There are many that do not conceive how their Drinks become Fox'd and Tainted for several Brewings together; but I have in Chapter VI, in my Second Book, made it appear, that the Taint is chiefly retain'd and lodged in the upright wooden Pins that fasten the Planks to the Joists, and how scalding Lye is a very efficacious Liquor to extirpate it out of the Utensils in a little time if rightly applied; and one other most powerful Ingredient that is now used by the greatest Artists for curing of the same.
CHAP. XIII. Of fermenting and working of Beers and Ales, and the pernicious Practice of Beating in the Yeast detected.
This Subject in my Opinion has, long wanted a Satyrical Pen to shew the ill Effects of this unwholsome Method, which I suppose has been much discouraged and hindered hitherto, from the general use it has been under many Years, especially by the Northern Brewers, who tho' much famed for their Knowledge in this Art, and have induced many others by their Example in the Southern and other Parts to pursue their Method; yet I shall endeavour to prove them culpable of Male-practice, that beat in the Yeast, as some of them have done a Week together; and that Custom ought not to Authorize an ill Practice. First, I shall observe that Yeast is a very strong acid, that abounds with subtil spirituous Qualities, whose Particles being wrapped up in those that are viscid, are by a mixture with them in the Wort, brought into an intestine Motion, occasion'd by Particles of different Gravities; for as the spirituous Parts of the Wort will be continually striving to get up to the Surface, the glutinous adhesive ones of the Yeast will be as constant in retarding their assent, and so prevent their Escape; by which the spirituous Particles are set loose and free from their viscid Confinements, as may appear by the Froth on the Top, and to this end a moderate warmth hastens the Operation, as it assists in opening the viscidities in which some spirituous Parts may be entangled, and unbends the Spring of the included Air: The viscid Parts which are raised to the Top, not only on account of their own lightness, but by the continual efforts and occursions of the Spirits to get uppermost, shew when the ferment is at the highest, and prevent the finer Spirits making their escape; but if this intestine Operation is permitted to continue too long, a great deal will get away, and the remaining grow flat and vapid, as Dr. Quincy well observes. Now tho' a small quantity of Yeast is necessary to break the Band of Corruption in the Wort, yet it is in itself of a poisonous Nature, as many other Acids are; for if a Plaister of thick Yeast be applied to the Wrist as some have done for an Ague, it will there raise little Pustules or Blisters in some degree like that Venomous! (As I have just reason in a particular Sense to call it) Ingredient Cantharide, which is one of the Shop Poisons. Here then I shall observe, that I have known several beat the Yeast into the Wort for a Week or more together to improve it, or in plainer terms to load the Wort with its weighty and strong spirituous Particles; and that for two Reasons, First, Because it will make the Liquor so heady, that five Bushels of Malt may be equal in strength to six, and that by the stupifying Narcotick Qualities of the Yeast; which mercenary subtilty and imposition has so prevailed to my Knowledge with the Vulgar and Ignorant, that it has caused many of them to return the next Day to the same Alehouse, as believing they had stronger and better Drink than others: But alas, how are such deceived that know no other than that it is the pure Product of the Malt, when at the same time they are driving Nails into their Coffins, by impregnating their Blood with the corrupt Qualities of this poisonous acid, as many of its Drinkers have proved, by suffering violent Head-achs, loss of Appetite, and other Inconveniencies the Day following, and sometimes longer, after a Debauch of such Liquor; who would not perhaps for a great reward swallow a Spoonful of thick Yeast by itself, and yet without any concern may receive for ought they know several, dissolved in the Vehicle of Ale, and then the corrosive Corpuscles of the Yeast being mix'd with the Ale, cannot fail (when forsaken in the Canals of the Body of their Vehicle) to do the same mischief as they would if taken by themselves undiluted, only with this difference, that they may in this Form be carried sometimes further in the animal Frame, and so discover their malignity in some of the inmost recesses thereof, which also is the very Case of malignant Waters, as a most learned Doctor observes.
Secondly, They alledge for beating the Yeast into Wort, that it gives it a fine tang or relish, or as they call it at London, it makes the Ale bite of the Yeast; but this flourish indeed is for no other reason than to further its Sale, and tho' it may be agreeable to some Bigots, to me it proves a discovery of the infection by its nauseous taste; however my surprize is lessen'd, when I remember the Plymouth People, who are quite the reverse of them at Dover and Chatham; for the first are so attach'd to their white thick Ale, that many have undone themselves by drinking it; nor is their humour much different as to the common Brewers brown Ale, who when the Customer wants a Hogshead, they immediately put in a Handful of Salt and another of Flower, and so bring it up, this is no sooner on the Stilling but often Tapp'd, that it may carry a Froth on the Top of the Pot, otherwise they despise it: The Salt commonly answered its End of causing the Tiplers to become dryer by the great Quantities they drank, that it farther excited by the biting pleasant stimulating quality the Salt strikes the Palate with. The Flower also had its seducing share by pleasing the Eye and Mouth with its mantling Froth, so that the Sailors that are often here in great Numbers used to consume many Hogsheads of this common Ale with much delight, as thinking it was intirely the pure Product of the Malt.
Their white Ale is a clear Wort made from pale Malt, and fermented with what they call ripening, which is a Composition, they say, of the Flower of Malt, Yeast and Whites of Eggs, a Nostrum made and sold only by two or three in those Parts, but the Wort is brewed and the Ale vended by many of the Publicans; which is drank while it is fermenting in Earthen Steens, in such a thick manner as resembles butter'd Ale, and sold for Twopence Halfpenny the full Quart. It is often prescribed by Physicians to be drank by wet Nurses for the encrease of their Milk, and also as a prevalent Medicine for the Colick and Gravel. But the Dover and Chatham People won't drink their Butt-Beer, unless it is Aged, fine and strong.
Of working and fermenting London Stout Beer and Ale.
In my Brewhouse at London, the Yeast at once was put into the Tun to work the Stout Beer and Ale with, as not having the Conveniency of doing otherwise, by reason the After-worts of small Beer comes into the same Backs or Coolers where the strong Worts had just been, by this means, and the shortness of time we have to ferment our strong Drinks, we cannot make Reserves of cold Worts to mix with and check the too forward working of those Liquors, for there we brewed three times a Week throughout the Year, as most of the great ones do in London, and some others five times. The strong Beer brewed for keeping is suffered to be Blood-warm in the Winter when the Yeast is put into it, that it may gradually work two Nights and a Day at least, for this won't admit of such a hasty Operation as the common brown Ale will, because if it is work'd too warm and hasty, such Beer won't keep near so long as that fermented cooler. The brown Ale has indeed its Yeast put into it in the Evening very warm, because they carry it away the very next Morning early to their Customers, who commonly draw it out in less than a Week's time. The Pale or Amber Ales are often kept near it, not quite a Week under a fermentation, for the better incorporating the Yeast with Wort, by beating it in several times for the foregoing Reasons.
Of working or fermenting Drinks brewed by Private Families.