How To Brew 54 Gallons Of Strong Ale

10 bushels of malt. 10 lbs. of hops.

Water to make up 54 gallons.

Bitter Ale

One Hogshead:

4 bushels of pale malt. 8 lbs. of hops.

Water To Make Up Hogshead

Table Beer, When not made from second mash, but brewed at once.

54 Gallons: 4 bushels of malt. 3 or 4 lbs. of Farnham hops.

Harvest Small Beer, To Keep A Week

54 Gallons: 3 bushels of malt. 4 lbs. of hops.

12 Gallons of good Beer: 1 bushel of malt. 1 lb. of hops.

3 Gallons of Ale:

5 barrels (of 36 gallons each) of water.

The last Receipt from South Kensington Food Catalogue.

Preparation For Brewing

Cleanse the casks; if quite new scald and soak them for several days with a hot brine of salt and water; then put in them some spent hops and water with a little yeast and leave it to slightly ferment: old casks must be carefully cleaned as previously directed.

Fill the copper with soft water over night, and light and damp down the copper fire so that it may be in readiness next morning. Place your utensils.

Lean the mash tub a little on one side; mix the boiling with cold water till it is of the proper temperature by thermometer (see last page). Then let another person gently put in the malt, while you constantly stir it. It requires stirring from the first.

When the mash gets thick and is difficult to stir, add more water, stirring it continually.

Leave out a portion of dry malt to cover the mash, and when it is wholly wet and soaked, cover this dry malt over it, to prevent evaporation. Then cover the mash tub closely with sacks, and leave it to steep. In the course of mashing, great care must be taken that the mash is thoroughly stirred with the oar from the bottom. Particular attention must be paid to the time of steeping the mashes. Strong beer must be allowed three, or at least, two hours; ale, one hour; and if small beer is drawn afterwards, half an hour.

Before the mash is let run, a pail must be prepared to catch the first flush, as it is generally thickish; another pail must be ready to receive the drain while the first thick running is returned to the malt. This is repeated till the wort runs quite clear.

The first mash seldom runs off more than half the quantity of liquor. It is necessary therefore to pour the same quantity of water over it again, and this is done with a watering-pot, so that the water may not drain too fast through the malt. It is called "sparging." The water poured in should be of 1800 to 1850, according to the weather. As soon as the wort for the strong beer has been all drawn off, it must be put, with half the hops (previously soaked in water taken from the first mash), into the wort copper to boil. While mashing the first malt, fill up the copper with water and make it boil ready for the second mash. When the second mash begins, water at 1800 is poured over the malt; it stands again for a quarter of an hour and is drawn off like the first, returning the wort to the tub till it runs clear.

But meantime we must return to the strong ale in the second copper.

Quick boiling is essential, though not too quick.

In order to ascertain the proper time the liquor should boil, try it occasionally in a glass; when it breaks into flakes and the hops sink to the bottom, it is ready.

It must not be over-boiled, or it will not fine in the casks.

Essence of malt is extracted by length of boiling, by which the wort can be made of the thickness of honey or treacle. If the wort remains too long in the underback after drawing off, it is apt to become "foxy" or sour. The average time for boiling the first wort is about an hour and a half; for the wort from the second mash two hours or two hours and a half, and for the third, or small beer mash, three hours at least. The hops of the first wort, when strained, are returned into the copper again, with some fresh ones added for the second mash beer.

When the wort is intended to be boiled for more than an hour, it is best not to add the hops until an hour of the time when it is to be cooled, as the aroma is to a certain extent lost in the boiling.

The hops which are not squeezed retain about two quarts of wort to every pound, which, with the loss in evaporation, must be allowed for in the quantity brewed.

The wort when sufficiently boiled is strained into the coolers, and should not be more than three or four inches deep in them, except in winter, rapid cooling being very essential, as otherwise the wort may turn sour.

While drawing off the first wort, keep the copper well stirred, that the hops may not burn on to the bottom.

The third mash is managed much as the second, but as less saccharine matter will remain in the beer, it is usual to add to the wort one or two pounds of sugar to eighteen gallons, according to the need of the beer.

When the brewing is confined to one quality of beer only, the process is the same, except that the whole quantity is run through the malt, more water being added gradually, and constantly stirred and mixed together before hopping and boiling. This beer is called "Entire".

The malt left after brewing is called brewers' grains.