Page:Willich, A. F. M. - The Domestic Encyclopædia (Vol. 1, 1802).djvu/376

344] is improved by the preservation of the finer parts of the aromatic oil; and the ale and beer are better secured from any tendency to acidity or putrefaction, and therefore must be fitter for home consumption and exportation.

In June, 1790, Mr., of Ireland, obtained a patent for an improvement, which he calls an entire new method, in all the essential parts, of brewing good malt liquor. Though his method, in one respect, is similar to that adopted by Mr., yet, as it comprehends the whole process of brewing, we shall lay it before our readers, nearly in the words of its author.

1. For the better extracting the virtues of malt, place near a mash-tun a shallow copper, or other vessel, that will readily heat, the curb of which to be on a level with the tun, and to contain from two to six hogsheads, according to the dimension of the tun, more or less; and, at the lower end of the copper, have a cock, from two to five inches in diameter, to conduct the heated liquor from the copper into a tube, which passes down the external part of the tun, and enters it through an aperture about six inches from the bottom; then forming two revolutions, more or less, through the body of the tun, and communicating its heat to the wort as it passes through the tube; and then, at a convenient distance from the place where it first entered, it runs from the tun into a cistern or tub, situate as near as convenient to the copper or heating-vessel. In the tub or cistern is to be placed a pump, for the purpose of conveying the cooler liquor back to the copper or heating vessel again, there to receive the heat of 208 degrees, more or less (which it will require after the first half hour), and then convey it through the mashing-tun, as before, and in the same manner, as long as the working brewer may think necessary, to raise the mashing-tun to any degree of heat required. By adhering to the foregoing process, the first liquor may, with the greatest safety, be let upon the malt, from 20 to 30 degrees lower than the present practice; by which means it operates with gentleness, opens and expands the malt, and prepares it for the reception of sharper or warmer liquor, so as to extract the whole of the saccharine quality from the malt. By the foregoing method, the mashing-tun, instead of loosing its first heat (which it does by the present practice), continues to increase in heat every moment, by conveying the heated liquor through the tube into the tun; by which means, at the end of two hours, the working brewer can have the tun brought to any degree of heat he shall think best suited to the different qualities of the malt. Persons who would wish to save expence, may heat their mashing-tun at the side or bottom, by a large piece of metallic substance made fire-proof, and fixed therein; which, in some degree, will answer the end proposed, but with great trouble and delay.

2. To prevent the wort from receiving a disagreeable flavour, while in the under-back, a tube must be placed at the cock of the mashing-tun, to receive the wort as it comes off, and convey it to a great cistern, or refrigeratory, which is supplied with a stream of water. The wort, passing through that medium in a spiral tube, soon loses that heat which so often proves