II.] BREWING. 33 



with legs about a foot long. The cask, being round, 

 must have a little wedge, or block, on each side to 

 keep it steady. Bricks do very well. Bring your 

 beer down into the cellar in buckets, 'and pour it in 

 through the funnel, until the cask be full. The cask 

 should lean a little on one side, when you fill it ; be- 

 cause the beer will work again here, and send more 

 yeast out of the bung-hole ; and, if the cask were 

 not a little on one side, the yeast would flow over 

 both sides of the cask, and would not descend ia 

 one stream into a pan, put underneath to receive it. 

 Here the bell-cask is extremely inconvenient ; for 

 the yeast works up all over the head, and cannot run 

 off] and makes a very nasty affair. This alone, to 

 say. nothing of the other disadvantages, would de- 

 cide "the question against the bell-casks. Something 

 will go off' in this working, which may continue for 

 two or tnree days. When you put the beer in the 

 cask, you should have a gallon or two left, to keep 

 filling up with as the working produces emptiness. 

 At last, when the working is completely over, right 

 the cask. That is to say, block it up to its level. 

 Put in a handful of fresh hops. Fill the cask quite 

 full. Put in the bung, with a bit of coarse linen 

 stuff round it ; hammer it down tight ; and, if you 

 like, fill a coarse bag with sand, and lay it, well 

 pressed down, over the bung. 



50. As to the length of time that you are to keep 

 the beer before you begin to "use it, that must, in 

 some measure, depend on taste. Such beer as this 

 ale will keep almost any length of time. As to the 

 mode of tapping", that is as easy almost as drinking". 

 When the cask is empty, great care must be taken 

 to cork it tightly up, so that no air get in ; for, if it 

 do, the cask is moulded, and when once moulded, it 

 is spoiled for ever. It is never again fit to be used 

 about beer. Before the cask be used again, the 

 grounds must be poured out, and the cask cleaned by 

 several times scalding ; by putting in stones (or a 

 chain,) and rolling and shaking about till it be quite 

 clean. Here again the round casks have the decided 



