Domestic Encyclopædia (1802)/Brewing

BREWING, the art of preparing beer or ale from malt, by extracting all its fermentable parts in the best manner; by adding hops in such proportions as experience has shewn, will preserve and meliorate the extracts; and by causing a perfect fermentation in them, by means of yeast and barm. One of the most approved methods of performing this operation, is as follows:

Take of the purest and softest water you can procure, as much as you will have occasion for; boil it, put it into large tubs, and let it stand exposed to the air to purge itself, at least one week. Grind a sufficient quantity of the best brown, high-dried malt; let it remain four days before you use it, that it may mellow, and dispose itself for fermentation. Fill a copper with your prepared water, and let it boil; then lade about three-quarters of a hogshead into the mash-tub, filling the copper up again, and making it boil. When the water in the mash-tub is cooled to such a degree, that, in consequence of the stream subsiding, you may see your face in it, empty into it, by degrees, nine bushels of the malt, mash it well, and stir it about with the rudder near half an hour, till it is thoroughly wetted, and incorporated with the water: then spread another bushel of malt lightly over its surface, cover the whole with empty sacks to keep in the steam, and leave it for an hour.

At the end of the hour, the water in the copper being boiling, damp the fire, and let the water cool a little as before: then lade as much as is necessary on the mash, till the whole together will yield about a hogshead of wort. When this second quantity of water is added, stir it again well, cover it, and leave it for another bour. Then let the first wort run in a small stream into the under back, and lade another hogshead of hot water on the mash: stir it again as before, cover it, and let it remain for two hours.

In the mean time, return the first wort into the copper, and put into it six pounds of tine brown seedy hops, first rubbing them between the hands. Then make a brisk fire under your copper, till the liquor boils; let it continue to boil till the hops sink; then damp the fire, and strain the liquor into coolers. When it is about as warm as new milk, mix some yeast or barm with it, and leave it to work till the surface appears in curls; then stir and mix the whole properly with a hand-bowl, and let it again ferment. Repeat the stirring with the bowl three times, then tun it, and leave it to work in the hogshead. When it has nearly done working, fill up the cask, and bung it, but let the vent-hole remain open.

Beer thus brewed, though brown, will be as clear as rock-water, and will keep for any length of time.

Set the second wort aside for the next brewing, which, as far as wetting the mash, must be managed exactly in the same manner as the first; but afterwards, instead of water, heat the second wort of the first brewing, and lade it on the mash, which will give the new wort additional strength and softness. Make the second wort of the second brewing with water, and save it for the first wort of the third; and so on for as many brewings as you please. A third wort may be taken from the first brewing, which should be heated and laded on the mash of your second brewing, after taking off the second wort; and thus an additional hogshead of very good mild beer may be procured.

On taking a review of the above process, and the multiplicity of circumstances to be attended to, it is easy to see that the operation of brewing is of a very precarious nature; and requires great skill and dexterity to manage it with complete success. The goodness of the beer will depend on the quality of the malt from which it is made; on the peculiar properties of the water with which it is infused; on the degree of heat applied in the mashing; on the length of time the fusion is continued; on the due manner of boiling the wort, together with the quantity and quality of the hops employed; and on the proper degree of fermentation: to ascertain all which particulars, with precision, constitutes the great mystery of brewing, and can only be learnt by experience and repeated observation.

Mr. Mills, in his "System of Practical Husbandry," and Mr. Combrune, in his "Theory and Practice of Brewing," give the following directions for the choice of materials used in brewing, and for conducting the whole process:

1. Of the Water. Pure rain-water, as being the lightest, is esteemed the most proper. Well and spring waters are commonly hard, and consequently unfit for drawing the tincture completely from any vegetable. River-water, in point of softness, is next to rain-water: and even pond-water, if pure, is equal to any other for brewing.

2. Of Malt. Those malts are to be preferred for brewing, which have been properly wetted and germinated, then dried by a moderate heat, till all the adventitious moisture is evaporated, without being blown, vitrified, or scorched, by too hot or hasty fires. For, the better the malt is dried, the sounder will be the beer brewed from it, and the longer it will keep. In order to ascertain the quality of this article, bite a grain of it asunder, and if it tastes mellow and sweet, breaks soft, and is full of flour from one end to the other, it is good; which may also be known by its swimming on the surface, when put into the water. The best way of grinding it, is to bruise it in a mill composed of two iron cylinders. These break the malt without cutting its husk, so that the hot water instantly pierces its whole substance, and soon draws forth a rich tincture, with much less mashing than in the common way.

