If made quite air-tight, the cellar being fairly warm, it is apt to get up too much condition to take finings properly, and will not go bright on fining; while, on the other hand, if there is little or no life, the finings will possibly do their work but not do it properly and will go to the bottom. This is a very troublesome state of things as the beer draws " bitty," that is, has the finings coming out of the tap during the whole of the time of drawing, instead of out of the bung-hole during fining, and generally results in a considerable amount of grumbling, not to say bad language, on the part of the customers.

Some publicans have an idea that the beer draws better, not only when drawn through an engine, but even when drawn direct from the wood, by having the bung left out, but I can assure you there can be no greater mistake, as if you have been able to get the beer into really good condition before drawing, no amount of air which you allow to get in can possibly do it any good, while on the contrary, it makes it draw flat.

I have known cases where the beer has, in the summer time especially, been good at night and in thundery weather quite sour in the morning, simply through the bung having been left out, and the beer having been affected by the state of the air.

You know the effect of thundery weather on milk and meat, and it has a very similar effect on beer.

In large cities or where the draught is very quick, it is of comparatively little consequence, whether the bung is left out or not, but if the cask has to be on draught more than one day it is decidedly very wrong to leave the bung out.

And now as to the actual fining, which is not at all a difficult thing to do, when one knows what is wanted to be done. I think I cannot do better than to explain what the action of the " finings " is. It has to act as a liquid filter, taking up any yeast-cells, pieces of hop-leaves, and other substances which are suspended in the beer, and would if left there cause it to be cloudy and thick, and therefore the finings should be thoroughly roused into and properly mixed with the beer, having just previously been mixed in the proportion of say one-and-a-half pints to one quart per barrel with about one gallon of the beer taken from the cask which is to be fined and thoroughly whipped up into a froth with a whisk. Indeed, for it to act as it should, it must be in every part of the cask, and is made of such materials that the hop extract in the beer, after a short time, causes it to begin to shrivel up together as it were, and to surround any such suspended matters, and as it continues shrivelling up it becomes denser, and at last gets so thick that the gas in the beer cannot get through it and collects in and under it, eventually causing it to rise to the bung-hole, when it should be very gently removed by the fingers or a spoon, and a little more bright beer be added, so as to keep the cask full, avoiding pouring the beer in with a splash, or you may drive a lot of the finings to the bottom of the cask, which of course is what you want to avoid.

The finings in the bung-hole should be taken out, and a little beer added frequently, until no more rises, when the cask should be bunged down to get into condition.

I say frequently, because otherwise those finings which do not rise immediately under the bung-hole, will, if it is not kept clear, stick to the wood on the inside of the top of the cask, and remain there till some beer is drawn out, when they fall into it, and break into small pieces, causing the " bitti-ness" which often the publican is puzzled to find a reason for, and for which the brewer is frequently blamed, many people thinking it is either the beer or finings which is at fault, instead of its being carelessness in not keeping the bunghole free and the cask properly topped up.

Acid beers will not take finings as a rule, and a very new beer, or one that has a great quantity of condition, or is what is called " very much up," will not fine well, and in either of the two latter cases, if already fined, the best plan is to leave the bung out until the beer gets quiet, and then add another pint of finings to the barrel, and thoroughly rouse again.

Great care should be taken to prevent the beer from falling in temperature during the process of fining, as a fall of only one degree of heat will prevent the proper working of the finings, and will frequently cause them to go to the bottom of the cask, and that is one of the reasons why you should let the beer get to the heat of the cellar before fining, and also why you should be so careful to have no cold draughts in your cellar.

It is a good plan to place a tap-tub immediately under the cask which is fining to catch any beer that may be spilt while topping up, as it saves waste and prevents making a mess on the floor, which would speedily turn sour in hot weather.