# A Practical Treatise on Brewing/Appendix/Eight Bushels for Private Families

PLAIN DIRECTIONS TO PRIVATE FAMILIES FOR BREWING THEIR OWN BEER.
For a Brewing of Eight Bushels.
In private or family brewing it is quite as necessary to adhere to the general rules laid down in the foregoing pages as it is in a large establishment. Families commonly brew only twice a year, in October and March. It has been already stated, that malt which has been kept over the summer, is liable to get slack or moist from exposure to the atmosphere, and that such malt will almost invariably produce unsound beer. Private families, therefore, cannot be too careful in selecting their malt for October brewing. If they must brew with malt of the above description, they should insist, that before delivery, it should be again dried upon the kiln, so as to expel the moisture, even although it should cost them two shillings per quarter more; or, they may delay their brewing until good new malt can be procured. The March brewings are frequently better than those in October, from the above-mentioned precaution not being attended to. The brewing vessels also are liable to get tainted from being long out of use, it would therefore be advisable to scald them out before brewing, with ​hot water and a little chloride of lime (bleaching powder). By adhering strictly to the following directions, they will run less risk of their worts being tainted than when more time is occupied in the process.
The day previous to the commencement of brewing, examine all the utensils very carefully, and be sure that they have been thoroughly scalded and scrubbed. On the morning of the day on which you intend to brew, having nearly filled your boiler with water, make the water boil, and continue the boiling for some time. This may be done the day previously; the object being to soften the water, particularly when its principal impurity is owing to carbonate of lime. If the water is hard, or containing sulphate of lime, which curdles soap even when boiled, an alkali, such as sub-carbonate of potash, (salt of tartar,) or subcarbonate of soda, may be thrown into the water, the proportion of not more than one ounce to a barrel or thirty-six gallons: this will sufficiently soften such water.
Morning, 7 o’clock.—The water in the boiler being now at a temperature of 180° F., let run into your mash-tun one barrel and a-half, or about 7 gallons of water to each bushel of malt: stir this about until it acquires a temperature of 170°, then commence the gradual addition of your malt; taking care to mix it thoroughly with the water by means of oars and rakes, as it goes into the tun. When ​the mash is too thick for stirring, add a little more water, letting it run slowly, say half a barrel, or about two gallons per bushel, at a temperature of 180°; this will enable you to infuse the remainder of your malt. Let your copper in the meantime be gaining heat until it reaches 190°; then damp your ﬁre. If you have the means of doing so, let your liquor at 190° run very gently from under the false bottom of your mash-tun. If you cannot let it run from below, it must be sprinkled over the top of the mash, by means of a watering-pot such as is used by gardeners for watering plants. You should in the meantime continue mashing as quickly as possible.
As soon as the milky whiteness of the extract disappears and is succeeded by greater transparency, let the water run or be sprinkled on more quickly, when in a short time the white froth will make its appearance all over the tun. Your extract is now thoroughly made. If your malt be of the best quality, you may take in this way for your first mash, in all, three barrels of water per quarter, or 13½ gallons per bushel.
Having now done mashing, sprinkle a little dry ground malt over the top of the mash, and cover up the tun. Let it so stand for one hour and a half; then set tap, as it is technically called, or, in other words, let your worts run from the mash-tun to the underback.
The boiler should in the meantime be again ​nearly filled with liquor, and brought as speedily as possible to a temperature of 185°.
When the mash-tun is quite drained off, proceed immediately with your second mash, the liquor in your boiler being now at 185°, which is the best temperature, but do not delay your process for the difference of a few degrees. Turn on, over, not under, the malt, very gently at first, so as to let the liquor find its way down through the malt as you proceed, one barrel and a-half per quarter, or nearly 7 gallons to a bushel. Should any remain in the boiler, let it run to waste, or retain it for some other purpose. Lose no time now in pumping or getting your first tap or worts into the boiler, where you should find rather more than 2 barrels at 30 lbs. gravity per Long’s instrument: to this add 9 lbs. of hops or 6 lbs. per barrel (for the ale to be produced) or more, if highly-hopped beer is wanted. Get your copper to boil as soon as possible, and keep it boiling for an hour and fifteen minutes, then turn your worts out through the hop-back into the coolers.
We now return to the second mash in the mash-tun. Should the malt have risen up through the liquor on the top, no farther mashing will be necessary; but if it does not rise, it must be stirred up by oars or rakes. Let this mash stand until your first worts begin to boil; then let it run gently, so as to keep pace nearly with your boiling. As soon ​as this is drained, sprinkle over the malt, with your watering-can, about half a barrel of cold water, or a little more than two gallons per bushel; let this run as soon as it disappears through the grains. When your copper is discharged of the first worts, get your second into it as speedily as possible, and keep on boiling; add the hops from the first worts as soon as they are drained. Boil this second wort from one hour and a-half to two hours, at your own option. That long boiling acts as a preservative to the beer, in any other way than increasing the strength by evaporation, is quite a mistake.
