Mat 3.] 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
75 
will be wasted if I. make a few remarks on “ brewing at 
home.” 
T dare say such a sentence will frighten many, and they 
will immediately exclaim, “ Drew at home, impossible! 1 
have neither coppers, coolers, mash-tubs, nor any of the 
hundred-aml-one articles necessary for such an operation.” 
Never mind, do not throw obstacles in our path, but read, 
learn, and practise ! I must, however, tell you at starting, 
that it will cause extra trouble to the wife ; but T am very 
sure there are few, if any, amongst the “ wives and daughters 
of old England ” who will grudge a little exertion when once 
i they feel that by so exerting themselves they will benefit 
their husbands, children, and, consequently, themselves. 
And now let us see wherein the benefit of brewing at home 
lies. 
In the first place it increases your comforts, in the second 
place it saves time, and thirdly it saves money—three very 
I material points ; but still, more than this, it removes many 
1 temptations out of a man’s path. The habit of going to a 
public house, if only for one glass of beer, lias been the occa¬ 
sion of many an after pang, many a heavy heart. That con¬ 
stant habit of even fetching your beer from the public house 
■ must waste much time, even if not tempted to drink it in 
: the house instead of at home. Very often a child is sent to 
fetch it, and thus the young mind becomes early habituated 
; to the sound of oaths and jests which every parent ought so 
carefully to screen their children from hearing, for who can 
1 tell the misery which arises from early acquaintance with 
vice ? Early impressions take deep root, whether good or 
I evil, and our hearts being so prone to sin, the evil habit 
; which is imbibed with our early youth is more difficult to 
, eradicate than the good, therefore, liow studiously should 
each parent watch over the soul's welfare of his child, and 
not place him in scenes where lie knows “ sins abound.” 
I am sme, as I said before, when this is taken into consi¬ 
deration, trouble will not he withheld, hut many will willingly 
try a plan which is likely to place temptation a little farther 
; from their threslihold. 
I will now tell you the articles necessary for brewing at 
. home. Every cottage owns a large saucepan—one that holds 
! about three gallons is a good size; this will answer the pur¬ 
pose of a copper. A tub will be the utensil for working the 
beer in ; and if you cannot conveniently buy a small mash- 
tub, bore a hole in the bottom of a pail to allow the liquor 
to nui slowly through. These three things are all that are 
really necessary; and now, as to the materials of the beer. 
Those who have been accustomed to drink brewer's beer 
will not, perhaps, at first like the pure malt and hops ; their 
taste, however, will soon improve; or if not, they will find 
by adding to every two bushels of malt the following ingre¬ 
dients, they will obtain beer very similar to what they have 
always drunk :—“ 3tbs sugar, boiled up once in a very little 
water, with one pennyworth of coriander seed, and one 
pennyworth of capsicum.” Malt must he carefully chosen, 
the amber coloured is the best. It should not be ground, 
hut merely crushed. Hops should he new ; when good, they 
have a yellowish green colour. Soft water should be used, 
i if possible, for brewing; and every article must be most scru- 
j pulously clean. 
I will suppose you wish to brew six gallons of beer, and 
! for that quantity you must have a pot which will contain four 
| gallons of water. Have ready in your mash-tub one peck 
| of crashed malt (be careful to have the hole in the tub 
| stopped). When the water nearly boils, pour it on to the 
malt, stir it well for ten minutes, cover the pail over with a 
j thick sack or piece of wood, and place it by tire fire for two 
i hours. Hold the pail over the tub, draw out the peg, and 
let the liquor run. Stop the hole again, and add to the malt 
two gallons more of nearly boiling water, cover as before, 
and set by the fire for an hour. Put the first strained liquor 
into the copper or pot, and add four ounces of good hops ; 
boil for twenty minutes; strain it into a tub; return the 
hops to the pot, and add the second addition of wort, 
which lias been standing by the fire ; boil this half an hour; 
strain and cool this as you did the first; when lukewarm 
mix them together, and stir in j- of a pint of yeast. Skim it 
frequently during the day, and when it has stood twenty-four 
hours in the tub put it into a cask; leave the bung-hole 
open as long as any .yeast rises, hut when the fermentation 
is over, hammer the hung tightly in, and leave it for a week, 
by the end of which it will he fit for use. 
