PART II. THE PRACTICE OF BREWING. (continued 3)

A TABLE shewing the quantities of yeast necessary for common small beer in every season.

Heat of the air.Pints of yeast to one quarter of malt.

359}The whole quantity of yeast to be put into the first wort.

408

458

507——————————————————

557}The first wort to have ¾ The second wort to have ¼

606

656}——————————————————

705The first worth to have one half of the whole quantity. The second worth to have the remainder.

755

804

A TABLE shewing the quantities of yeast necessary for all keeping drinks, both brown and pale, small and strong.

Heat of the worts37Pints of yeast to one quarter of malt.

306

356

406

456

506

555

60538

654

704

753

803

A TABLE shewing the quantities of yeast necessary for amber and all sorts of ales, after which small beer is made.

Heat of the air.Pints of yeast to one quarter of malt.

307½

357

407

456½

506

555½

605

654½

704

753½

803

This table is founded on the supposition that, the virtue or strength extracted from one quarter of malt for amber, is equal to 5/6 of the whole. In every heat of the air, the quantity of yeast to be used for common small beer made after ale, must be one fifth part of the quantity which the ale required, the additional strength obtained from reboiling the hops, requiring further proportion; if, for keeping small beer, nearly in the proportion of six pints of yeast to five barrels of beer, this will be found to correspond with the rule delivered in the foregoing table.

SECTION XVI.

Of practical Fermentation, and the management of the several sorts of Malt Liquors, to the period, at which they are to be cleansed or put into the Casks.

The laws of fermentation are universal and uniform; and when it proceeds regularly, its different periods are known by the different appearances of the fermenting liquor. As a particular appellation is given to each of these, it may not be unnecessary here to describe them.

1. The first sign of a wort fermenting is a fine white line, composed of very small air bubbles, attached to the sides of the tun; the wort is then said to have taken yeast.

2. When these air bubbles are extended over the whole surface of the must, it is said to be creamed over.

3. Bubbles continuing to rise, a thin crust is formed; but as the fermentation advances rather faster near the sides of the tun, than in the middle, this crust is continually repelled; from which arises the denomination of the wort parting from the tun side.

4. When the surface becomes uneven, as if it were rock work, this stage of fermentation, which has no particular use, is distinguished by its height.

5. When the head becomes lighter, more open, more uniform, and of a greater depth, being round or higher in the middle, than in any other part, and seeming to have a tendency still to rise, the liquor is denominated to be of so many inches, head not fit to cleanse.

6. This head having risen to its greatest height, begins to sink, to become hollow in the middle, and, at the same time, more solid, the colours changing to a stronger yellow or brown; the wort is then said to be fit to cleanse.

After this, no farther distinctions are made; if the fermentation is suffered to proceed in the tun, the head continues to sink, and the liquor is often injured.

As the denominations and tastes of liquors brewed from malt are numerous, it is impossible to specify each separate one; we shall therefore only particularize such sorts of drinks, as were taken notice of in the section of extraction, they being most in use; but, from what will be said concerning them, the method of managing any other malt liquor may easily be deduced.

Spontaneous pellucidity arises from a due proportion of the oils to the salts, in the worts, but the advantage of long keeping depends not only on the quantity of oils and hops the musts possess, but also on the fermentation being carried on in a slow and cool manner. All drinks, intended long to be kept, are therefore best formed in cold weather, and made to receive their yeast at such temperature, as is set forth in the table. The yeast is to be divided in proportion to the quantities of wort let down, until the whole, being mixed together, receives its allotted portion, except so much as is to be put in just before cleansing. Under these circumstances, drinks, which are brewed for keeping, are suffered to go through the first process of fermentation, till they are so attenuated, that the liquor becomes light, and the head, or the yeast, laying on the surface of the beer, begins to sink. When, or somewhat before, this head has fallen to nearly half the greatest height it reached to, a remarkable vinous smell is perceived, and the liquor, at this term, is to be put into casks, being first well roused with the remaining part of the yeast, in the manner mentioned in the preceding section.

