With respect to the season for brewing liquor to keep, it is to be observed, that if the cellars be subject to the heat of the sun, or warm summer air, it will be best to brew in October, that the liquor may have time to digest before the warm season comes on; and if cellars be inclinable to damps, and to receive water, the best time will be to brew in March. Some experienced brewers always choose to brew with the pale malt in March, and the brown in October; for they suppose, that the pale malt being made with a less degree of fire than the other, wants the summer sun to ripen it; and so, on the contrary, the brown having had a larger share of the fire to dry it, is more capable of defending itself against the cold of the winter season. But these are merely matters of opinion.

However careful you may have been in attending to all the preceding particulars, yet, if the casks be not in good order, still the brewing may be spoiled. New casks are apt to give liquor a bad taste, if they be not well scalded and seasoned several days successively before they are used. As to old casks, if they stand any time out of use, they are apt to grow musty.

There now remains little more to be said concerning the management of malt liquor, but that of bottling it. The bottles must first be well cleaned and dried; for wet bottles will make the liquor turn mouldy, or mothery, as they call it; and by wet bottles a great deal of good beer has been spoiled. Though the bottles be clean and dry, yet if the corks be not new and sound, the liquor will be still liable to be damaged ; for, if the air can get into the bottles, the liquor will grow flat, and will never rise. Many who flattered themselves that they knew how to be saving, by using old corks on this occasion, have spoiled as much liquor as stood them in four or five pounds, only for want of laying out three or four shillings. If bottles are corked as they should be, it will be difficult to pull out the cork without a screw: and to be sure to draw the cork without breaking, the screw ought to go through the cork, and then the air must necessarily find a passage where the screw has passed, and therefore the cork must be good for nothing. If a cork has once been in a bottle, though it has not been drawn with a screw, yet that cork will turn musty as soon as it be exposed to the air, and will communicate its ill flavour to the bottle in which it is next put, and spoil the liquor that way In the choice of corks, take those that are soft and clear from specks.

You may also observe, in the bottling of liquor, that the top and middle of the hogshead are the strongest, and will sooner rise in die bottles than the bottom. When once you begin to bottle a vessel of any liquor, be sure not to leave it till all is completed, otherwise it will have different tastes.

If you find that a vessel of liquor begins to grow flat whilst it is in common draught, bottle it, and into every bottle put apiece of loaf sugar about the size of a walnut, which will make it rise and come to itself; and to forward its ripening, you may set some bottles in hay in a warm place; but straw will not assist its ripening.

Where there are not good cellars, holes have been sunk in the ground, and large oil jars put into them, and the earth filled close about the sides. One of these jars may hold about a dozen quart bottles; and will keep the liquor very well; but the tops of the jars must be kept closely covered up. In winter-time, when the weather is frosty, shut up all the lights or windows of your cellars, and cover them close with horse-dung, or horse-litter; but it is much better to have no lights or windows at all to any cellar, for the reasons before given.

Should you have an opportunity of brewing a good stock of small beer in March and October, some of it may be bottled at six months end, putting into every bottle a lump of loaf sugar. This will be a very refreshing drink in the summer. Or, if you happen to brew in summer, and are desirous of brisk small beer, as soon as it is done working, bottle it as above directed.