Page:A Practical Treatise on Brewing (4th ed.).djvu/158

142 by its removal, may be quiet enough for a time, yet the least increase of heat or exposure to the atmosphere, will again set it in motion; when, by getting on the fret, acidity may be produced. It never can be thoroughly sound, and will very soon become ﬂat in drawing. It will also be found that when beer has been too long flattened in this way, before being stowed in casks, it will very soon get ﬂat and forward when in draught in the publicans’ cellars.

This, therefore, must be a very erroneous mode of treating beer. Some brewers, who have no tanks for the purpose, pump their beer from the cleansing casks again into a fermenting-tun, where it is often allowed to remain until the same indications of acidity, as above mentioned, may have taken place, when the same bad consequences may be dreaded. One great complaint is, that though ale tastes very well when first tapped, yet it very soon gets flat and forward, and will not stand the draught. How can it, we may ask, when acidification has previously commenced by long exposure to the atmosphere?

We think enough has been said to prove that long exposure of beer to the atmosphere is the worst mode of treating it. The laws of chemical science, not less than the facts, establish this conclusion.

When beer of any kind has gone through a