By the description given of the origin of yeast, it appears that it is formed rather of the coarser oils of the worts. If the cleansing is not done when the head is sunk down to half the greatest height it rose to, by falling lower, some part of these coarser oils return into the beer, then under fermentation, and gives it a flat, greasy taste, technically termed yeast bitten. When, on the contrary, beers or ales are removed too soon from the first tumultuous fermentation, for want of having been sufficiently attenuated, and from not having deposited their lees, nor thrown up in flowers their coarser oils, they are less vinous, than otherwise they would have been, appear heavy, aley, and are said not to have their body sufficiently opened.

The fermentation of common small beer is, through necessity, carried on so hastily, that it is hardly possible to wait for the signs, which direct the cleansing of other beers. This drink being generally brewed and fermented within twenty four hours, its state, with regard to fermentation, is best judged of, by the quantity of its froth or head at the time of cleansing, which, in proportion to the heat of the air, may be determined by the following table.

A TABLE shewing the depth of head, which common small beer should have to be properly cleansed, in every season of the year.

Heat of the air.Head on the beer in the tun.

25 Degrees6 inches.

305

354¼

403½

452¾

502

551½

601

65¾

70½

75¼

80just taken.

As it is chiefly by the action of the air that wines are formed, if we contrive to shift this powerful agent on the surface of a must under fermentation, and to convey it more forcibly and hastily into the wort, its efficacy will be renewed, the fermentation accelerated, the liquor quickly become transparent, and soon be brought to the state of maturity age might slowly make it arrive at.

Amber, or pale ales, require the hottest extracts pellucidity admits of to be made strong, and at the same time soft and smooth to the palate; but, as ales do not admit of any large quantity of hops, which would alter their nature, there is a necessity to perform hastily the act of fermentation, and to carry it on to a higher degree than is common in other malt drinks. The method of exciting and conducting repeated fermentations, with success, is perhaps not only the most difficult, but the most curious, part of the process, I shall therefore conclude, with an account of it, what I have to say with regard to the practice of fermentation.

The amber wort being let down, at its proper degree of heat, into the fermenting tun, out of the whole quantity of yeast allowed for this drink, in the table, page 317, one seventh part must be kept to be used as hereafter shall be mentioned. Suppose the heat of the air is at 40 degrees, and eight quarters of malt have been brewed for this purpose; the whole of the yeast required is seven gallons, from which one is to be reserved.39 Of the six remaining gallons, one half, or three, are to be put to the wort oh its first coming down, when the whole must be well roused, or mixed, thoroughly to disperse the enlivening principle the yeast conveys, hereby to prevent putrefaction, or foxing in any part, and of the last three gallons, about three quarts must be added to the drink, every twelve hours, until it ferments to the highest pitch of the period mentioned in article 5, page 319. This successive putting in of yeast is called40feeding the drink; before and about the time the head is got to this height, all the dirt or foul yeast, that rises on the surface, must be carefully skimmed off; it is easily distinguished from the pure white froth, by its color, and by the sinking of the head occasioned by its weight. Length of time might attenuate some of these coarser oils, in a less artificial fermentation, but as this help is not to be waited for, and every obstacle to pellucidity must be removed, the brewer’s attention to this point cannot be too great.—The head of the drink having reached its utmost height, the reserved gallon of yeast is to be used, in order to give to the ale a sufficient power to bear the repeated fermentations it is to undergo, by being beat in, every two hours, with a jett or scoope, for one quarter of an hour, so that the head on the drink is each time to be reduced to the least height it is capable of. This striking in being continued, the drink will periodically require it, and be damaged if it be neglected. After it has undergone more or less of these fermentations, in proportion to the heats of the worts and of the air, the brewer is carefully to observe, when the head ceases to rise to its accustomed height, and then to examine the drink, by having the jett filled with it at the bottom, and brought through the whole body to the top, a small part of which being poured in a handgatherer, he will see whether the lees form themselves in large white flakes, and readily subside, and be informed, by the taste, whether the sweet of the wort is gone off, and the ale become vinous. If these two circumstances concur, the drink is to be beat in with the jett as before, but not roused as porter or other beers are; for the lees, which in this drink are in greater quantity, would, by this management, so intimately be mixed with it, as with difficulty to separate themselves again, if at all. It is then time to cleanse it; but the casks, at all times, more especially in summer, must be well filled up with clean drink, that is, part of the very drink, which was cleansed, avoiding that produced in the stillings, as this, for want of standing a sufficient time, is always yeasty, and the yeast, being greatly attenuated by the working of the drink, easily dissolves in the ale, and renders it foul and ill-tasted.

