Page:A Practical Treatise on Brewing (4th ed.).djvu/104

88 contrary, only betray their ignorance. We could name brewers who have had no change of yeast for years, (unless when making a long stop,) and their fermentations, have uniformly gone on successfully.

Where fretful and unsound fermentations are going on, the yeast will no doubt also become fretful and unsound. But where the fermentations are sound and healthy, the yeast will be the same, if the proper precautions be taken to keep it so. (See Fermentation—On the Causes of Unsoundness.) How often do we find changes of yeast producing more harm than good, when procured from unhealthy or unsound stocks. If, then, the proper precautions be taken to avoid unsoundness in the worts, there is little doubt but the yeast will go on, doing its work regularly, and no change will be found necessary, unless from a long stoppage of the work.

As yeast, however, is apt to get stale when too long kept, frequent brewings are necessary to prevent its doing so. In summer particularly, the yeast cannot be kept in proper working trim, with fewer than two brewings a week; if more often, the better.

Yeast, when taken out of the stillions and thrown into tubs or reservoirs, begins to work and fret, thereby expending its strength, and thus becomes unﬁt for carrying on a healthy and vigorous