Page:Willich, A. F. M. - The Domestic Encyclopædia (Vol. 1, 1802).djvu/268

238] seven pounds of the coarsest brown sugar into the wort, while boiling. This makes a very pleasant liquor; is as strong, and will kdep as long without becoming sour or fiat, as if two bushels of malt had been employed."—Dr. adds, that the latter is the preparation used in the Shrewsbury Infirmary, and he does not hesitate to attest its wholesome and nutritive properties.

In the sixth volume of the Museum Rusticum et Commerciale, a work of considerable merit, we meet with a similar account of making a kind of Table Beer, which, from its cheapness, and agreeablefless, is greatly preferable to that obtained from malt; and which has this farther advantage, that it may be made ready for drinking in three or four days:—"Take fifteen gallons of water, and boll one-half of it, or as much as can conveniently be managed; put the part of the water thus boiled, while it is yet of its full heat, to the cold part, contained in a barrel or cask; and then add one gallon of molasses, commonly called treacle, stirring them well together: add a little yeast, if the vessel be new; but, if it has been used for same purpose, the yeast is unnecessary. Keep the bung-hole open till the fermentation appear to be abated, and then close it up. The beer will, in a day or two afterwards, be fit to drink.

"It is usual to put tops of the spruce fir into the water which is making this beer; and it is then called spruce beer. But, gh this is done at sea, when such tops can be obtained, on account of the scurvy; yet it is not neccessary, and may very well be omitted, where they are not to be easily procured. Scurvy-grass, or other herbs or drugs, used in making purl, gill-ale, or any other flavoured malt liquor, may be added at discretion. But a little of the outer ririd of an orange-peel, infused in the beer itself, and taken out as soon as it has imparted a sufficient degree of bitterness, will be found grateful, and assist in keeping the beer from turning sour. A very little gentian-root, boded in the water, either with a little orange-peel, or without, gives also a very cheap, wholesome, and pleasant bitter to this beer."

The philanthropic editor of the "Reports of the Society fur bettering the Condition, and increasing the Comforts of the Poor," T., Esq. very justly observes (in a note, vol. i. p. 194), "that it would be a very desirable thing, that the poor should be able to supply themselves with beer of their own brewing, without being obliged always to recur to the ale-house. I am aware of the disadvantage of brewing in small quantities; but that might be compensated for by great advantages, and by the superior flavour of beer brewed and drank at home.—The following recipe is according to the proportions used in the House of Industry, at Shrewsbury: To half a bushel of malt, add four pounds of treacle, and three-quarters of a pound of hops; this will make twenty-five gallons of beer; the cost of which (supposing the value of the grain to be only equal to the expence of fuel), would be two-pence a gallon, where the materials were purchased to the best advantage; and, when bought at the retail shop, about three-pence. I have tried the receipt, and found the beer very good: it was fit for use