Page:A Practical Treatise on Brewing (4th ed.).djvu/184

168 method might be quoted, which would sufficiently account for the various anomalies taking place in fermentation. Such seemingly unimportant matters, however, are seldom taken into account; and want of success is attributed to causes over which it is supposed we have no control, and of course cannot understand. The same difficulty, indeed, occurs to experimenters in chemistry. A bad manipulator is often surprised by want of success in his experiments, when another operator, of scientific qualifications perhaps greatly inferior, is invariably successful.

To want of method, therefore, or bad manipulation, may be ascribed a great portion of the uncertainty which occurs in fermentation.

Another circumstance may here be taken into consideration. In making certain colours, a bright sky and a dry atmosphere are best adapted for producing brilliancy. The want of these auxiliaries in this country is so influential that we are seldom able to rival the colours made in Italy, or in other countries possessing these important advantages. We find, however, that in countries possessing the necessary requisites for making colours, the process of brewing beer is seldom successful. This proceed from a different state of the atmosphere producing acidity in the worts, more readily than in our more northern climates. We should accordingly, even in this country, avoid all exposure