As the right forming of amber ales is looked upon to be the highest pitch of the art of pale beer brewing, I have dwelt longer on this article than otherwise it might seem necessary, to shew the connexion there is between every sort of malt liquors: but it should be observed, the same method of fermenting it, is to be practised both winter and summer, varying only the quantities of yeast in proportion to the season; for where, in winter time, this drink is fed with three quarts of yeast every twelve hours, half a gallon will answer the same intent in summer. Upon the whole, the process is contrived to accelerate fermentation, yet, the more coolly and gently it is performed, the better will the ales be. I have before hinted, if Madeira wines were fermented in this manner, they would sooner become fit for use, more especially as they need no ferment to excite them. However, this method of forming drink to be soon fit for use, has, either through interest or prejudice, been taxed with being unwholesome, but upon what grounds, I must confess I could never yet discover, as no reason of any moment has ever been alledged for this assertion.

SECTION XVII.

Of the signs generally directing the processes of Brewing, and their comparison with the forgoing Theory and Practice.

We have now brought our barley wines into the casks, and this on principles, it is thought, agreeable and consonant to each other. As the charge of novelty may be alledged, to invalidate what has been offered, it is but just to pay so much regard to a long, and, upon the whole, successful practice, as to recite, if not all, at least the principal maxims and signs in brewing, which hitherto have guided the artist. By comparing these with the present method, they will not only illustrate each other, but perhaps cause both to be better understood; and though, with respect to the art itself, this may be thought rather a curious than an instructive part, yet we may learn, from hence, that such practice, which long experience has proved to be right, will always correspond with true theory.

1. When a white flour settles, either in the underback or copperback, which sometimes is the case of a first extract, it is a sure sign such an extract has not been made sufficiently hot, or, in technical terms, that the liquor has been taken too slack.

Malt, when dried, has its oils made tenacious, in proportion to the power of heat it has been affected with; the grain, though ground, if the water for the extraction is not at least as hot as what occasioned this tenaciousness, must remain in great measure undissolved in the first extract, and deposit itself as just now was mentioned.

2. The first extract should always have some froth or head in the underback.

The oils and salts of the malt, being duly mixed, form a saponaceous body, the character of which is that, on being shook, it bears a froth on its surface.

3. The head or froth in the underback appearing red, blue, purple, or fiery, shews the liquors to have been taken too hot.

The hotter the water is, when applied to the malt, the more must the extract abound with oils, and consequently be more capable to reflect colors in a strong manner. But how precarious this method of estimating the quality of an extract is, in comparison to that which the thermometer affords, will appear from the following observation of Sir Isaac Newton: “Saponaceous bubbles will, for a while, appear tinged with a variety of colors, which are agitated by the external air, and those bubbles continue until such time as, growing excessive thin, by the water trickling down their sides, and being no longer able to retain the enclosed air, they burst.” Now as these bubbles vary in their density, in proportion to their duration, the colors they reflect must continually change, and therefore it is not possible to form an accurate judgment of the condition and saponaceousness of the extracts, by the appearance of their froth.

4. When the grist feels slippery, it generally is a sign that the liquors have been taken too high.

This appearance proceeds from an over quantity of oil being extracted, and is the effect of too much heat.

5. Beer ought always to work kind, out of the cask, when cleansed, but the froth, in summer time, will be somewhat more open than in winter.

The higher and hotter the extracting water is, the more oils doth it force into the must; when a wort is full charged with oils, the fermentation is neither so strong nor so speedy, and consequently the froth, especially the first, is thin, open, and weak. This improves as the liquor is more attenuated, and heat, which expands all bodies, must rarify the yeasty vesicles, the principal part of which is elastic air; but this open head, even in summer time, improves to one more kind, as the first, the most active period of fermentation, draws nearer to its conclusion.

