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Second Part. Stock Yeast

The bottle having stood long enough-or two days after corking it down-make about 2 gallons of hop tea by putting a pail of water into a kettle with a lot of hops-nearly a pound-and boiling them about an hour with a lid on the kettle. Put 2 pounds of flour into a large jar, pan, or keg and strain some of the boiling hop water into it-enough to wet and scald the flour thoroughly when stirred up; when there are no more lumps in the flour strain in all the rest of the hop water and cool it with a piece of ice. After that put in a quart of coarse ground malt and 1/2 pound of sugar. When this mixture is no more than milk warm take the bottle yeast, hold the neck downwards and carefully draw the cork-which will come out like the cork from a bottle of champagne-and mix the two together. Set the jar or keg containing the stock in a warm corner where it may ferment undisturbed, and in a day and a half or two days afterwards the stock will be ready to start ferment with, as has already been directed at number 512.

It is not necessary to make the bottle yeast every time that stock is made, for new stock may be started with some of the old stock remaining, but whenever the ferment seems weak and slow, and whenever the bread begins to turn sour before it is light, then new stock should be started from the very foundation, in the bottle.

It may be observed that the above method renders a person who can get the raw materials quite independent of every other person's yeast and of any other kind of yeast to start with He makes his own from the very first germ.