others to the true and original Spirit or Salt
of the Earth, and therefore in a great measure supplies the want thereof
both in inclosure and open Field; for even in this last it is sometimes
very scarce, and in but small quantities, especially after a hot dry
Summer and mild Winter, when little or no Snows have fell to cover the
Earth and keep this Spirit in; by which and great Frosts it is often much
encreased and then shews itself in the warmth of well Waters, that are
often seen to wreak in the cold Seasons. Now since all Vegetables more or
less partake of those qualities that the Soil and Manures abound with in
which they grow; I therefore infer that all Barley so imbibed, improves
its productions by the ascension of those saline spirituous particles that
are thus lodged in the Seed when put into the Ground, and are part of the
nourishment the After-Crop enjoys; and for this reason I doubt not, but
when time has got the ascendant of prejudice, the whole Nation will come
into the practice of the invaluable Receipt published in two Books,
entituled, _Chiltern and Vale Farming Explained_, and, _The Practical
Farmer_; both writ by _William Ellis_ of _Little Gaddesden_ near
_Hempstead_ in _Hertfordshire_, not only for Barley, but other Grains.
But notwithstanding Barley may grow on a light Soil with a proper Manure;
and improved by the liquor of this Receipt, yet this Grain may be damaged
or spoiled by being mown too soon, which may afterwards be discovered by
its shrivelled and lean body that never will make right good Malt; or if
it is mown at a proper time, and if it be housed damp, or wettish, it will
be apt to heat and mow-burn, and then it will never make so good Malt,
because it will not spire, nor come so regularly on the floor as that
which was inned dry.
Again, I have known one part of a Barley-crop almost green at Harvest,
another part ripe, and another part between both, tho' it was all sown at
once, occasion'd by the several situations of the Seed in the Ground, and
the succeeding Droughts. The deepest came up strong and was ripe soonest,
the next succeeded; but the uppermost, for want of Rain and Cover, some of
it grew not at all, and the rest was green at Harvest. Now these
irregularities are greatly prevented and cured by the application of the
ingredients mentioned in the Receipt, which infuses such a moisture into
the body of the Seed, as with the help of a little Rain and the many Dews,
makes it spire, take root and grow, when others are ruined for want of the
assistance of such steeping.
Barley like other Grain will also degenerate, and become rank, lean and
small bodied, if the same Seed is sown too often in the Soil; 'tis
therefore that the best Farmers not only change the Seed every time, but
take due care to have it off a contrary Soil that they sow it in to; this
makes several in my neighbourhood every Year buy their Barley-seed in the
Vale of _Ailsbury_, that grew there on the black clayey marly Loams, to
sow in Chalks, Gravels, &c. Others every second Year will go from hence to
_Fullham_ and buy the Forward or Rath-ripe Barley that grows there on
Sandy-ground; both which Methods are great Improvements of this Corn, and
whether it be for sowing or malting, the plump, weighty and white Barley-
corn, is in all respects much kinder than the lean flinty Sorts.
CHAP. II
_Of making_ Malts.