3. Of Hops. Experience has proved, that hops slack-dried, or kept in a damp place, are pernicious ingredients for making beer; and likewise, that they yield their aromatic bitter more efficaciously, when boiled in wort than in water: hence, to impregnate the extracts from malt with a due proportion of hops, their strength, as well as that of the extract, should previously be ascertained. The newer the hops are, the better they always prove; the fragrance of their flavour being in some degree lost by keeping, notwithstanding the care used in preserving them. Private families, who regard only the flavour and salubrity of their malt liquors, should use from six to eight bushels of malt to the hogshead of their strongest beer. The quantity of hops must be suited to the taste of the drinker, and to the time the liquor is intended to be kept. From two to three pounds will be sufficient for a hogshead, though some go as far as six pounds.—Mr. Mills is of opinion, that small beer should always be brewed by itself; in which case, two bushels and a half of malt, and a pound and a half of hops, are sufficient to make a hogshead.

4. Of the Vessels used in Brewing. The brew-bouse ibelf, and every vessel in it, ought to be perfectly clean and sweet; for if the vessels are in the least degree tainted, the liquor put into them will contract a disagreeable scent and taste. A vessel of the most simple and excellent contrivance, among the multiplicity of brewing utensils adapted to family purposes, is that of Mr. J. B. Bordley, an ingenious American, who has described it in his "Essays and Notes on Husbandry and Rural Affairs;" (Philadelphia, 1799) He terms his process, by way of distinction, a tripartite method of brewing; because the kettle-apparatus, represented in the subjoined cut is worked in three divisions. The whole vessel is 40 inches long, 20 broad, and 24 deep: namely, division a, is thirteen; b, nine; and c, two inches deep. The dotted lines are marked, where the perforated moveable bottoms are placed.—In a, is the water or wort; b, contains the malt; and into c, the hot water is pumped up, or poured over from a to c, by means of the small pump, d; and thus passes through every particle of the malt; so that, by frequent agitation, the water in a manner washes out its whole substance, and extracts all its farinaceous and saccharine ingredients. This operation is repeated, occasionally stirring up the grains, till the liquor becomes clear; when it should be briskly boiled (see the subsequent directions), and then drained off into coolers. Mr. Bordley ingenuously acknowledges, that a Swedish method of brewing in camp afforded him the hint for this invention. He also observes, that his tripartite kettle is made of copper, and the small pump of metal; though we are inclined to think that, for the latter, wood, or pure tin, would be preferable to brass, in order to prevent the formation of verdigrise. At the bottom is a cock in one side of the vessel. On the whole, we consider this as the most proper and convenient piece of machinery, ever contrived for family-brewing.

5. Of the heat of the water for Mashing. Particular care should be taken, that the malt be not put into the water whilst boiling hot. In order to bring the water to an exact heat, Mr. Combrune advises us, to put on the fire 22 quarts, gallons, or barrels, according to the quantity wanted; and when it has just arrived at the boiling point of the thermometer, to add 10 similar measures of cold water, which, when mixed with the former, will be of a temperature not exceeding 161° of Fahrenheit: and this he considers as the most proper heat for mashing. He farther remarks, that water which has endured the fire the shortest time, presided it be hot enough, will make the strongest extract.

6. Of Mashing. When the water is brought to a due heat, the malt is to be put in very leisurely, and uniformly mixed with it.

7. Of boiling the Wort. As the design of boiling the wort is to clear the liquor of its impurities, and to obtain the virtue of the hop, a much shorter time than usual is sufficient. Long boiling of the hop is a most pernicious practice, and produces an austere, nauseous bitter, but not a pleasant aromatic one. Instead of adding the hops to the wort, when this is put into the copper, or before it boils, they may be infused about five minutes before the wort is taken off the fire: if this is not sufficient to give the desired degree of fragrant bitter, ten minutes may be taken, or as much longer as will be found necessary. Mr. Mills prefers putting the hops to the wort towards the latter end of the boiling, rather than at the beginning, because the continued boiling of the liquor is apt to dissipate their fragrance.

