Page:A Practical Treatise on Brewing (4th ed.).djvu/259

Rh the same casks, or racked into others, or, perhaps, into large isolated vats, which may be in a manner hermetically sealed, excepting a small vent-peg, to allow the escape of any accumulation of gas, which might otherwise burst the vat.

The beer thus stowed away in well ventilated storehouses may, by proper means, be at all times, even in the heat of summer, kept at a temperature not higher than from 54° to 60°; and thus, when sent out for sale, its temperature will not be much higher than that from the underground Bavarian cellars. How, then, can this beer labour under any disadvantage when compared with that brewed in Bavaria? or what can prevent it (if not originally contaminated), under proper treatment and good management, from rivalling or even surpassing the best in that country? We have, in every respect, better materials of all descriptions. We have seen beer brewed here which has stood on ullage only half full for eighteen months still quite sound, and with but very little perceptible change.

Liebig admits, page 192., second series, that the quality of the Bavarian beer depends very much upon the skill and experience of the brewer, and that the ﬁnest beer, even in that country, can only be attained in rare and extremely happy instances; thus admitting a similar uncertainty with regard to its quality as must be experienced in every country, until the nature and laws of fermentation can be