However vague and indeterminate these signs are, it would not be impossible to bring them to some degree of precision; but, upon the whole, this method would increase our difficulties, and yet, as to certitude, be inferior to the rules we have endeavoured to establish, we think it unnecessary to pursue any farther a research most likely neither entertaining nor useful.

SECTION XVIII.

An enquiry into what may be, at all times, a proper stock of Beer, and the management of it in the cellars.

The business of a brewer is not confined to the mere manufacture of his commodity; his concerns, as a trader, deserve no less regard, and, in a treatise like this, should not be entirely omitted.

As it is a fault not to have a sufficient stock of beers it the cellars, to serve the customers, it is one also to have more than is needful. By the first of these errors, the beers would be generally new and ill disposed for precipitation; by the other, quantities of stale beer must remain, which, becoming hard, will at last turn stale, and be unfit for use, unless blended with new brewed beers, to their detriment. These faults, if continued, may in time affect a whole trade, and ought therefore carefully to be avoided. For these reasons, the whole quantity to be moved, or expected to be supplied from the brewer’s store cellars, during the space of one twelvemonth, should be calculated, as near as possible; half this quantity ought to be the stock kept up from November to May inclusive, and nearly one third part thereof be remaining in September. From hence a table may be formed, by which it will be easy, at one view, to know the quantity that should be maintained at every season of the year, and to avoid almost every inconveniency, which otherwise must arise. Suppose, for example, the number of casks expected to be moved in a year, to be 320 butts, and 248 puncheons, the store cellars ought to be supplied, as to time and quantity, in the following proportion.

Butts.Puncheons.

January160124

February160124

March160124

April160124

May160124

June146113

July133103

August12093

September10782

October133103

November160124

December160124

After beers have been started in the cellars, the casks should be well and carefully stopped down, as soon as the repelling force of fermentation is so much lessened, as not to be able to oppose this design. Otherwise the elastic air, which is the vivifying principle of the drink, being lost, it would become vapid, and flat; and if left a long time in this condition, perhaps grow sour.

It has already been observed, that cellars, in winter, are more hot than the exterior air by 10 degrees, and more cold in summer by 5 degrees. But besides this general difference, repositories of beer vary surprisingly in their temperature; from the nature of the soil in which they are built, from their exposition to the sun, or from other incidental causes. As heat is a very powerful agent in accelerating fermentation, it is by no means surprising, not only that some cellars do ripen drinks much sooner than others, but also that a difference is often perceived in the same cellar. The persons entrusted with the choice of beers, with which the customers are to be served, should not be satisfied to send out their guiles in the progressive order in which they were brewed, but ought, on every occasion, to note any alteration that happens in the drink, as this is doing justice both to the commodity, and to the consumer, who has a constant right to expect his beer in due order.

SECTION XIX.

Of Precipitation, and other remedies, applicable to the diseases incident to Beers.

No accident can be so detrimental as leaky or stinking casks, which lose or spoil the whole or part of the contained drink. The necessity of having, on these occasions, a remedy at hand, was undoubtedly the reason, why coopers were first introduced in store cellars. Constant practice might have qualified their palates so as to make them competent judges of the tastes of wines and beers, and to enable them to know which were the fittest for immediate use. The preparing or forcing them for this service, was a matter, which the profit gained thereby made them ready enough to undertake. Chymists, whom they consulted on this occasion, gave them some informations, from whence the coopers became the possessors of a few nostrums, the effects of which they were supposed to have experienced. But, ignorant of the causes of most, if not all the defects they undertake to remedy, and unacquainted with the constituent parts of beers, it is not to be expected that their success should be constant and uniform. The brewer, earnest to do his duty, and to excel, ought to keep a particular account of every brewing; by this means he best can tell how he formed the drink, and ought consequently, in any disorder, to be prepared to direct the properest remedy.

The intent of this treatise has been to discover the means by which errors may be avoided. Chymical applications are intended to remedy those errors, which may be occasioned either by carelessness or accident. The wholesomeness or propriety of the applications, which will be indicated, must be left to the judgment of my readers; it is most likely that there is sufficient room for improvement, and we might expect it from those, whose profession it is to study every thing, that may be conducive to the safety of mankind.

