sing Casks._

Trifling and simple as this operation may appear, it is still one that
is highly important to the brewer, and requires minute and constant
attention. Burning and steaming casks seems to be two most effectual
modes of accomplishing this important object. If your casks have been
long in use, and thereby contracted any musty or bad smell, the best
way is to open them; wash them well out with boiling water; set them to
dry, and then fire them, after which, they may be washed out again with
hot water, and, when dry, headed for use; every cask after emptying,
that is not perfectly sweet, should be treated in this way,
particularly when intended for stock or keeping beer. New casks that
have never been used, are best prepared by steaming them, and a small
boiler, containing from sixty to one hundred gallons will be best
suited to this purpose. If you have tin pipes communicating from one
cask to another, you can steam four or five at a time, and the work
goes on expeditiously. Fresh emptied small beer, and single-ale casks,
can be sufficiently cleansed by chaining them; after which, rincing
them out with hot water will be found a sufficient cleansing for such
casks, as they are generally but a short time on draught. The operation
of chaining casks is performed by putting into them, with boiling
water, a small iron chain, two or three yards long, and then tossing
your cask several times round and round so as to get the chain to rub,
and act upon every part of the inside head, &c., this will take off the
yest, &c. The smoother and evener all brewers' casks are made on their
inside the better, as they are thereby the more easily cleaned. Every
brewer should be particular in recommending to his customers carefully
to cork up every cask as drawn off--by this simple precaution they will
be preserved sweet for months, while the neglect of it will cause them
to get foul in a short time, to the great increase of trouble and
expense to the brewer before he can sufficiently purify them. It is
also a necessary precaution to keep casks, when brought home, from the
action of the sun and weather, by placing them under proper sheds;
where casks are supposed to occupy one fifth of the brewer's active
capital, they should at all times be carefully looked after.

_The following processes are given principally for the use of gentlemen
farmers, housekeepers, and others, who may occasionally wish, as well as
find their accoun