FERMENTATION TO PREVENT ACIDITY. 395 



vault or cellar to concussion from carriages above ; 

 and more particularly where, from want of a better 

 convenience, beer is placed above ground. 



To check FERMENTATION in the Cask. We have 

 at this moment a small latter brewing, and the beer 

 has continued to work during several weeks, in the 

 cask. Instances have occurred, of beer, though 

 brewed in the season, fermenting throughout the 

 summer. The old brewers recommend, in the case, 

 to draw off a quantity, from a quart to a gallon, and 

 replace it with raw wort. I have tried cold beer 

 without effect. They also direct to burn brimstone 

 beneath, or about the cask ; or, which perhaps is 

 the best remedy, rack the beer into a fresh cask, 

 previously well steamed with sulphur, burning rags, 

 or other convenient mode. 



To prevent beer from becoming acetous, or, in the 

 common phrase, hard; the following method is as 

 simple as efficacious, grounded on the plain principles 

 of chemical science, and confirmed by actual and 

 successful experiment. It is nothing more than to 

 suspend a knob of marble by a piece of tape, from the 

 bung-hole to near the bottom of the cask, upon which 

 marble, being pure carbonate of lime, the acid quality 

 of the beer acts on its incipient formation, the acidity 

 consequently becomes neutralized, and thus the drink 

 is kept from turning hard or sour. In our experiment, 

 the marble was considerably eaten away, excepting 

 where the tape encircled it, and the beer remained 

 sound and fresh to the last drop. It will also succeed 

 equally with wines, British or foreign, or other drinks, 

 whilst in cask, and in which there may be an appre- 

 s 6 