Whatever vegetables wines are produced from, whenever they deviate from the respective perfection, a well-conducted fermentation might have made them arrive at, they may be said to be distempered. Foulness, or want of transparency, is not the least evil, but, according to its degree, it obtains various appellations, and requires different helps. From what has been said, nothing can be more plain, than that it is always in our power to form beers and ales, which will be bright. Yet porter or brown beer is constantly so brewed as to need precipitation: the reasons for this management have before been offered. Were we to wait till the liquor became transparent by age, a more real disorder would ensue, that of acidity. Precipitation is then serviceable, especially when beers are to be removed from one cellar to another, a short space of time before they are to be used. By being shook, and the lees mixed with the liquor, a strong acid taste is conveyed therein, and the power of subsiding, which is wanted, renders the forcing them, in that case, of absolute necessity. In beers brewed with liquors sufficiently heated, no flatness is occasioned thereby; as the case is, under like circumstances, with liquors produced by low extracts, from grain not sufficiently dried. The degree of foulness in porter should however be limited; its bounds ought not to exceed the power of one gallon of dissolved isinglass, to a butt. Isinglass is dissolved in stale beer, and strained through a sieve, so as to be of the consistence of a jelly. The beer is set in motion with a stick, which reaches one third part down the cask, before and after this jelly is put in; and a few hours should be sufficient to obtain the desired effect. We have before observed, that this quantity of jelly of isinglass is equal to a medium of 10 degrees dryness in the malt, and heat of the extracts. When the opacity exceeds this, the liquor is termed stubborn; the same quantity of dissolved isinglass repeated, is often sufficient, if not, six ounces of the oil of vitriol are mixed with it. An effervescence is, by this addition, produced; the oils of the drink become more attenuated, and the weight added to the precipitating matter, is a means to render it more efficacious. Instead of the oil of vitriol, six or eight ounces of the concrete of vitriol, pounded and mixed with the isinglass, are sometimes used with success.

A foulness in beer beyond that which is called stubborn, gives to the drink the denomination of grey beer. This arises from the oils which float upon the surface, and which the liquor has not been able to absorb. In this case, the same methods as before mentioned are repeated; the quantity of dissolved isinglass is often increased to three gallons, that of vitriol to more than 12 ounces, and sometimes a small quantity of aqua fortis is added to these ingredients.

The next stage of opacity is cloudiness; when the cooper confesses that the distemper exceeds the power of his menstruums, and that his attempts extend no farther than to hide the evil, tournsol and cochineal, were they not so expensive, might in this case be used with success; but what is less known, and would greatly answer the intent of hiding the dusky colour of the drink, is madder;—about three or four ounces of this is the proper quantity for a butt of beer. Calcined treacle, by the coopers called blacking, from its acidity, is of some small service, for, by coloring the drink, it somewhat lessens the grey hue thereon; a quart is generally used in a butt; and, to prevent the defect in the beer being noticed by the consumer, the practice is to put thereon what is called a good cauliflowered head. This might be done by using as much pounded salt of steel as will lay upon a shilling; but the difference in price between this salt and copperas makes the last generally to be preferred. The strong froth on the top of the pot, and that which foams about it, together with somewhat of a yellow cast, are often mistaken for the signs of a superior merit and strength, though, in fact, they are those of deceit. A little reflection that the natural froth of beer cannot be yellow, nor continue a long time, especially if the liquor has some age, would soon cure mankind of this prejudice. Cloudy beers, under these circumstances, though not cured, are generally consumed.

Beers become sick, from their having so large a portion of oils, as to prevent the free admission of the external air into them. The want of this enlivening element makes them appear flat, though not vapid. Such beers should not, if possible, be brought immediately into use, as age alone would effect their cure. But when this cannot be complied with, every means that will put the beer upon the fret, or under a new fermentation, must be of service. By pitching a butt head over head, the lees of the beer, which contain a large proportion of air, being mixed again with the drink, help to bring on this action, and to remove the sickness.

Burnt hartshorn shavings, to the quantity of two-penny-worth, put into a butt, are often of use.

Balls made with eight ounces of the finest flower, and kneaded with treacle, convey likewise air to the drink, and promote its briskness.

