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To Prevent Beer Becoming Stale or Flat

First Method.

To a quart of French brandy put as much wheat or bean flour as will make it into a dough, and put it in, in long pieces, at the bung-hole, letting it fall gently to the bottom. This will prevent the beer growing stale, keep it in a mellow state, and increase its strength. Second Method.

To 1 lb. of treacle or honey add 1 lb. of the powder of dried oyster-shells, or of soft mellow chalk; mix these into a stiff paste and put it into the butt. This will preserve the beer in a soft and mellow state for a long time.

Third Method.

Dry a peck of egg-shells in an oven, break and mix them with 2 lbs. of soft mellow chalk, and then add some water wherein 4 lbs. of coarse sugar have been boiled, and put it into the cask. This will be enough for 1 butt.

Fourth Method.

In a cask containing 18 gals. of beer, put a pint of ground malt suspended in a bag, and close the bung perfectly; the beer will be improved during the whole time of drawing it for use.

Make use of any of these receipts most approved of, observing that the paste or dough must be put into the cask when the beer has done working, or soon after, and bunged down. At the end of 9 or 12 months tap it, and you will have a fine, generous, wholesome and agreeable liquor. When the great quantity of sediment that lies at the bottom of the cask is neglected to be cleaned, this compound of malt, hops and yeast so affects the beer that it renders it prejudicial to health. On this account, during the whole process of brewing do not allow the least sediment to mix with the wort in removing it from one tub or cooler to the other; especially be careful, when tunning it into the cask, not to disturb the bottom of the working tub, which would prevent its ever being clear and fine. Again, by keeping it too long in the working tub, persons who make a profit of the yeast frequently promote an undue fermentation, and keep it constantly in that state for 5 or 6 days, which causes all the spirit that should keep the beer soft and mellow to evaporate; and it certainly will get stale and hard unless it has something wholesome to feed on.

It is the practice of some persons to beat in the yeast while the beer is working, for several days together, to make it strong and heady and to promote its sale. This is a pernicious custom.

Therefore let the wort have a free, natural and light fermentation, and one day in the working tub will be long enough during cold weather; but turn it the second day at the farthest, throw out the whole brewing, and afterwards introduce no improper ingredients.

To Prevent and Cure Foxing in Malt Liquors.

Foxing, sometimes called bucking, is a disease of malt fermentation which taints the beer. It arises from dirty utensils, putting the separate worts together in vessels not deep enough, using bad malt; by turning on the liquors at too great heats, and brewing in too hot weather. It renders the beer ropy and viscid like treacle, and it soon turns sour. When there is danger of foxing, a handful of hops should be thrown into the raw worts while they are drawing off and before they are boiled, as foxing generally takes place when, from a scantiness of utensils, the worts are obliged to be kept some time before they are boiled. When there is a want of shallow coolers, it is a good precaution afterwards with clean water.

To sweeten Stinking or Musty Casks. to put some fresh hops into the worts and work | sel, and scrub over the bottom and sides, washing them with the yeast. If the brewing foxes in the tun while working, hops should then be put into it, and they will tend to restore it; and extra care ought to be taken to prevent the lees being transferred to the barrels. Some persons sift quick-lime into the tun when the brewing appears to be foxed. If care is not taken to cleanse and scald the vessels after foxing, subsequent brewings may become tainted.

Other Methods of Curing Foxing.

Cut a handful of hyssop small; mix it with a handful of salt, and put it into the cask. Stir and stop close.

Or, infuse a handful of hops and a little salt of tartar in boiling water; when cold strain the liquor off and pour it into the cask, which stop close.

Or, mix 1 oz. of alum with 2 oz. of mustardseed, and 1 oz. of ginger; stir them in the rack and stop close.

Or, in a fortnight, rack off the foxed beer, and hang 2 lbs. of bruised Malaga raisins in a bag within the cask, and put in a mixture of treacle, bean-flour, mustard-seed, and powdered alum.

To restore a Barrel of Ropy Beer.

Mix a handful of bean-flour with a handful of salt, and stir it in at the bung-hole; or take some well infused hops, and mix them in with some settlings of strong wort, and stir the mixture in at the bung-hole. Or, powder oz. of alum very fine, and mix with a handful of bean-flour.

To make a Butt of Porter, Stout.

