SACCHAROMETER FERMENTATION. 331 



steam. They next make the sign of the cross upon 

 it, by which they do not always prevent evil spirits 

 from guzzling their sweet wort. In tending the 

 COPPER, care should be taken, by stirring down the 

 hops as they rise to the surface, that it do not boil 

 over ; when boiling proceeds too rapidly, it will be 

 necessary to setvthe copper-grate door open awhile, 

 to damp the heat. After boiling has proceeded a 

 few minutes, the hops will sink. In emptying the 

 copper of worts, the necessity will suggest itself, of 

 putting a convenience across the cooler or tub, two 

 cross sticks for instance, in order to hold the sieve, 

 or straining basket. 



Those family brewers who choose to be hyper- 

 correct, and curious, may provide a SACCHAROMETER, 

 the purchase of which, in a tin case, is six shillings. 

 With this they may find the specific gravity, or 

 strength of the wort,, previously to fermentation. 

 Two bushels of good malt will yield full eighteen 

 pounds of saccharum, the matter of sugar. The 

 first wort, from malt of that quantity and quality, 

 per barrel of thirty-six gallons, will weigh about 

 thirty pounds heavier than water ; the second, 

 fifteen ; and the third, or small, about nine pounds, 

 heavier than water. The old brewers judged of 

 their worts by weighing a pint, or a quart, the 

 goodness being supposed to consist in the gra- 

 vity ; the most curious of them also using a close 

 cover to every process, in order to prevent the waste 

 of evaporation. 



FERMENTATION. My brewer, in this part of the 



