followed that mode of brewing. My table-beer, as well as my
ale, is always as clear as wine. I have had hundreds and hundreds of
quarters of malt brewed into beer in my house. My people could always make
it strong enough and sweet enough; but never, except by accident, could
they make it CLEAR. Now I never have any that is not clear. And yet my
utensils are all very small; and my brewers are sometimes one labouring
man, and sometimes another. A man wants showing how to brew the first
time. I should suppose that we use, in my house, about seven hundred
gallons of beer every year, taking both sorts together; and I can
positively assert, that there has not been one drop of bad beer, and
indeed none which has not been most excellent, in my house, during the
last two years, I think it is, since I began using the utensils, and in
the manner named in this book.

ICE-HOUSES.

236. First begging the reader to read again paragraph 149, I proceed here,
in compliance with numerous requests to that effect, to describe, as
clearly as I can, the manner of constructing the sort of Ice-houses
therein mentioned. In England, these receptacles of frozen water are,
generally, _under ground_, and always, if possible, under the _shade of
trees_, the opinion being, that the _main_ thing, if not the _only_ thing,
is to keep away _the heat_. The heat is to be kept away certainly; but
_moisture_ is the great enemy of _Ice_; and how is this to be kept away
either _under ground_, or under the shade of trees? Abundant experience
has proved, that no thickness of _wall_, that no cement of any kind, will
effectually resist _moisture_. Drops will, at times, be seen hanging on
the under side of an arch of any thickness, and made of any materials, if
it have earth over it, and even when it has the floor of a house over it;
and wherever the moisture enters, the ice will quickly melt.

237. Ice-houses should therefore be, in all their parts, _as dry_ as
possible: and they should be so constructed, and the ice so deposited in
them, as to ensure _the running away of the meltings_ as quickly as
possible, whenever such meltings come. Any-thing in way of drains or
gutters, is too slow in its effect; and therefore there must be something
that will not suffer the water proceeding from any melting, to remain an
instant.

238. In the first place, then, the ice-house should stand in a place quite
open to the _sun and air_; for whoever has travelled even but a f