8. Of Fermentation. One gallon of yeast, in the coldest fermenting weather is, according to Mr. Combrune, sufficient to ferment the extract from one quarter of malt; and, if properly managed, will yield two gallons of yeast. Great care should be taken in the choice of yeasts, as they are liable to be soon tainted, and very readily communicate their infection to the liquors fermented. The whole process of fermentation should be carried on in the slowest and coolest manner; so that the temperature, which at the commencement was between 40 and 50° of Fahrenheit, should very gradually be raised to the 70th degree. Fermentation will always succeed best, where the air is purest.—If too hot water has been employed for obtaining strong and fatty extracts, from the malt, fermentation will be retarded: on the contrary, in weak extracts, it is so much accelerated, that the whole soon becomes sour. When the fermentation is at its height, all the feculent matter, or foul yeast, which rises on the surface, must be carefully skimmed off, whatever be the quality of the liquor. The beer, as soon as it is tolerably clear, should be racked off into perfectly clean and sweet casks; and, when managed in this manner, will remain a long time in a state of perfection.

9. Of fining the Liquor. As the excellency of all fermented liquors depends, in a great measure, on their transparency, it often becomes necessary to resort to artificial means, in order to bring them to this state of perfection, if the process of fermentation has been mismanaged. Thus, a solution of isin-glass in stale beer, is used to fine and precipitate other beers: but, as this method has proved ineffectual in brown beers, we are informed by Mr. Combrune, that brewers "sometimes put one pound of oil of vitriol into one butt, though four ounces should never be exceeded in that quantity." On this subject we refer the reader to p. 239 of our work.

10. Of the distempers of Malt Liquors. Among the distempers incident to beer, one, which has been found most difficult to cure, is that of its appearing ropy. A bunch of hyssop put into the cask will, however, effectually remedy this evil.—A satisfactory account of the different methods of recovering flat, tart, or sour beer, having been already given in this Encyclopædia, p. 240 and 241, it would be superfluous to repeat it in this place.

It deserves to be remarked, that brown beer, made from well-dried malt, is, in the opinion of Mr. Combrune, less heating than pale beer, brewed from slack-dried malt. If extracts from pale malt be made with very hot water, they will keep sound for a long time; but those obtained from brown malt, with too cold water, will frequently turn sour.

Having thus afforded an analytical view of this important subject, we shall conclude it with an account of the latest patents, which have been granted to those who have contributed, or attempted to improve, the Art of Brewing.

In March, 1788, Mr. W. Ker, of Kerfield, Tweedale, received the King's patent for his improvement in brewing ale, beer, porter, and other malt liquors, so as to save a considerable portion of hops, to produce the liquors of a superior flavour and quality, and render them less liable to become acid or putrid. The steam which arises from the boiling copper, is known to be strongly impregnated with the essential oil of the hops, in which their flavour consists. Instead, therefore, of allowing it to escape and evaporate, as it does in the common mode of brewing, Mr. Ker contrives to preserve and condense it, by means of a winding-pipe fixed to the copper, similar to the worm of a still, or by a straight pipe passing through cold water, or any other cooling medium. The oil and water, thus obtained, are returned into the worts, when boiled; or the oil, after being separated from the water, along with which it had been exhaled, is returned into the worts after they are boiled; and the watery part, which, after the oil is separated, still continues impregnated with the aromatic taste and bitter of the hop, is returned into the next copper or boiling vessel, and so on, from one copper or boiling vessel into another. By this process, a considerable part of the hop and flavour, which is lost in the ordinary mode of brewing, is preserved; the flavour of the liquor is improved by the preservation of the finer parts of the aromatic oil; and the ale and beer are better secured from any tendency to acidity or putrefaction, and therefore must be fitter for home consumption and exportation.

In June, 1790, Mr. John Long, of Ireland, obtained a patent for an improvement, which he calls an entire new method, in all the essential parts, of brewing good malt liquor. Though his method, in one respect, is similar to that adopted by Mr. Ker, yet, as it comprehends the whole process of brewing, we shall lay it before our readers, nearly in the words of its author.

