Page:A Practical Treatise on Brewing (4th ed.).djvu/58

42 mentations went on regularly, and the beer turned out well.

The previous irregularity and styptic taste must, therefore, have proceeded from a portion of the metals being dissolved by the galvanic action, a necessary consequence of the mixture of metals in the gyle-tun.

In the next case which we bring forward the gyle-tuns were old and lined with lead. The worts ran from the coolers into the tuns by a leaden pipe introduced into the middle of the tun through the leaden lining. The tuns were also connected with a short main pipe (for cleansing the beer), by means of brass cocks and solder. The fermentation here was excessively irregular, sometimes going on very rapidly,—and ultimately arriving at what is called the “boiling” appearance, described in another part of this treatise: at other times coming almost to a stand still; and on all occasions after a certain stage of the process, acquiring an unhealthy faint odour. To prove to the parties that these irregularities arose from the mixture of metals in the gyle-tun and connected with it, two barrels of wort were taken and fermented in an open-headed butt, where the fermentation went on quite well, and without any irregularity whatever.

New gyle-tuns were at last ordered and put up; but even then. some little irregularities were perceivable, which were discovered to be owing to a