We give our readers now the process of brewing, as carried on in the writer's family very many years ago - when, in fact, George III. was king - and which produced a home-brewed ale rarely equalled then, and certainly not surpassed now: -

" First, the utensils," says the old receipt, " must be properly cleansed and scalded the day before. The malt should be ground a week - if brown malt, a fortnight - previously. The water in the copper must then be made boiling. The season for brewing should be March if you desire the ale or beer to keep well. For the air at that time is temperate, and contributes to the good working or fermentation of the liquor, which principally promotes its preservation and good keeping.

"Very cold as well as very hot weather prevents the free fermentation of liquors, for if you brew in very cold weather, unless you use some artificial means to warm the cellar while the liquor is working, it will never clear itself properly, and extreme heat will prove equally detrimental. The beer will be muddy and sour, and often past recovery.

"A damp cellar also affects beer; the liquor will chill in it and become vapid or flat.

"Beer is therefore better brewed in March, for it will then have time to settle before the winter. October is also a good brewing season, if the cellars are known to be dry and temperate with regard to cold or heat.

"All cellars for keeping liquors should be so contrived that no external air can get freely to them; the variation of the temperature of the air will affect the liquors and render them unfit for working.

"A constant temperate air softens malt liquors.

"And now we come to the process of mashing the malt, to extract from it its saccharine matter. The exact heat of the water is of the first importance. If too near the boiling point it will set the flour of the malt and turn it into paste, instead of extracting the goodness; if too cool the wort will be without strength, a certain amount of heat being required to extract the sugar".

And now comes in the modern use of the thermometer. Our old housewife informs us that the boiling water must be poured into the mash-tub, and the steam "suffered to go off, till the person brewing can see his or her shadow in the water." We have a more sure test; and in the following table we will show by the thermometer the right temperature of the water. At the same time we may observe, that three parts of boiling water to one part of cold is about right, and the old fashion of looking at the shadow will then be justified.

Table Of Temperature Of Water Used In Mashing

To be Tested by Thermometer.

First mash . . . 1700 Second mash . . . 1800

Third mash (boiling water).

Quantities Required For Making Different Beers

For 2 Hogsheads Of Strong Ale

24 bushels of malt. 24 lbs. of good hops.

4 quarts of barm, or yeast.

Water to quantity of 2 hogsheads, by filling up as described.