Page:A Practical Treatise on Brewing (4th ed.).djvu/87

Rh as it extracts from the hops an astringent bitter, by no means palatable, and to many highly disagreeable. This may not in stout or porter be very perceptible, but in fine ales it is particularly obvious.

It has also been observed, that when the worts are thus charred, the fermentations are very much inclined to get fretful at certain stages, thus endangering the quality of the beer. We have ourselves lately seen this effect produced, but immediately afterwards remedied by withdrawing the pressure. We are not at present prepared to say what may be the chemical causes of the above-mentioned fretful fermentations: perhaps the charring of the Worts may so alter the nature of their component parts as to produce this effect.

But fermentations, generally speaking, are so apt to be influenced, by what, to many, would appear such trifling or even improbable causes, that they who have had an opportunity of seeing and tracing all their different anomalies, in their various stages, can alone find out and apply the necessary remedies.

It must now be apparent that we are not advocates for long boiling, excepting as above stated, for the purpose of giving strength to the wort by