Beers, by long standing, often acquire so powerful an acid, as to become disagreeable. The means of correcting this defect is by alkaline, or testaceous substances, and in general by all those which have the property of absorbing acids. To a butt of beer in this condition, from four to eight ounces of calcined powder of oyster-shells may be put, or from six to eight ounces of salt of wormwood. Sometimes a penny-worth or two of whiting is used, and often twenty or thirty stones of unslacked lime; these are better put in separately, than mixed with the isinglass.

From two to six pounds of treacle used to one butt of beer, has a very powerful effect, not only to give a sweet fulness in the mouth, but to remove the acidity of the drink. Treacle is the refused sweet of the sugar baker, part of the large quantities of lime used in refining sugars, undoubtedly enter in its composition, and is the occasion of its softening beers.

In proportion as beers are more or less forward, from two to four ounces of salt of wormwood and salt of tartar, together with one ounce of pounded ginger, are successfully employed. All these substances absorb acids, but they leave a flatness in the liquor, which in some measure is removed by the use of ginger.

Sometimes, in summer, when beer is wanted for use, we find it on the fret; as it is then in a repelling state, it does not give way to the finings, so as to precipitate. For this, about two ounces of cream of tartar are mixed with the isinglass, and if not sufficient, four ounces of oil of vitriol are added to the finings next used, in order to quiet the drink.

Some coopers attempt to extend their art so far as to add strength to malt liquors; but let it be remembered, that the principal constituent parts of beer should be malt and hops. When strength is given to the liquor by any other means, its nature is altered, and then it is not beer we drink. Treacle in large quantities, the berries of the Cocculus Indicus, the grains of paradise, or the Indian ginger pounded fine, and mixed with a precipitating substance, are said to produce this extraordinary strength. It would be well if the attempts made to render beers strong by other means than by hops and malt, were to be imputed to none but coopers; Cocculus Indicus, and such like ingredients, have been known to be boiled in worts, by brewers who were more ambitious to excel the rest of the trade, than to do justice to the consumers. Were it not that pointing out vice is often the means to forward the practice of it, I could add to this infamous catalogue, more ingredients, it were to be wished practitioners never knew either the name or nature of, for fining, softening, and strengthening.

Formerly brown beers were required to be of a very dark brown, inclinable to black. As this color could not be procured by malt properly dried, the juice of elder berries was frequently mixed with the isinglass. This juice afterwards gave way to calcined sugar; both are needless, as time and knowledge remove our prejudices, when the malt and hops have been properly chosen; and applied to their intended purpose.

Such are the remedies chiefly made use of for brown beers. Drinks formed from pale malts are always supposed to become spontaneously fine, and when they are so, by being bottled, they are saved from any farther hazard. As it is impossible for any fermented liquor to be absolutely at rest, the reason of beers being preserved by this method, is, thereby they are deprived of a communication with the air, and, without risk, gain all the advantages which age, by slow degrees, procures, and which art can never imitate. Were we as curious in our ales and beers as we are in the liquors we import, did we give to the produce of our own country the same care and attendance which we bestow on foreign wines, we might enjoy them in a perfection at present scarcely known, and perhaps cause foreigners to give to our beers a preference to their own growth.

SECTION XX. OF TASTE41.

Doctor Grew, who has treated of this matter, divides taste into simple and compound; he mentions the different species of the first, and calculates the various combinations of the latter, the number of which exceeds what at first might be expected. Without entering into this detail, I think that the different tastes residing in the barleys, or formed by their being malted, and brewed with hops, may be reduced to the following; the acid, which is a simple taste; the sweet, which is an acid smoothed with oils; the aromatic, which is the compound of a spiritous acid, and a volatile sulphur; the bitter, which, according to our author, is produced by an oil well impregnated either with an alkaline or an acid salt, shackled with earth; the austere, which is both astringent and bitter; and, lastly, the nauseous and rank, which is, at least in part, sometimes found in beers, which have either been greatly affected by fire, or, by long age, have lost their volatile sulphurs; and have nothing left but the thicker and coarser oils, resembling the empyreumatic dregs of distilled liquors not carefully drawn.

