oduce three kilderkins of good beer. I recommend that
you should use malt and hops of the best quality only; as their
plentiful yield of beneficial substance fully compensates for their
somewhat higher price. A thin shell, well filled up plump with the
interior flour, and easily bitten asunder, is a sure test of good
quality in malt; superior hops are known by their light greenish-yellow
tinge of colour, and also by their bright, dry, yet somewhat gummy feel
to the touch, without their having any tendency to clamminess. The day
before brewing, let all your tackle be well scrubbed and rinsed clean,
the copper wiped out, and all your tubs and barrels half filled with
cold water, to soak for a few hours, so as to guard against any chance
of leakage, and afterwards emptied, and set to dry in the open air,
weather permitting; or otherwise, before the fire. Fasten the tapwaist
inside the mash-tub to the inner end of the faucet and spigot, taking
care to place the mash-tub in an elevated position, resting upon two
benches or stools. Early in the dawn of morning, light the fire under
your copper, filled with water over-night, and, as soon as it boils,
with it fill the mash-tub rather more than three-parts full; and as soon
as the first heat of the water has subsided, and you find that you are
able to bear your fingers drawn slowly through it without experiencing
pain, you must then throw in the malt, stirring it about for ten minutes
or so; then lay some sticks across the mash-tub, and cover it with sacks
or blankets, and allow it to steep for three hours. At the end of the
three hours, let off the wort from the mash-tub into the underback-tub,
which has been previously placed under the spigot and faucet ready to
receive it; pouring the first that runs out back into the mash, until
the wort runs free from grains, etc.; now put the hops into the
underback-tub and let the wort run out upon them. Your copper having
been refilled, and boiled again while the mash is in progress, you must
now pour sufficient boiling water into the grains left in the mash-tub
to make up your quantity of fifty-four gallons; and when this second
mashing shall have also stood some two hours, let it be drawn off, and
afterwards mixed with the first batch of wort, and boil the whole at two
separate boilings, with the hops equally divided; each lot to be allowed
to boil for an hour and a-half after it has commenced boiling. The beer
is now to be strained thro