Insert 4 galls. of molasses and some finings; stir it well. In a week draw off the cask by a cock inserted half way down.

To restore Frosted Beer.

Such beer is usually sweet and foul, and will never recover of itself; but to remedy this, make a pailful of fresh wort, into which put a handful of rubbed hops, and boil them half an hour, so that it may be very bitter, and when almost cold, draw a pailful from the cask, and re-fill it with the bitter wort. Fermentation will re-commence, but when this is over bung it up for a month. If it is not then restored, rack it into another cask, and put into it a peck of parched wheat, and 1 lb. of good hops, dried and rubbed, and tied up in a net. Bung it down, leaving the vent-hole open for a day or two, and in a month it will be fine liquor.

To give New Ale the Flavor of Old.

Take out the bung, and put into the cask a handful of pickled cucumbers; or a sliced Seville orange, and either mode will add an apparent six months to the age of the ale.

To give Beer a rich Flavor.

Make a strong lye of ash, beech, or other hard wood ashes, and pour it, boiling hot, into the bung-hole, repeating it as often as there is occasion. Or, fill the cask with boiling water, and then put into it some pieces of unslaked lime, keeping up the ebullition for half an hour. Then bung it down, and let it remain until almost cold when turn it out.

Or, mix bay-salt with boiling water, and pour it into the cask, which bung down, and leave it to soak.

Or, if the copper be provided with a dome, and a steam-pipe from its top, pass the steam into the casks.

Or, unhead the cask, scrub it out, head it again; put some powdered charcoal into the bung-hole, and two quarts of a mixture of oil of vitriol and cold water. Then bung it tight, and roll and turn the cask for some time. Afterwasds wash it well, and drain it dry.

Or, take out the head, and brush the inside with oil of vitriol, afterwards wash it, then burn a slip of brown paper steeped in brimstone within the bung-hole, and stop it close for two hours, when it should be well washed with hot water.

Another Method.

Mix half a pint of the sulphuric acid (not the diluted) in an open vessel, with a quart of water, and whilst warm, put it into the cask, and roll it about in such a manner that the whole internal surface may be exposed to its action. The following day add about 1 lb. of chalk or sal soda, and bung it up for three or four days, when it may be washed out with boiling water. By this process a very musty cask may be rendered sweet.

For sweetening musty bottles, it will be only necessary to rinse the inside with the diluted sulphuric acid in the above-mentioned proportions. The addition of chalk, if it were immediately corked, would burst the bottle, and if the cask be old, it would be advisable to let a little of the gas escape before bunging it.

Another. If a cask, after the beer is drunk out, be well stopped, to keep out the air, and the lees be suffered to remain in it till used again, scald it well, taking care that the hoops be well driven on, before filling; but should the air get into an empty cask, it will contract an ill scent, notwithstanding the scalding; in which case a handful of bruised pepper, boiled in the water, will remove it, though the surest way is to take out the head of the cask, that it may be shaved; then burn it a little, and scald it for use; if this cannot be conveniently done, get some limestone, put about 3 lbs. into a barrel (and in same proportion for larger or smaller vessels), put to it about 6 gall. of cold Put six sea-biscuits into a bag of hops, and put water, bung it up, shake it about for some time, them into the cask.

To preserve Brewing Utensils.

In cleaning them before being put away, avoid the use of soap, or any greasy material, and use only a brush and scalding water, being particularly careful not to leave any yeast or fur on the sides.

To prevent their being tainted, take wood ashes and boil them to a strong lye, which spread over the bottoms of the vessels scalding, and then with the broom scrub the sides and other parts.

Or, take bay-salt, and spread it over the coolers, and strew some on their wet sides, turning in scalding water and scrubbing with a broom.

Or, throw some stone-lime into water in the vesand afterwards scald it well. Or, in lieu of lime, match it well and scald it. Then the smell will be entirely removed. If the casks be new, dig holes in the earth, and lay them in, to about half their depth, with their bung-holes downwards, for a week. After which scald them well, and they will be ready for use.

Another. The process of charring fails only in the fire not being able to penetrate into the chasms or chinks of the cask, into which the coopers (to mend bad work) often insert strips of paper, or other substance, to make it water-tight, which in time become rotten and offensive; in order to remedy this, put into a cask containing a quantity of water (say about 2 gall. in a hogshead) 1-10th