Page:A Practical Treatise on Brewing (4th ed.).djvu/19

Rh Art of Brewing would have been long ago placed, by the assistance of chemistry, on a more scientiﬁc footing.

Having had occasion, in the course of a connection of more than forty years with the brewery, to work in premises very differently constructed, we have invariably found, that in each some cause existed which prevented uniformity in the process of fermentation; and until that cause, whatever it might be, was traced and removed, no regular system could be introduced. This sufficiently shows why brewers who go from one brewery to another, cannot arrive at the same successful results with regard to the quality of the beer, although they pursue precisely the same system, and even on some occasions employ the same materials as before. They are thus, from want of chemical knowledge, left completely in the dark, without the possibility of tracing causes and effects. This shows the absolute necessity of applying the discoveries of chemistry, as in other arts, to account for and rectify these anomalies, which without such aid cannot be effected.

The principal object of the following treatise is to trace the causes of these anomalies, and as far as possible to point out the means of removing or rectifying them; and on all occasions to advance only such opinions as are founded on principles strictly chemical and practical, without which, in