Page:A Practical Treatise on Brewing (4th ed.).djvu/148

132 October is by no means the best season for brewing stock beer, and when stagnant water is used, must be decidedly the worst. The season which we recommend for the purpose, is fine open frosty weather whenever that may occur, or when the temperature of the air is about 40° F. and clear, with N. E. winds and high barometer. The worts are then much less liable to become tainted than in rainy or hazy weather, and the fermentation will be more healthy and vigorous, and thus produce a sounder and better beer than can be obtained under different circumstances. Frosty weather may be expected from December till nearly the end of March: these four months, therefore, are the proper months for brewing stock beer.

All stock beer should undergo a vigorous fermentation: this cannot be accomplished with any certainty, by a slow process, as is sufficiently exemplified by the fact, that no brewer pursuing the slow process of fermentation, will guarantee his beer above a certain limited period, and even before the end of that period, it is often returned by the purchaser on account of unsoundness. Stock beer, therefore, of whatever strength, should never be more than from 50 to 70 hours in going through its regular process of fermentation in the gyle-tun. Skimming in this case is quite superfluous, as the beer, when cleansed at the proper time, will throw off the yeast in the cleansing cask, quite as well and