316 BEER 



It may bo remarked that Mr. Richardson somewhat underrates tho gravity of 

 porter, which is now seldom under 20 Ibs. per barrel. The criterion for transferring 

 from tho gyle-tun to tho cleansing butts is the attenuation caused by tho production 

 of alcohol in the boor : when that has fallen to 10 Ibs. or 1 1 Ibs., which it usually docs 

 in 48 hours, the cleansing process is commenced. Tho heat is at this time generally 

 75, if it was pitched at 65 ; for tho heat and tho attenuation go hand in hand. 



About forty years ago, it was customary for tho London brewers of porter to keep 

 immense stocks of their beer for eighteen months or two years, with tho view of improving 

 its quality. The boer was pumped from the cleansing butt*> into store-vats holding from 

 twenty to twenty -five ' gyles ' or brewings of several hundred barrels each. The storo- 

 vats had commonly a capacity of 5,000 or 6,000 barrels ; and a fow were double, and 

 one was treble, this size. The porter, during its long repose in these vats, became 

 fine, and by obscure fermentation its saccharine mucilage was nearly all converted into 

 vinous liquor, and partly dissipated in carbonic acid. Its hop-bitter was also in a great 

 degree decomposed. Good hard beer was tho boast of the day. This was sometimes 

 softened by tho publican, by the addition of some mild new-brewed beer. Of lato 

 years, the taste of the metropolis has undergone such a complete revolution in this 

 respect, that nothing but tho mildest porter will now go down. Hence, six weeks is 

 a long period for beer to be kept in London ; and much of it is drunk when only a 

 fortnight old. Alo is for the same reason come greatly into vogue ; and the two 

 greatest porter houses, Messrs. Barclay, Perkins, and Co., and Truman, Hanbury, 

 and Co., have become extensive and successful brewers of mild ale, to please the 

 changed palate of their customers. 



We shall add a few observations upon the brewing of Scotch ale. This boverago is 

 characterized by its pale amber colour and its mild balsamic flavour. The bitterness 

 of the hop is so mellowed with the malt as not to predominate. The ale of Preston 

 Pans is, in fact, the best substitute for wine which barley has hitherto produced. 

 The low temperature at which the Scotch brewer pitches his fermenting tun restricts 

 his labours to the colder months of the year. He does nothing during four of the 

 summer months. He is extremely nice in selecting his malt and hops ; the former 

 being made from tho best English barley, and the latter being the growth of Farnham 

 or East Kent. The yeast is carefully looked after, and measured into tho fermenting 

 tun in the proportion of one gallon to 240 gallons of wort. 



Only one mash is made by the Scotch ale brewer, and that pretty strong ; but the 

 malt is exhausted by eight or ten successive sprinklings of liquor (hot water) over 

 the goods (malt), which are termed, in the vernacular tongue, sparges. These 

 waterings percolate through the malt on the mash-tun bottom, and extract as much 

 of the saccharine matter as may bo sufficient for the brewing. By this simple method 

 much higher specific gravities may be obtained than would be practicable by a second 

 mash. With malt, the infusion or saccharine fermentation of tho diastase is finished 

 with the first mash ; and nothing remains but to wash away from the goods the matter 

 which that process has rendered soluble. It will be found on trial that 20 barrels of 

 wort drawn from a certain quantity of malt, by two successive mashings, will not be 

 so rich in fermentable matter as 20 barrels extracted by ten successive sparges of two 

 barrels each. The grains always remain soaked with wort like that just drawn off, 

 and the total residual quantity is three-fourths of a barrel for every quarter of malt. 

 The gravity of this residual wort will on tho first plan be equal to that of the second 

 mash ; but, on tho second plan, it will be equal only to that of the tenth sparge, and 

 will bo more attenuated in a very high geometrical ratio. The only serious objection 

 to the sparging system is the loss of time by the successive drainages. A mash-tun 

 with a steam-jacket promises to suit tho sparging system well, as it would keep up 

 an uniform temperature in the goods, without requiring them to be sparged with very 

 hot liquor. 



Tho first part of the Scotch process seems of doubtful economy ; for the mash 

 liquor is heated so high as 180. After mashing for about half an hour, or till every 

 particle of tho malt is thoroughly drenched, tho tun is covered, and tho mixture left 

 to infuse about three hours ; it is then drained off into tho underback, or preferably 

 into tho wort-copper. 



After this wort is run off, a quantity of liquor (water), at 180 of heat, is sprinkled 

 uniformly over the surface of the malt ; being first dashed on a perforated circular 

 board, suspended horizontally over the mash-tun, wherefrom it descends like a shower 

 upon tho whole of the goods. The percolating wort is allowed to flow off by three or 

 more small stopcocks round the circumference of the mash-tun, to insure the equal 

 diffusion of tho liquor. 



Tho first sparge being run off in tho course of twenty minutes, another similar one 

 is affiised ; and thus in succession till the whole of the drainage, when mixed with tho 

 first mash-wort, constitutes tho density adapted to tho quality of the alo. Thus, tho 