As I have described the Ground that returns the best Barley, I now come to
treat of making it into Malt; to do which, the Barley is put into a leaden
or tyled Cistern that holds five, ten or more Quarters, that is covered
with water four or six Inches above the Barley to allow for its Swell;
here it lyes five or six Tides as the Malster calls it, reckoning twelve
Hours to the Tide, according as the Barley is in body or in dryness; for
that which comes off Clays, or has been wash'd and damag'd by Rains,
requires less time than the dryer Grain that was inned well and grew on
Gravels or Chalks; the smooth plump Corn imbibing the water more kindly,
when the lean and steely Barley will not so naturally; but to know when it
is enough, is to take a Corn end-ways between the Fingers and gently crush
it, and if it is in all parts mellow, and the husk opens or starts a
little from the body of the Corn, then it is enough: The nicety of this is
a material Point; for if it is infus'd too much, the sweetness of the Malt
will be greatly taken off, and yield the less Spirit, and so will cause
deadness and sourness in Ale or Beer in a short time, for the goodness of
the Malt contributes much to the preservation of all Ales and Beers. Then
the water must be drain'd from it very well, and it will come equal and
better on the floor, which may be done in twelve or sixteen Hours in
temperate weather, but in cold, near thirty. From the Cistern it is put
into a square Hutch or Couch, where it must lye thirty Hours for the
Officer to take his Gage, who allows four Bushels in the Score for the
Swell in this or the Cistern, then it must be work'd Night and Day in one
or two Heaps as the weather is cold or hot, and turn'd every four, six or
eight Hours, the outward part inwards and the bottom upwards, always
keeping a clear floor that the Corn that lies next to it be not chill'd;
and as soon as it begins to come or spire, then turn it every three, four
or five Hours, as was done before according to the temper of the Air,
which greatly governs this management, and as it comes or works more, so
must the Heap be spreaded and thinned larger to cool it. Thus it may lye
and be work'd on the floor in several parallels, two or three Foot thick,
ten or more Foot broad, and fourteen or more in length to Chip and Spire;
but not too much nor too soft; and when it is come enough, it is to be
turned twelve or sixteen times in twenty-four Hours, if the Season is
warm, as in _March, April_ or _May_; and when it is fixed and the Root
begins to be dead, then it must be thickned again and carefully kept often
turned and work'd, that the growing of the Root may not revive, and this
is better done with the Shoes off than on; and here the Workman's Art and
Diligence in particular is tryed in keeping the floor clear and turning
the Malt often, that it neither moulds nor Aker-spires, that is, that the
Blade does not grow out at the opposite end of the Root; for if it does,
the flower and strength of the Malt is gone, and nothing left behind but
the Aker-spire, Husk and Tail: Now when it is at this degree and fit for
the Kiln, it is often practised to put it into a Heap and let it lye
twelve Hours before it is turned, to heat and mellow, which will much
improve the Malt if it is done with moderation, and after that time it
must be turned every six Hours during twenty four; but if it is
overheated, it will become like Grease and be spoiled, or at least cause
the Drink to be unwholsome; when this Operation is over, it then must be
put on the Kiln to dry four, six or twelve Hours, according to the nature
of the Malt, for the pale sort requires more leisure and less fire than
the amber or brown sorts: Three Inches thick was formerly thought a
sufficient depth for the Malt to lye on the Hair-cloth, but now six is
often allowed it to a fault; fourteen or sixteen Foot square will dry
about two Quarters if the Malt lyes four Inches thick, and here it should
be turned every two, three or four Hours keeping the Hair-cloth clear: The
time of preparing it from the Cistern to the Kiln is uncertain; according
to the Season of the Year; in moderate weather three Weeks is often
sufficient. If the Exciseman takes his Gage on the floor he allows ten in
the Score, but he sometimes Gages in Cistern, Couch, Floor and Kiln, and
where he can make most, there he fixes his Charge: When the Malt is dryed,
it must not cool on the Kiln, but be directly thrown off, not into a Heap,
but spreaded wide in an airy place, till it is thoroughly cool, then put
it into a Heap or otherwise dispose of it.
There are several methods used in drying of Malts, as the Iron
Plate-frame, the Tyle-frame, that are both full of little Holes: The
Brass-wyred and Iron-wyred Frame, and the Hair-cloth; the Iron and Tyled
one, were chiefly Invented for drying of brown Malts and saving of Fuel,
for these when they come to be thorough hot will make the Corns crack and
jump by the fierceness of their heat, so that they will be roasted or
scorch'd in a little time, and after they are off the Kiln, to plump the
body of the Corn and make it take the Eye, some will sprinkle water over
it that it may meet with the better Market. But if such Malt is not used
quickly, it will slacken and lose its Spirits to a great degree, and
perhaps in half a Year or less may be taken by the Whools and spoiled:
Such hasty dryings or scorchings are also apt to bitter the Malt by
burning its skin, and therefore these Kilns are not so much used now as
formerly: The Wyre-frames indeed are something better, yet they are apt to
scorch the outward part of the Corn, that cannot be got off so soon as the
Hair-cloth admits of, for these must be swept, when the other is only
turned at once; however these last three ways are now in much request for
drying pale and amber Malts, because their fire may be kept with more
leisure, and the Malt more gradually and truer dyed, but by many the
Hair-cloth is reckoned the best of all.
