Total expense 4 8
-------
This will produce five gallons
of good porter, which if
bought of the brewer would
cost 8 4

But being brewed at home, for 4 8
-------
Leaves a clear gain of 3 8

This saving is quite enough to pay for time and trouble, besides the
advantage of having a wholesome liquor, free from all poisonous
ingredients. Porter thus brewed will be fit for use in a week, and may
be drunk with pleasure. To do ample justice to the subject however, it
may be proper briefly to notice the specific properties of the various
ingredients which enter into the composition of London porter. It is
evident that some porter is more heady than others, and this arises from
the greater or less quantity of stupefying ingredients intermixed with
it. Malt itself, to produce intoxication, must be used in such large
quantities as would very much diminish the brewer's profit. Of the
wholesomeness of malt there can be no doubt; pale malt especially is
highly nutritive, containing more balsamic qualities than the brown
malt, which being subject to a greater degree of fire in the kiln, is
sometimes so crusted and burnt, that the mealy part loses some of its
best qualities. Amber malt is that which is dried in a middling degree,
between pale and brown, and is now much in use, being the most pleasant,
and free from either extreme. Hops are an aromatic grateful bitter, very
wholesome, and undoubtedly efficacious in giving both flavour and
strength to the beer. Yeast is necessary to give the liquor that portion
of elastic air, of which the boiling deprives it. Without fermentation,
or working, no worts, however rich, can inebriate. Liquorice root is
pleasant, wholesome, and aperient; and opposes the astringent qualities
of some of the other ingredients; it ought therefore to be used, as
should Spanish liquorice, which possesses the same properties. Capsicum
disperses wind, and when properly used, cannot be unwholesome: it leaves
a glow of warmth on the stomach, which is perceptible in drinking some
beers. Ginger has the same effect as capsicum, and it also cleanses and
flavours the beer. But capsicum being cheaper is more used, and by its
tasteless though extremely