312 BEER 



In apportioning the hops that are to be boiled -with the wort, quantity must be con- 

 sidered quite as much as quality, for it is on the amount of tannin utilised that the 

 clarifying, and therefore the keeping power of the beor, depends. 



The hops used for this purpose may be mixed with yearlings and a small propor- 

 tion of old hops, but these latter must be carefully selected, for in very old hops the 

 tannin is apt to degenerate into the gallic form, and then it is useless as an agent to 

 precipitate the albuminous flocks from the wort. 



Befrigerators have now become so generally used, that the slow process of cooling 

 is quite the exception in breweries, but the great benefit resulting from the quiet 

 separation of the flocks as it rested on the cooler should not be lost sight of ; but it is 

 very much feared that the great advantages derivable from using powerful refrige- 

 rators have led many away from the slow but prudent course, for by allowing the 

 sediment to pass into the fermenting tun, the soundness and qualities of the beers 

 concerned are very much impaired. But by the exercise of a little ingenuity and 

 careful management, all the best benefits expected from using the most powerful 

 refrigerators may bo obtained without any additional risk. 



In the first place, let the hop-back be provided with some arrangement which shall 

 include a guard to keep the hops, with ports to prevent a disturbance of the sedi- 

 ment settled under the plates, and a floating syphon provided with a flattened tin 

 mouth-piece. 



After the wort is discharged from the copper, allow it to rest in the hop-back until 

 such time as the whole of the flocks and hops shall have settled to the bottom, open 

 the ports, and push the mouth of the syphon below the surface ; it will then draw off 

 all the wort clean, bright, and freed from every particle of flocks at any speed 

 desired. 



Now this is a simple and not expensive arrangement. 



About an hour will be found long enough for a 90 or 100 barrel brewing to stand. 

 It should then be passed through the refrigerator within two hours after, the machine 

 of course being of such actual power as to be capable of cooling a whole brewing, no 

 matter what the size, in that time. 



It will then be found that the brewing has passed on to the refrigerator before 

 the wort in the hop-back has fallen even to 150 degrees, and this precludes all pro- 

 bability of the wort attaining acetancy from exposure on account of cooling. 



Another very excellent mode of fermentation, very general in the Northern Counties 

 and Scotland, is that known as the stone-square system, and it has certainly a claim 

 to the most serious consideration of the practical brewer on account of its many 

 merits. It is very cleanly and simple in process, thorough in its work, most easily 

 and perfectly under control, will prepare the beer for consumption in less time than 

 any other process, and is worked at heats far removed from all dangerous tendencies, 

 and these are all qualities which must greatly commend the system in a commercial 

 point. 



It is thus conducted : 



The stone square is a cistern made of hard blue stone or slate nearly six feet deep. 

 This is for the reception of the wort to be fermented : it should hold from 20 to 25 

 barrels. Upon it is placed another stone cistern of sufficient dimensions to contain the 

 whole of the yeast head that may be made. This is called the yeast-back. It is usually 

 capable of holding about half the contents of the wort square ; it has a man-hole in 

 the centre, surrounded on the top by a circular stone ring of a section of about six 

 inches square. Some twelve inches in front of this man-hole is another hole, about five 

 or six inches diameter, fitted with a valve arrangement, to the underside of which is 

 screwed a large tin pipe called the organ-pipe, conducting the wort to within about 

 two inches from the bottom. There is also in the corner another hole, fitted with a 

 plug at the top, and having a pipe attached to conduct the yeast (after the fermenta- 

 tion is finished) to the yeast waggon in the cellar below ; the yeast-back usually pro- 

 jects some eighteen inches around the wort cistern, and is from thirty to thirty-six 

 inches deep. 



The wort cistern is contained within another stone cistern as deep as itself, within 

 3 or 4 inches from the top. This is called the shell ; it allows of a free space all around 

 the outside of the wort square of about 5 or 6 inches. This is to allow of the applica- 

 tion of a suitable bath of warm or cold water, as may be required, to control the 

 temperature of the fermenting wort; to assist in this operation a notch is cut at the 

 back of the shell, at the top of the side slab : from this the water is allowed to overflow 

 as required. 



All the slabs composing these cisterns should be sawn plain and parallel on both 

 sides. The bottom slab, of course, serves for both the wort cistern and shell : it has 

 two taps let into it to drain each respectively, and in front, about l or 2 inches up 

 from the bottom, a racking pipe with tap attached is let in horizontally through the 