1. For the better extracting the virtues of malt, place near a mash-tun a shallow copper, or other vessel, that will readily heat, the curb of which to be on a level with the tun, and to contain from two to six hogsheads, according to the dimension of the tun, more or less; and, at the lower end of the copper, have a cock, from two to five inches in diameter, to conduct the heated liquor from the copper into a tube, which passes down the external part of the tun, and enters it through an aperture about six inches from the bottom; then forming two revolutions, more or less, through the body of the tun, and communicating its heat to the wort as it passes through the tube; and then, at a convenient distance from the place where it first entered, it runs from the tun into a cistern or tub, situate as near as convenient to the copper or heating-vessel. In the tub or cistern is to be placed a pump, for the purpose of conveying the cooler liquor back to the copper or heating vessel again, there to receive the heat of 208 degrees, more or less (which it will require after the first half hour), and then convey it through the mashing-tun, as before, and in the same manner, as long as the working brewer may think necessary, to raise the mashing-tun to any degree of heat required. By adhering to the foregoing process, the first liquor may, with the greatest safety, be let upon the malt, from 20 to 30 degrees lower than the present practice; by which means it operates with gentleness, opens and expands the malt, and prepares it for the reception of sharper or warmer liquor, so as to extract the whole of the saccharine quality from the malt. By the foregoing method, the mashing-tun, instead of loosing its first heat (which it does by the present practice), continues to increase in heat every moment, by conveying the heated liquor through the tube into the tun; by which means, at the end of two hours, the working brewer can have the tun brought to any degree of heat he shall think best suited to the different qualities of the malt. Persons who would wish to save expence, may heat their mashing-tun at the side or bottom, by a large piece of metallic substance made fire-proof, and fixed therein; which, in some degree, will answer the end proposed, but with great trouble and delay.

2. To prevent the wort from receiving a disagreeable flavour, while in the under-back, a tube must be placed at the cock of the mashing-tun, to receive the wort as it comes off, and convey it to a great cistern, or refrigeratory, which is supplied with a stream of water. The wort, passing through that medium in a spiral tube, soon loses that heat which so often proves prejudicial to the brewer in warm weather: it is then poured from the tube into a vessel in which pumps are placed, to return the worts into the copper, for the purpose of boiling off.

3. As the great object of long boiling the wort is remedied, by this invention of taking the extract from the hops in a separate manner from the worts, Mr. Long boils the latter no longer than from fifteen to twenty minutes; and, by pursuing that method, he saves much time and fuel, and regulates the length of time accordingly.

4. He steeps his hops, the preceding day to which they are to be used, in a copper or other vessel, with as much fluid, blood-warm, as will cover the hops; where it is to remain over a slow fire at least fourteen hours, close covered; the copper, at the tenth hour, not to be of a greater heat than 175 degrees, continuing slow until the last hour. Then he brings the copper gradually to a simmer, or slow boil; in which state he suffers it to remain about ten minutes, and then runs off the fluid; and this he does at the same time the first wort is boiled off, that they may both pass together through the refrigeratory, into the fermentation or working-tun. After the foregoing operation, he covers the hops again with other liquor, brings the copper to boil as soon as convenient, and lets it remain in that state a considerable time, until the second worts are boiled off. Then he passes the hop-fluid with the wort, the same as in the first instance; and, if there is a third wort, he boils the hops a third time with small worts, and drains off the liquid as before; by which means he gradually obtains the whole of the essential oil and pleasant bitter from the hops, which is effectually preserved in the beer.

5. When the wort is boiled off, it is conducted from the cock of the copper or boiler into a tube of a proper dimension, which passes the wort from the cock to the large cistern or refrigeratory, and there performs several revolutions, in a spiral manner, through the same tube; which is immersed in a constant supply of cold water, where it loses the greatest part of its heat in a short time, and thence continues a straight course through the tube, a little elevated, and of a suitable length, placed in brick-work, until it meets a small refrigeratory, supplied with colder water from a reservoir made for that purpose, at the head of the works; whence a continual stream runs on the surface of the tube down to the great refrigeratory, cooling the wort as it passes, in order to enable the working brewer to send it into the backs, or working-tuns, at whatever degree of heat he may think proper. The tubes may be made of lead, or any other metallic substance.