The above process is given on the supposition that your brewing utensils are large enough for the purpose. If they be not, it is better to brew a smaller quantity of malt, which will then enable you to proceed as above directed. The reasons for this alteration are obvious: none of your worts with the diminished quantity are allowed to remain any length of time between the mash-tun and the copper; an arrangement which prevents their getting tainted, as is too often the case, when otherwise treated; necessarily destroying the whole of the beer.
We shall now proceed. to the fermentation, beginning, of course, with the first worts or strong ale. We found in the copper rather more than two barrels at 30 lbs. gravity: this quantity, by the waste in boiling and by the evaporation and ​condensation in the coolers, will now be reduced in the fermenting tun to about one barrel and a half, or a hogshead. As no saccharine matter, however, is lost by evaporation, either in boiling or cooling, the strength or gravity will now be rather above 40 lbs. per Long, or 1.112 specific gravity, by Allan's or Bates’ instruments, (described at p. 57.,) which is quite strong enough for any kind of ale.
It is difficult to say what is the proper temperature at which to commence fermentation on a scale so small. If, however, an uniform temperature of 55° to 60° can be preserved in the tun-room, it will be desirable, as ale of this strength should never be placed in the tun at a higher temperature than 54° or 55°; but if from the situation of your brewhouse it be subjected to all the different fluctuations of the atmosphere, particularly in winter, the worts, if got together at so low a temperature, may, perhaps, lose as much as 5 or 6 degrees before fermentation can begin: in this case fermentation will hardly commence at all, or if it does, will go on so sluggishly as to prevent the possibility of ultimately arriving at the proper attenuation, unless the temperature be raised as directed, p. 129. This, therefore is a point upon which no deﬁnite or certain directions can be given; and the operator must of necessity be left to his own judgment.
The great rule by which we ought to be governed, is—never at any period of the fermentation ​to admit such high temperatures as to be carrying on what is called the acetous instead of the vinous fermentation. It is still disputed, and must always remain a delicate question among chemists, at what temperature the acetous fermentation commences; but at or under 75°, or, perhaps, even a few degrees higher, little or no risk can be run; it is, therefore, desirable to keep within the limit of 75°. In all cases of this kind, therefore, the proper temperature at which the worts must be got together in the fermenting tun, must depend on such circumstances as can only be judged of by the brewer.
Let us suppose that the worts, when placed in the fermenting tun, are at a medium temperature, or at 58°: thus leaving opportunity for an increase in temperature of 18 or 19 degrees before cleansing or tunning. Let a sufficient quantity of good, sound, lively yeast, be procured, and when the worts in the coolers fall to a temperature of 70°, mix two pounds of the said yeast with a little of the worts at that temperature, contained in a pail. As soon as the mixture begins to rise, let 10 gallons of the worts run into your fermenting tun, into which throw your yeast so rising. This is called pitching. Rouse it about until it is thoroughly mixed; then take six pounds more of the same yeast, and mix it with worts in a pail as before-directed, so as to let it begin to rise in the pail before using. If it begin to ﬂow over the pail before the worts have arrived ​at the proper temperature of 62° or 63°, pour a little of it into the fermenting tun. When you begin to let your worts run so as to have your mean temperature at 62°, throw in the remainder of the yeast: and when the worts are all collected, stir the whole again until it is thoroughly mixed. It is requisite on this small scale to cover the tun so as to retain the heat.
If your worts be sound, and your yeast also sound and lively, the fermentation should now go on as described at page 183., under the head of “Best Ale Fermentation;” and your ale should be ready for tunning on the third morning after brewing. Should the weather be cold, scald your cleansing casks with a little boiling water, just before cleansing; this will prevent your beer being chilled, which would retard its working. Fill up the casks, from the beer thrown off, every hour for the first eight hours, after which draw off what beer may still remain in your stillions; which, if put into an open-headed, broad vessel, will soon get pretty clear. Fill up the casks occasionally with this beer for two days more, and for all further directions refer to page 141., on “Storing and Keeping Beer.”
We shall now proceed with the fermentation of the second worts. We had in the copper rather more than two barrels, at a gravity of 13½ lbs., which when boiled and cooled down like the others, will also leave a hogshead of beer to go into the ​fermenting tun. This beer will now be of 18 lbs. gravity per barrel, by Long's instrument; or 1.050 specific gravity, by Allan's.
When at a temperature of 75°, pitch as before directed, with 10 gallons of worts and 2 lbs. of yeast; get all into the tun at a temperature of about 68°, adding 2 lbs. more yeast, treated as before directed. Cover up the tun, and cleanse the beer, at the third change, or when it has risen to a light yeasty head; proceeding to ﬁll up, as before directed for the ale; and look at "Storing and Keeping," for further directions. We trust we have now given such explicit and ample directions for brewing on a small scale, as will enable any private family to brew even the small quantity of one bushel, with certainty. It must be observed, however, that in very small brewings, the temperature for adding the yeast to the stronger beer must be 6 or 7 degrees higher than in larger brewings.
Should the fermentation at any time get too cold, proceed as directed, p. 129.
The quantities of water to be used in the above brewings, are stated both in barrels per qr., and gallons per bushel of malt; if, therefore, two or more qrs. are to be used, take your quantities of liquor by barrels per qr.; if smaller quantities, such as two, three, or four bushels, take your quantities of liquor by gallons per bushel, as above directed.