THE BREWER

            Brewing is the art of making porter, beer, or ale. This art is undoubtedly a branch of chemistry, and depends on fixed and invariable principles. Those principles are now beginning to be better understood than they formerly were : and although no complete and unerring theory has yet been obtainca, sufficient is now known to euable us to give directions for brewing with ease, certainty, and promptitude, and in the small space to which we are necessarily limited, we hope that we shall exhibit a compendium at once useful and correct.

         Brewing is an art of the remotest antiquity ; in no country has it been carried to a greater perfection than in our own. The inventor of it is not known, but the use of beer was common with the most ancient nations. Histoiy informs us that this liquor passed from Egypt into all the other nations of the world, and that it was first known under the name of Pelusian drink from the nameof Pelusium, a city near the mouth of the Nile, where they made the best beer. From the time of Strabo this drink was common in the provinces of the north, in Flanders, and England. It was used even by the Greeks, according to the relation of Aristotle and Theophrastus, although they had excellent Amines; and from the time of Polybius the Spaniards also made use of it.

         Beer is a vinous liquor, which is made from the sugar obtained by infusion from mnny sorts of farinaceous grain, but barley is most commonly preferred. It is, however, quite evident that any vegetable niatter which contains sugar, or from which sugar by any process can be made or developed, is proper for the production of such liquor. The flavor depending of course in every instance, upon the aroma, the extractive matter of the vegetable, and a portion of essential oil, either in the vegetable itself or in the matters added to the liquor during the process of making it, or afterwards; the hop, for instance, is one of those additions : the flavor which hops give to malt liquors is too well known to be described.

        Different counties of England are celebrated for their peculiar ales, and London porter is famous in almost all parts of the civilized world. Dilfcrent as these several sorts of liquor are, they are nevertheless, for the most part, composed of the same materials variously prepared.

        Malt liquor, in general, is composed of water, malt, hops, and a little yeast ; and the great art is to find out the proper proportions of each ingredient, to what degree of heat the water must be raised before it is poured on the malt, and how best to work it afterwards.

        There are two kinds of malt, distinguished by the colour ; these are called brown and pale malt, and they depend upon the degree of heat that is used in drying. The malt which is dried by a very gentle heat differs in its colour fom the bailey, but if exposed to higher temperatures, it acquires a deeper hue, till at length it becomes of a dark brown.

        When the malt is made , it must be coarsely ground in a mill: it is then fit for the brewer in whose hands the process of making beer is completed.

       The first part of the operation is called mashing, which is performed in a large circular vessel. This vessel has a false bottom, pierced with holes, fixed about six or eight inches above the real bottom. There are two side-openings in the interval between the bottoms; by the one water is conveyed into the vessel, and by the other it is drawn off. When the malt is put on the false bottom of the mash tun, the water being at a proper heat, is admitted, by means of the side pipe, from the copper, which is contained within the brickwork.The water first fills the space between the false and real bottom ; then forcing its way through the small holes in the false bottom, it soaks the malt and when all the water is let in, the process of mashing begins. The object of this part of the operation is to effect a perfect mixture of the malt with the water, so that the sweet part of the grain may be extracted by the fluid; for this purpose the mass is kept constantly stirred by means of iron rakes, or long wooden poles.

        In large breweries, such as that which belonged to the late Mr. Whilbread iu Chiswck Street, the process of mashing cannot be performed by human labour; it is therefore effected by machinery that is kept moving by means of the stcam-engine. As soon as the mashing is completed, the tun is covered in to prevent the escape of heat, and in this state it is suffered to remain till all the sweetness of the malt is extracted ; then the spigot is withdrawn, and the clear wort allowed to run off into a lower or boiling copper. The heat of the water used in mashing should be about 180" of Fahrenheit's thermometer. Before the goodness of the malt is exhausted it is usual to pour upon it two or three waters, but the wort which is drawn off the first is much the strongest. The proportion of malt to the water depends on the strength of the liquor wanted. It is said that good small beer may be brewed al the rate of thirty gallons to a bushel of malt, and excellent ale may be made in the proportion of one bushel of malt to five or six gallons of water; indeed, if this proportion be used, strong beer onght to be the result of the operation, as will be seen when we describe private brewing below.

       The wort, when run into the lower copper, is to be boiled with a certain quantity of hops; the stronger the wort, the more hops are required; the common proportion in private families is a pound of hops to a bushel of malt, for weaker liquors; but the stronger do not require hops in the same proportion. When tbe hops are mixed with the wort in the copper, the liquor is made to boil; and it must be kept boiling as fast as possible, till, upon taking out a little of the liquor, it is found to be full of small flakes, something like a curdled soap.

       The boiling copper is, in small concerns, uncovered, but in large breweries it is fitted with a steam-tight cover, from the centre of which passes a cylindrical pipe, that terminates in several branches in the upper or mashing-copper; thus the steam produced by boiling, instead of being wasted, is let into cold water of the upper copper, by which it is made almost hot enough for mashing without any additional expense of fuel; the steam carries also with it the flavour of the hops, which when the operation is carried on differently, is lost in the air.

