Page:Willich, A. F. M. - The Domestic Encyclopædia (Vol. 1, 1802).djvu/270

240] likewise preventing it from turning sour, especially if it be laid up in bottles properly corked, and secured with a cement consisting of nearly equal parts of melted bees'-wax, resin, and turpentine.

There is also considerable damage to be apprehended from the effects of a thunder-storm, by which ale or beer is apt to become turbid and flat, not only at the time when undergoing the critical process of fermentation in the tub, but likewise after it has been barrelled.

In the former case, we are not acquainted with a better method than that of placing (on the approach of a tempest) several vessels filled with lime-water, or where this cannot be immediately procured, only simple water contiguous to the fermenting vat; and, if it be convenient, both fluids in their several vessels should be on a level, or the beer might be somewhat lower than the water; which attracts and absorbs the then prevailing acidity of the atmosphere.

In the latter case, the injurious influence of thunder may be effectually prevented, by laying a solid piece of iron on each cask: this easy expedient we find recorded in the Gentleman's Magazine, for January 1753; and the anonymous writer adds, that the fact is accounted for in one of the volumes of the "Athenian Oracles."

In summer, especially in what is called the bean-season, when all malt liquors are liable to become flat, the following remedy is often successfully employed as a preventive: Take a new laid egg, perforate it with small holes, put it in a clean linen bag, together with laurel-berries, and a little barley; then suspend it in the vessel containing the beer;—instead of the berries and barley, a few leaves of the walnut-tree may be substituted. Others put salt made of the ashes of barley-straw, into the vessel, and stir it till it be incorporated; or, if the beer is not very sour, a small quantity of such ashes, or calcined chalk, oyster-shells, egg-shells, &c. may be suspended in a similar manner, in order to absorb the acidity of the liquor, and recover its former sweetness.

Sour Beer, however, cannot be easily restored in the manner above stated, without undergoing a new process of fermentation, or impregnating it, for that purpose, with fixed air. But as the latter is an expensive and troublesome method, we shall communicate another of more easy application. recommended his sal mirabile (common ), and, to be put into a linen bag, and suspended from the top of the cask, so as to reach the surface of the liquor: thus the beer will not only be preserved and strengthened, but it may also, when flat, or sour, be restored to its former briskness. The experiment may be easily made; but we cannot vouch for its result.

Another, and a better remedy, for recovering tart, or insipid beer, is the following: add to every pint of such beer, from twenty to thirty drops of what is commonly called oil of tartar (salt of tartar, or pure pot-ash, reduced to a liquid state, by exposing it to the influence of the air in a cellar, or other damp situation); then mix it in the vessel, and the acidity will be quickly neutralized.—Those who live at a distance from apothecaries' shops, or wish to prepare this liquid tartar, for occasional use on journeys, especially in summer, may easily make