Page:Willich, A. F. M. - The Domestic Encyclopædia (Vol. 1, 1802).djvu/269

Rh use in a fortnight; but it is not calculated for keeping, particularly in warm weather."

We have been induced to communicate these different methods of preparing a pure and wholesome beverage, in order to contribute our mite, however small, towards alleviating the burthens of domestic life, at the present critical period. And though we should not succeed in persuading many persons, in the middle ranks of society, to adopt our suggestions, we still may flatter ourselves with the chearing hope, that they will humanely exert their influence on such families as may be benefited by brewing their own liquors at home: instead of carrying, perhaps, one-half of their weekly earnings to the next ale-house, and debarring their helpless children from that necessary assistance, for want of which, they are often doomed to become additional burthens on the parish.

Having pointed out the peculiar qualities of good beer, as well as the most easy and advantageous methods of using a substitute for malt, we shall next consider the most effectual way of clarifying this grateful beverage; and of preventing it from turning sour, or restoring it to its former briskness, when it has, by mismanagement, acquired a tart or insipid taste.

Various schemes have been proposed, and many also adopted in breweries, for fining or clarifying different beers. But, as the superior brilliancy and transparency of that liquor, depend in a great measure on the quality of the malt and water—which properly belongs to the article —we shall here speak of that process only so far as it relates to the management of beer, after it is fermented.

In Britain, malt liquors are generally fined with ground-ivy, the Glecoma hederaca, L.; which plant, however, will not produce the desired effect, if the beer has been brewed of bad malt, or otherwise mismanaged during the different processes of boiling and fermenting the wort. In such cases, and especially if it has been too long boiled, the liquor may indeed become clear, by throwing into it an additional quantity of ground-ivy; but it will retain an opacity, or turbid appearance, because this useful plant, being at first lighter than the liquid, and swimming on the top, gradually becomes heavier; and though it combines with the impurities of the liquor, and at length sinks to the bottom of the vessel, yet it is incapable of correcting and decomposing those mucilaginous and empyreumatic particles, which partly arise from inferior malt, and are partly extricated by the action of too great and long-continued heat. Hence we shall propose the following simple remedy, which was communicated to us by a continental friend: After the beer is properly fermented, and a few days old, take one gallon out of every barrel, and add two ounces of hartshorn-shavings (or filings, which are still better) to every gallon. Place the liquor over a moderate fire, till it boils, and rises to the top; let the decoction stand for an hour or two; and, when milk-warm, pour the clear part of it into the barrels, according to the proportion before specified. In this state, the casks must be left undisturbed for twenty-four hours, and then the beer should either be bottled, or drawn off into other vessels. This easy and cheap process, not only has the effect of completely clarifying the beer, but like-