Note 19 — PART II. THE PRACTICE OF BREWING.

We had rather attribute to this cause, the inferior quality of the Worcestershire hops, than to what is reported. That some planters in that county suffer their hops to be so ripe on the poles, that they become very brown before they are gathered: to recover their color, on the fire of the kiln they strew brimstone, which brings them to a fine yellow; the dryness and harshness this acid occasions, they correct by sprinkling the hops with milk, from whence they bag closer, and require little straining, but two ingredients more pernicious to the forming good beers, perhaps, could not have been thought of, than milk and brimstone.