6. To enable him to brew in the warm summer months, Mr. Long sinks the backs, or working-tuns, at least to a level with the ground, but if deeper the better, and covers them closely by an arch made of bricks, or other materials, that will totally exclude the atmospheric air. He then places them as near as possible to a spring or sand-drain, as their depth will naturally draw the water thence, which must be so contrived as to pass or flow round the backs or tuns. Next, he introduces a large tube, which passes through the tuns, and keeps the wort several degrees lower than can possibly be done by the present practice; by winch means he produces a complete fermentation, even in the dog-days.

7. In cold or ftosty weather, if the tun and backs should lose the first heat, intended to be conducted through the process by the foregoing method, a supply of warm or boiling water may be conveyed by the tube, which passes through the body of the backs or tun, communicating its heat, which rises to any degree the working brewer shall think proper: by pursuing this method, in the coldest season, a fermentation may always be procured.

In February 1798, Dr. Richard Shannon obtained a patent for his method of improving the processes of brewing, distilling, boiling, evaporating, raising, applying and condensing steam or vapour from aqueous, spirituous, saccharine, saline and other fluids. The principle of his invention consists chiefly in the following arrangement: By covering and making the mash-tun air-tight, and casing it round, under and over, with a steam-tight casing, so that, during the mashing and soaking of the malt and grain used, the heat may be preserved, or raised and regulated to any pitch, by the application of steam, both in and between the casing of the mash-tun; by which contrivance, the whole of the farina and substance of the grain may be as effectually extracted in one, or at most in two mashings, as is now done in three or four. The steam, conducted by a proper tube or pipe, is to be also employed for sweetening and cleansing all the brewing, distilling, and vinegar-making utensils, and casks employed in each, &c. so as in future to prevent furring, foxing, &c. even in the inmost crevices.

In June 1798, the same patentee, in partnership with Mr. Robert Burnett, of Vauxhall, procured another patent, for the discovery of a principle and invention of a method of improving the process of fermentation, by which porter, beer, ale, malt and molasses wash, wine, cyder and all other saccharine and fermentable fluids, may be conducted with certainty through the vinous process of fermentation in mild, warm, hot, and cold weather, without being materially injured as heretofore, by the different changes of the atmosphere, &c.—But as these improvements depend on the application of an expensive pneumatic apparatus, which does not appear to us adapted to the use of families, we refer the reader to the tenth and fourteenth volumes of the "Repertory of Arts and Manufactures," where he will find a detailed specification of both patents.

The last patent we shall mention, is that of Mr. Thornton, of East Smithfield; which, being dated April 15, 1778, is earlier than either of the preceding, and does not strictly relate to the process of brewing, as his invention consists in a new method of reducing malt and hops to an essence or extract, from which beer may be made either at sea or in distant countries. The whole is managed by the transmitted heat of compressed vapour of boiling water, and a proper apparatus for that purpose. This apparatus may be made of iron, tin, or copper: it consists of a boiler of any dimensions, a double vessel, and conducting tubes. The double vessel consists of one vessel placed within another, and fitted tight at their rims. The upper vessel forms the upper part of the under vessel, and contains the liquor to be evaporated. The under vessel is every where inclosed, except at an aperture communicating with the boiler, and at another aperture communicating with the conducting tubes; and is constructed so as not to allow any part of the vapour condensed into drops within it to escape, except back again into the boiler: it is not so extensive as to act as a common refrigeratory, and yet is capacious enough to prevent the liquor boiling over. The aperture communicating with the boiler, is large enough to freely admit the vapour from the boiler into the under vessel; and the aperture communicating with the conducting tubes, is of a proper size to allow of the vapour in the under vessel being compressed, to a degree capable of transmitting to the liquor to be evaporated a proper heat, and at the same time to serve as a passage for more heat than is necessary to keep up that degree of compression. The conducting tubes are to convey this superfluous heat or vapour, to be used for farther purposes, or immediately out of the building.

Those of our readers who are desirous of farther information on the subject, may consult the last edition of "Philosophical Principles of Brewing," by Mr. Richardson, of Hull; a work of acknowledged merit, and practical utility.