       When the liqoor is sufficiently boiled, it is drawn out into a number of shallow tubs calledcoolers in which it remains till it is cool enough to be submitted to fermentation. Liquor mlade from pale molt, and intended for immediate use, need not be cooler than 75 or 80 degrees and can of course be made in almost every part of the summer ; but that which is for keeping shoold not be hotter than 65 or 70 degrees when it is put together for fermentation.

       From the coolers the liquor is transferred into the fermenting or working-tun, in which it is well mixed with yeast, in the proportion of one gallon of yeast to fonr barrels of beer. This part of the process takes from 18 to 48 hours according to the state of the weather.

       The last part of the operation is that of transferring the liqnor from the working-tua to the barrels where the fermeutation is completed. For a few days there will be a copious discharge of yeast from the bung-hole. During which the barrels must from time to time be carefully filled up with fresh liquor. After this discharge is fiuished, the barrels are bunged up, and the beer is fit for use in the course of a week or two, if the proportion of malt to the water be small, but the stronger the liquor the longer time it takes to become fit for being drunk. Strong beer made with a proportion of six gallons of water to one bushel of malt, and in the quantity of sixty gallons will usually take, in the temperature of England, one year to become an agreeable liquor, In general the larger the quantity of liquor in one vessel, the longer time it takes to become mature : and it is of material importance that all vessels containing malt liquor, when bunged down, after its having finished the active fermentation, should be full.

      Common report says, that in addition to malt and hops, a variety of other ingredients used, and none of them of the most wholesome nature.

      To see the several operations of this busness, the reader is recommended to obtain permission to go over the immense works in Chiswell-street, and be very attentive to the several parts of the business ; to examine the structure of the steam-engine, and to observe how much of the laborious part of the work js performed by this stupendous machine. He will see how the mashing is performed; how the malt is drawn up into the gallery; how the vessels are filled with beer; with what ease they are refilled after having worked over; and a multitude of otehr curious contrivances, of which, without an actual inspection, he cannot form the most distant conception.

      So much for the brewing of malt liquor on a large scale. We shall now give our readers a method very generally pursued by families for brewing their own ale, which practice is getting general from a conviction of the very great unwholesomeness of ale, &c. from some of the public breweries.

       In brewing, the first thing necessary is to take care that the cask, into which the liquor is to be put, is sweet and wholesome. The casks in most common request in London, are barrels containing 36 gallons. To make such a cask of good malt liquor the following proportions may be taken : malt three bushels, hops two pounds; having measured the quantityof water which your cask will hold, by a pail or bucket you must put that quantity inrto your furnace and make it boil; as soon as it boils, dip off half of it into a tub or vat raised upon a bench, about a foot and a half from the ground, and which has a hole in its side near the bottom, into which is introduced a spigot and faucet, and over the end of which, into the vat, is fixed a bundle of small clean sticks, or other convenient apparatus, to prevent the malt from running out; let the water remain quiet in the vat till it has cooled to about the temperature 175 or 180 degrees of Fahrenheit's thermometer, or, in the absence of this instrument till your face can be seen pretty distinctly in the vvater ;— then mix the malt with the water gradually stirring it with a mashing stick which is usually made for the purpose, and too well known to be described. Reserve a few hanfulls of the dry malt to strew over the surface after it is mixed, in order to prevent the escape of the heat ; and cover the vat besides with ctoths, more effectually to keep the mixture hot; let it remain for three hours — then let the liquid run out by the spigot and faucet; and, as soon as it has done so, pour on the same quantity of water, cooled in a tub to the same degree of heat as before, and let it remain half an hour, or somewhat longer; let the liquor run off a second time ; and as you will now be enabled to judge how much more fluid will be necessary to fill your cask, add as much more water, cooled as before, as will be sufficient for your purpose, letting the last portion stand a short time in the vat ; always remembering that it is most advisable to have, for a barrel of 36 gallons, at least 10 or 15 gallons of wort, more than sufficient to fill your cask, to allow for waste and evaporation ; and keeping in mind also, that the more water is used, the more effectually will the sugar be washed out of the malt, and of course the stronger must your liquor become. When your liquors are all run off, mix them together, and put them into the furnace, making it to boil as soon as possible. It will be quite necessary that you should know how many gallons your fumace will contain, in order to judge of the evaporation; for the overplus of quantity must be reduced by boiling to the quantity of gallons which you want. Whea your wort is reduced, by boiling, to nearly the measure which you intend it to be, and not before, put in your two pounds of hops, and let them boil in the wort a quarter of an hour or twenty minutes, and it would be most advisable, during the time of their boiling, that the furnace should. be covered down. Remove the fire from the furnace and strain off your wort into proper coolers; and when it is sufficiently cool, as before mentioned, mix one quart of good yeast with a few gallons of the wort first, and afterwards put the whole together into a vat to remain to ferment for a few days; or put it at once into your cask and let it ferment there : which last method is the most effectual to preserve all the strength of the liquor.

      This ale will be fit for drinking in about two or at nost three months, depending of course upon the season of the year in which it is made; but October is a proverbial month for brewing, and from the equability of its temperature, it is undoubtedly the best. — The months of March and April are the next best. If, instead of three bushels of malt, six be added to the same quantity of water, and four pounds of hops an excellent strong beer will be the result: ten gallons of good small beer might be afterwards made from the not wholly exhausted malt.