Page:Husbandman and Housewife 1820.djvu/16

 &mdash;Spruce.

TAKE a sufficient quantity of spruce boughs; boil them in water about half an hour, or till the outward skin or rind peels off; strain the liquor, and stir in at the rate of two quarts of molasses to half a barrel. Work it with beer grounds or emptyings, or rather with yeast.

Molasses Beer.

TAKE four quarts of molasses, half a pint of yeast, and a spoonful of powdered race ginger: Put these ingredients into your vessel, and pour on them two gallons of scalding hot, soft clear water;&mdash;Shake it till it ferments; and add thirteen gallons of the same water to fill up the cask. Let the liquor ferment for about twelve hours, then bottle it off with a raisin or two in each bottle.

A good Household Beer.

TAKE a heaped half peck of wheat bran, and three or four ounces of hops: Boil them a quarter of an hour in fifteen gallons of clear water: strain the liquor through a close sieve, and sweeten it with two quarts of molasses cool it quick till it is no warmer than new milk, and fill your half barrel. Warm water may be used to fill up the cask if needful. Leave the bung but for 24. hours, that the drink may work and throw off the yeast, and it will be fit for use. About the fourth or fifth day, bottle off what remains in the vessel, especially if the weather be hot, that it may not turn sour or stale. If the cask be new, or not before used for beer, apply yest or beer grounds to ferment it; otherwise it will not be necessary.

The practice which is common of fermenting our small drinks with the sediments or dregs of the same