wards fining and
keeping your liquor from growing stale.

Isinglass is the most common thing made use of in fining all sorts of
liquors; they first beat it well with a hammer or mallet, and lay it in
a pail, and then draw off about two gallons of the liquor to be fined
upon it, and let it soak two or three days; and when it is soft enough
to mix with the liquor, they take a whisk, and stir it about till it is
all of a ferment, and white froth; and they frequently add the whites
and shells of about a dozen of eggs, which they beat in with it, and put
altogether into the cask; then with a clean mop-stick, or some such
thing, stir the whole together; and then lay a cloth, or piece of paper
over the bung-hole, till the ferment is over; and then bung it up close,
in a few days it will fall fine.

But if you want to fine only a small quantity, take half an ounce of
unflacked lime, and put it into a pint of water, and stir it well
together, and let it stand for two or three hours, or till the lime
settle to the bottom; then pour the water off clear, and throw away the
sediment; then take half an ounce of isinglass cut small, and boil it in
the lime water till it dissolves; then let it cool, and pour it into the
vessel, &c.

_Of the season for Brewing._

The season for brewing keeping-beer is certainly best before Christmas,
for then your malt is in perfection, not having time to contract either
a musty smell, dust or weavels, (an insect that eats out the heart of
the malt) and the waters are then seldom mixed with snow; and then four
pounds of hops will go as far as five in the spring of the year: For you
must increase in the quantity of hops as you draw towards summer. But,
in short, chuse moderate weather as much as you can for brewing, and if
you have a kindly cellar besides to keep your liquor in, that will not
be much affected by extremity of heat or cold, you may reasonably expect
great satisfaction in your brewery.

Avoid as much as possible brewing in hot weather; but if you are
necessitated to brew, make no more than present drinking, for it will
not keep.

_To make Elderberry-Beer or Ebulum._

Take a hogshead of the first and strong wort, and boil in the same one
bushel of picked Elderberries, full ripe; strain off, and when cold,
work the liquor in the hogshead, and not in an open tun or tub; and
after it has lain in the cask about a year, bottle it; and it will be a
good rich drink, which they call ebu