Page:A Practical Treatise on Brewing (4th ed.).djvu/138

122 as slack-dried malt, and may possibly to a certain extent be equally objectionable. For running beers, meaning those for immediate use, we have always found that fine Sussex or Worcester hops were equally good as the stronger Kents, if not, indeed, preferable to them.

The best Sussex hops, however, are so much improved of late, that they now nearly resemble the Weald of Kent: indeed it would be very difficult to discriminate between them; and we should as readily use the one as the other. Many are in the practice of using only yearling or older hops, or at least the greater proportion of such, in ales for immediate use, having an idea that the ales get sooner bright, and are less bitter. This is a mistake, as we have very often proved. The bitter complained of proceeds from the ale being yeast-bitten, or partially so; but the ale, if sound, will become bright equally as soon with the one as the other.

The increasing attention now beginning to be paid by the planter to the growth of the male or wild hop, and also having them more numerously distributed in the hop-ground, will rapidly increase the productiveness of the female or common hop which the brewers use, and also improve the quality of the plant.