Page:A Practical Treatise on Brewing (4th ed.).djvu/105

Rh mentation in the fluid to which it may be added. Pitching yeast should, therefore, be allowed to remain in the stillions, with a portion of the drawings, until wanted for use: the drawings should then be removed, and the yeast taken up. In the country, where sometimes it is difficult to procure a fresh store of yeast, when required, the best mode of preservation is to place the yeast, when taken up, in the coolest part of the premises, and pour over it the coldest water which can be procured. The water should occasionally be poured off and renewed. If ice can be obtained it is better than water. We generally find that yeast about the second or third day after cleansing is in its best working trim.

It is a very generally received opinion that the stronger the worts, the less yeast is necessary. We cannot, however, subscribe to this opinion, but on the contrary must contend, that if an artificial ferment be at all necessary, the quantity should be proportional to the work it has to do; or, in other words, in proportion to the saccharine matter to be attenuated. A smaller quantity might perhaps ultimately have the desired effect, as we see in very long fermentations; but this is leaving in some degree to chance, what may be effected with certainty, in a much shorter time, by a different, and