Malts are dryed with several sorts of Fuel; as the Coak, Welch-coal,
Straw, Wood and Fern, &c. But the Coak is reckoned by most to exceed all
others for making Drink of the finest Flavour and pale Colour, because it
sends no smoak forth to hurt the Malt with any offensive tang, that Wood,
Fern and Straw are apt to do in a lesser or greater degree; but there is a
difference even in what is call'd Coak, the right sort being large Pit-
coal chark'd or burnt in some measure to a Cinder, till all the Sulphur is
consumed and evaporated away, which is called Coak, and this when it is
truly made is the best of all other Fuels; but if there is but one Cinder
as big as an Egg, that is not thoroughly cured, the smoak of this one is
capable of doing a little damage, and this happens too often by the
negligence or avarice of the Coak-maker: There is another sort by some
wrongly called Coak, and rightly named Culme or Welch-coal, from _Swanzey_
in _Pembrokeshire_, being of a hard stony substance in small bits
resembling a shining Coal, and will burn without smoak, and by its
sulphureous effluvia cast a most excellent whiteness on all the outward
parts of the grainy body: In _Devonshire_ I have seen their Marble or grey
Fire-stone burnt into Lime with the strong fire that this Culme makes, and
both this and the Chark'd Pit-coal affords a most sweet moderate and
certain fire to all Malt that is dryed by it.
Straw is the next sweetest Fuel, but Wood and Fern worst of all.
Some I have known put a Peck or more of Peas, and malt them with five
Quarters of Barley, and they'll greatly mellow the Drink, and so will
Beans; but they won't come so soon, nor mix so conveniently with the Malt,
as the Pea will.
I knew a Farmer, when he sends five Quarters of Barley to be Malted, puts
in half a Peck or more of Oats amongst them, to prove he has justice done
him by the Maker, who is hereby confin'd not to Change his Malt by reason
others won't like such a mixture.
But there is an abuse sometimes committed by a necessitous Malster, who to
come by Malt sooner than ordinary, makes use of Barley before it is
thoroughly sweated in the Mow, and then it never makes right Malt, but
will be steely and not yield a due quantity of wort, as I knew it once
done by a Person that thrashed the Barley immediately from the Cart as it
was brought out of the Field, but they that used its Malt suffered not a
little, for it was impossible it should be good, because it did not
thoroughly Chip or Spire on the floor, which caused this sort of Malt,
when the water was put to it in the Mash-tub, to swell up and absorb the
Liquor, but not return its due quantity again, as true Malt would, nor was
the Drink of this Malt ever good in the Barrel, but remain'd a raw insipid
beer, past the Art of Man to Cure, because this, like Cyder made from
Apples directly off the Tree, that never sweated out their phlegmatick
crude juice in the heap, cannot produce a natural Liquor from such
unnatural management; for barley certainly is not fit to make Malt of
until it is fully mellowed and sweated in the Mow, and the Season of the
Year is ready for it, without both which there can be no assurance of good
Malt: Several instances of this untimely making Malt I have known to
happen, that has been the occasion of great quantities of bad Ales and
Beers, for such Malt, retaining none of its Barley nature, or that the
Season of the Year is not cold enough to admit of its natural working on
the Floor, is not capable of producing a true Malt, it will cause its
Drink to stink in the cask instead of growing fit for use, as not having
its genuine Malt-nature to cure and preserve it, which all good Malts
contribute to as well as the Hop.
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