One of the chief points in brewing is to attend to the 
proper heat the water lias before it is poured on the malt. 
If it is too hot, it contracts the malt, and prevents the full 
flavour from appearing; the proper temperature is 18(ri, 
but as a thermometer is uot a likely appendage to a cottage 
wall, the hand must he depended upon. You should just he 
able to draw your hand quickly through the water without 
experiencing pain. 
There are several other methods of making liecr, such as 
with potatoes, mangold wurtzel, and sugar, but I will reserve 
these for some future occasion, my present object being to 
tempt the cottager’s wife to brew her husband’s glass of 
beer. At the present time it will prove most economical, 
malt being cheap, and brewer's beer remaining at the same 
price. A Friend. 
ASPARAGUS. 
At page '140 of The Cottage Gardener for January, 
1850, some hints are kindly given of the Dutch method of 
cutting asparagus by Mr. Rushmere. Now the manner in 
which I have dealt with the asparagus beds, and my method 
of cutting for many years, are very different. 
Winter Dressing. —In the first place, I never root prune 
the plants by throwing out deep trejiclies between the beds, 
as is too often done in very many cases ; that is, by putting 
over the beds a good dressing of manure, then placing a line 
down the side of each bed and chopping off every root that 
has found its way into the alley. Very usually some of the 
best roots have thus run out into the alleys, which is not to 
he wondered at, for in the spiing, say in the month of March, 
these beds in most gardens are forked over, and much of the 
soil and rough parts of the manure are worked back into the 
alleys again. This, of course, is a comfort to the poor roots 
that have been exposed throughout the winter to all weathers 
along the sides of these deep-dug alleys. 
I have assisted often in the above sorts of work years ago, 
hut for the last seventeen years I have not dug out a single 
trench between a bed. 
When the stems are cut away in the autumn, the beds are 
cleaned, if weedy, and carefully forked up. A thoroughly 
good dressing of manure is put all over the beds equally, 
and when this is done the alleys are forked over too ; whilst, 
for the sake of giving the whole a neat finish, a line is put 
down each side of the.alley, the edges made up a little, and, 
perhaps, a few crumbs from' the alleys may be thrown upon 
the beds, and the edges marked out with the point of the 
spade. The work is then done for the winter; and, of course, 
the asparagus beds neatly done in this way give the kitchen- 
garden a tidy appearance for the winter months. 
Spring Dressing. —In the month of March these beds are 
again forked over carefully, the manure and soil well broken 
up and mixed together, and some of tlie rougher pails of 
manure, with all the rakings, are forked into the alleys after 
the beds are raked over nicely, and lettuces are there sown 
or planted in succession for the summer months. 
Cutting the Produce. —Now, although I have been a 
cultivator of the asparagus for so many years, I have never 
been an eater of this much esteemed vegetable, therefore 
the thought did not strike me about the best way of cutting 
it, until one day, some seventeen years ago, when I had an 
abundance of heads to cut from, ull of good length above 
ground, T received orders for asparagus for a dish, and for 
another for soup. This latter dish was to be of heads all 
green. I well supplied, the cook with heads green enough 
for her dish required, and her soup too; and a first-rate cook 
she was. 
The next, day, when I waited upon her for orders, we had 
a little talk about the green asparagus for the table, when 
she told me that the asparagus I had brought in the day 
before was the best that she had ever dressed for table—it 
was large, of good flavour, and the whole eatable. This was 
a good hint for me, for it opened my eyes greatly as to the 
management of the asparagus beds altogether. But the 
matter did not rest here, for my employers also soon found 
me out to praise the asparagus I was then sending them in. 
And thus have I continued ever since, year after year, con¬ 
tinually receiving compliments and inquiries about it from 
innumerable friends of my excellent employer. 
