24 BREWING. [NO. 



the beer is flat, even though you use half malt and 

 half barley ; and flat beer lies heavy on the stomach, 

 and of course, besides the bad taste, is unwholesome. 

 To.pay 4s. Qd. tax upon every bushel of our own bar- 

 ley, turned into malt, when the barley itself is not 

 worth 3s. a bushel, is a horrid thing ; but, as long as 

 the owners of the land shall be so dastardly as to suf- 

 fer themselves to be thus deprived of the use of their 

 estates to favour the slave-drivers and plunderers of 

 the East and West Indies, we must submit to the 

 thing, incomprehensible to foreigners, and even to our- 

 selves, as the -submission may be. \ 



39. With regard to hops, the quality is very various. 

 At times when some sell for 5s. a pound, others sell 

 for sixpence. Provided the purchaser understand the 

 article, the quality is, of course, in proportion to thp 

 price. There are two things to be considered in hops : 

 the power of preserving beer, and that of giving it a 

 pleasant flavour. Hops may be strong, and yet not 

 good. They should be bright, have.no leaves orbits 

 of branches amongst them. The hop is the husk, or 

 seed-^pod, of the hop-vine, as the cone is that of the 

 fir-tree ; and the seeds themselves are deposited, like 

 those of the fir, round a little soft stalk, enveloped by 

 the several folds of this pod, or cone. If, in the gath- 

 ering, leaves of the vine or bits of the branches are 

 mixed with the hops, these not only help to make up 

 the weight, but they give a bad taste to the beer ; 

 and indeed, if they abound much, they spoil the beer. 

 Great attention is therefore necessary in this respect 

 There are, too, numerous sorts of hops, varying in 

 size, form, and quality, quite as much as apples. How- 

 ever, when they are in a state to be used in brewing, 

 the marks of goodness are an absence of brown colour, 

 (for that indicates perished hops ;) a colour between 

 green and yellow ; a great quantity of the yellow fa- 

 rina ; seeds not too large nor too hard ; a clammy 

 feel when rubbed between the fingers ; and a lively, 

 pleasant smell. As to the age of hops, they retain for 

 twenty years, probably, their power of preserving 

 beer ; but not of giving it a pleasant flavour.. I have 



