trouble
which it might occasion. But if the disagreeable filthiness attending
the process in large public breweries were duly considered, together
with the generally pernicious quality of the beer offered to sale, as
well as the additional expense incurred by this mode of procuring it, no
one who regards economy, or the health and comfort of his family, would
be without home-brewed beer, so long as there were any means left of
obtaining it. Beer as strong of malt and hops, when all the foreign
ingredients are extracted, may be manufactured at home at less than one
third of what it could cost at a public brewery, besides the
satisfaction of drinking, what is known to be wholesome, and free from
any deleterious mixture. Twelve shillings for malt and hops will provide
a kilderkin of beer far superior to one that could be purchased under
license for a pound, while the yeast and the grains are sufficient to
repay all the labour and expense of brewing. On every account,
therefore, it is desirable that the practice of domestic brewing were
universally adopted. The health and comfort of the community would be
increased; and by a larger consumption of malt, the growth of barley
would be extended, and agriculture proportionably benefited. In order to
this however, the enormous duty upon malt requires to be diminished or
repealed. The farmer, unable to make three shillings a bushel of his
barley, is suffering severely under this grinding taxation, as well as
the consumer, who is compelled to pay a duty of four shillings and
six-pence for every bushel that is converted into malt.--The best
seasons of the year for brewing are March and October, the weather in
those months being generally free from the extremes of heat and cold,
which are alike injurious to the process of fermentation. If this is not
in all cases practicable, means should be used to cool the place where
the liquor is set for working in the summer, and of warming it in the
winter: otherwise the beer will be likely to turn sour or muddy. The
beer which is brewed in March should not be tapped till October, nor
that brewed in October till the following March; taking this precaution,
that families of an equal number all the year round, will drink at least
a third more in summer than in winter.--The most suitable water for
brewing is soft river water, which having had the rays of the sun and
the influence of the air upon it, will more easily penetrate and
extract the virtu