The number of circumstances on which the taste of fermented liquors depends, are so various, that perhaps there never were any two brewings, or any two vintages, which produced drinks exactly similar. But as, in this case, as well as in many others, the varieties may be reduced under some general classes; the better to distinguish them, let us enquire which taste belongs to different malt liquors, according to the several circumstances in which they are brewed.

In beers and ales, the acid prevails in proportion as the malt has been less dried, and heat was wanting in the extracting water. The sweet will be the effect of a balance preserved between the acids and the oils. When, by the means of hotter waters, oils more tenacious are extracted from the grain, whereby the more volatile sulphur is retained, the taste becomes higher in relish, or aromatic. If the heat is still increased, the acids, and the most volatile oils, will in part be dissipated, and in part be so enveloped with stronger oils, as the bitter of the hops appears more distinct. A greater degree of fire will impress the liquor with an austere, rough, or harsh taste; and a heat beyond this so affects the oils of the grain, as to cause the extracts to be nauseous to the palate. Besides these, there may be other causes which produce some variation in taste; as a superior dryness in the hops; an irregularity in the ordering of the heat of the extracts; too great an impetuosity or slowness in the fermentation; the difference of seasons in which the drink is kept; but as these causes affect the liquor, in a low degree, in comparison to the drying and extracting heats of the grain, an enquiry into their consequences is not absolutely material.

Beers or ales, formed of pale malt, in which a greater portion of acids is contained, with less tenacious oils, are not only more proper to allay thirst, but in general more aromatic than brown drinks. The oils of these last, being, by the effect of fire, rendered more compact, and more tenacious of the terrestrial parts raised with them, are attended with something of an austere and rank taste. This seems to be the reason why brown beers require more time, after they have been fermented, to come to their perfection. The air, by degrees, softens and attenuates their oils, and, by causing the heterogeneous particles to subside, makes them at last, unless charring heats have been used, pleasing to the palate, whereas they were before austere, rank, and perhaps nauseous.

By means of the thermometer, we have endeavoured to fix the different colors of malt, the duration of the principal sorts of drink, and the tendency each has to become transparent. The same instrument cannot probably have the same use, when applied to distinguish the different tastes, as these depend on a variety of causes not easy to be ascertained. Yet something of this nature may be attempted, upon the following principles.

As the chief circumstance which produces a variety of tastes in malt liquors, is fire or heat acting on the malt and hops, and the effect of the air, put in motion by the same element, the table here subjoined may point out what tastes are in general occasioned by the combination of these two causes.

A TABLE determining the tastes of Malt Liquors.

Heat of the air.Dryness and extracting heat.Predominant tastes.

80°119°Acid.

76124Ac. ac. sweet.

73129Ac. sw.

70134Ac. sw. sw. bitter.

66138Sw. sw. bitter.

63143Sw. bit.

60148Bit. bit. aromatic.

56152Bit. arom.

53157Bit. arom. austere.

50162Arom. aust. aust.

46167Aust. aust. nauseous.

43171Aust. nau.

40176Nauseous.

The first column of the table shews the fermentable degrees reversed, as the hotter the season is, the more fermented drinks tend to acidity, the direct contrary of which is the consequence of an increase in the heat, malt or hops are dried or extracted with.

The assistance of this table, though small, ought perhaps not to be entirely slighted, as it seems at least to shew that the useful is seldom separated from the elegant, and that a medium between extremes is most agreeable both to the operations of nature, and the constitution of our organs.

The impressions of tastes are less in proportion as the drinks are weak. The strongest wine yields the most acid vinegar. Time wears away this acidity much sooner, than it doth the nauseousness occasioned by vehement heats. This circumstance shews how necessary it is, in the beginning of the process of brewing, to avoid extracts which are too weak, as from hence, in its conclusion, such would be required whose great heat would render the drink rank and disagreeable. That proportion between the salts and the oils, which constitutes soundness and pellucidity, is most pleasing to the taste, and seems to be the utmost perfection of the art. As the sun never occasions a heat capable of charring the fruits of the vine, we never meet with wines endued with a taste resembling the empyreumatic, which we have here represented. This error, being inexcusable in any liquor, ought carefully to be guarded against, and, from what has here been said, we should learn this important truth, that nature is the best guide, and that, by imitating, as near as possible, her operations, we shall never be disappointed in our ends.