Page:A Practical Treatise on Brewing (4th ed.).djvu/17



many treatises on Brewing, both theoretical and practical, have already appeared, that the subject may very naturally be considered to have been exhausted. Some of these productions, however, are too homely; while others so abound with scientiﬁc technicalities, as to be altogether unintelligible to the general reader.

That Brewing is a chemical process, no one can deny, and of course, in every work on the subject, some chemical terms must be used. In the following pages, however, it is not intended to give any account of the production or nature of gases or other chemical agents, further than may be absolutely requisite to elucidate the subject. Nor is it intended to introduce a history of the origin of Beer, which must in a great measure be conjectural.

In most arts, such as dyeing, iron-making, calico-printing, glass-making, &c., great improvements have been introduced by the assistance of