1 Vide Dr. Pringle’s experiments in his book of observations on the diseases of the army, p. 350, 351 & seq.

2 There is a very singular exception in regard to iron itself, in this respect. It is only a certain degree of heat that expands this metal; (and that much less than any other either more or less dense) when melted, it occupies a less space than when in a solid form. This ought to caution us against an entire dependence on general rules, by which nature doth not appear to be wholly restricted. See Mem. de l’Acad. des Scienc. p. 273.

3 See Dr. Lewis’s Philosophical Commerce of Arts, p. 42.

4 See Martine’s Dissertation on Heat. What the degree of cold was which fixed mercury at St. Petersburg, I do not recollect.

5 It requires seven or eight days. (See Dissertation sur la glace par Mons. de Mayran.) Paris edition, 1749. Page 191.

6 Lately, indeed, by such intense cold as can only be procured with the greatest art, and in the coldest climates, mercury is said to have been stagnated, or fixed.

7 By Dr. Hales’s experiments made for discovering the proportion of air generated from different bodies, it appears that raisin wine, absorbed, in fermenting, a quantity of air equal to nearly one third of its volume; and ale, under the like circumstances, absorbed one fifth.

8 In the northern part of England, the usual time of steeping barley in the cistern is about 80 hours.

40 bushels of barley wetted 1 hour, will guage then in the couch 40 bushels, that is, if drained from its exterior moisture.

Here the barley is supposed to be fully saturated with the water; and these 40 bushels of barley, guaged (after 80 hours wetting in the cistern) in the couch, will be 50 bushels; but when again guaged on the floor, from the effect of the roots, and sometimes the shoots, occasioning the corn to lie hollow, here the 40 bushels of barley will shew as 80 bushels. Vide Ramsbottom, page 113, &c.

9 Boerhaave Elem. of Chym. Vol. I. p. 195-199. Exp. 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, and 13.

10 When the medium heat of the dryness of the malt, and of the heat of the extracts, are so high as to require the liquors to be forced or precipitated, in order to become pellucid, part of the oils which supported them sound, being carried down by the precipitant, they will be less capable of preserving themselves, after having been precipitated, than they were before.

11 I chose this manner of expressing the quantity of moisture received in ground malt from the air, as it is the most easy for the direction of the first extract.

12 Part I. Sect XII. p. 124.

13 See page 56.

14 For the properties answerable to the degrees, see page 124.

15 It may be observed that, in the first and last degrees for drying malt, sometimes we say one degree more, sometimes a degree less.—The experiments we have made do not admit of a geometrical exactness, nor does the practice of brewing require it; small errors in beers are effectually removed by age, and these variations have often been adopted in the tables, for the conveniency of dividing into whole numbers.

16 See p. 124.

17 Purl, is pale ale, in which bitter aromatics, such as wormwood, orange peel, &c. are infused, used by the labouring people, chiefly in cold mornings, and a much better and wholesomer relief to them, than spiritous liquors.

18 152, to which 2 degrees must be added, for what is lost in the extracts coming away, or 154 degrees, being the heat of the mash for keeping small beer, after amber; as this number is less than 166 degrees, the last mash of the amber, consequently, in the computation made, to find how much of the quantity of the liquor used, is to be made to boil, to give the true degree of heat to the mash of small, the difference of heat required in this mash, 154, and the heat of the goods 162 or 8, is to be multiplied by the volume of the goods, and the product in this case subtracted; whereas, in the operations for brewing, whose heat gradually increased every mash, it is to be added.

19 We had rather attribute to this cause, the inferior quality of the Worcestershire hops, than to what is reported. That some planters in that county suffer their hops to be so ripe on the poles, that they become very brown before they are gathered: to recover their color, on the fire of the kiln they strew brimstone, which brings them to a fine yellow; the dryness and harshness this acid occasions, they correct by sprinkling the hops with milk, from whence they bag closer, and require little straining, but two ingredients more pernicious to the forming good beers, perhaps, could not have been thought of, than milk and brimstone.

20 This rule only takes place for such climates as are of the same heat with ours; for when drinks are brewed to be expended in more southern countries, or to undergo long voyages, twenty pounds of hops to one quarter of malt have been used with success.

21 If, of the whole quantity of hops grown in one year, one half is put into bags, whose tare is one tenth of their whole weight, and the other half is put in pockets, whose tare is one fortieth of their whole weight; if the excise office allows one tenth for tare upon the whole, and the excise or weighing officers, are content with one ninth, as by their marks, and the weight when sold to the brewer, appears to be the fact; then somewhat like one twentieth part more hops are grown, than what pays duty, or than the excise officers report to be the case.

22 Forty shillings per hundred weight, are supposed to be the mean difference between new and old hops, and ought to be estimated in proportion to the quantity of old left in hand, and that of new hops grown, in order to ascertain the value of the last.

23 B. stands for Barrels, F. for Firkins, G. for Gallons.

24 When there are but two worts in brown strong, keeping strong, keeping pale small, or common small, the boiling is to be observed as marked for the second and third worts.

25 The small cask, called a pin, is one eighth part of a barrel.

26 By new malt, I understand such, as has not lost the whole of the heat received on the kiln, and by old, such as is of equal heat with the air, or such which has laid a sufficient time to imbibe part of its moisture.

27 At the time when the first edition of this work was published, porter or brown beers were brewed with very high dried malts; experience has shewn to the generality of the trade and to the author, this practice to be erroneous, the reasons why have before, and perhaps hereafter will again, be spoken of. In compliance with this improvement (though between the two proposed brewings, so great a variety will not appear) I have founded my calculations for porter, on malts dried so as best will answer this purpose.

28 B. stands for barrels, F. for firkins, G. for gallons, and the numbers past the comma, where the inches are expressed, for decimals; 34 gallons are here allowed to the barrel, in compliance to the excise gauging, as these calculations were made without the bills.

29 The half degree omitted in this mash will be added to the next.

30 Different quantities of water are differently affected by the same portion of fire; when the ebullition is just over, and the surface of the liquor is become smooth; if some of it is, by a cock, drawn from the bottom of the copper, where the coldest water always is, the remaining part, having a greater proportion of fire than before, again begins to boil, though not affected by any increase of heat.

31 See page 267.

32 G. C. stands for great copper, L. C. stands for little copper.

33 Deduction from the first mash for heat created by effervescence and hard corns. See the calculation above.

34 Additions to the mashes on account of heat lost, by the liquor coming from little copper, and by mashing and standing. See page 293.

35 The charge of the first liquor is for 11 barrels, with a deduction of 2 inches, according to the gauges of the coppers, page 221. These two inches answer to the 8 degrees of heat for the effervescence, hard corns, and new malt. See computation above.

36 The second and following mashes are to be charged with as many more inches of boiling water, as answer to the fourth part of the number of degrees of heat lost by the refrigeration of the mashes. See page 294.

37 In beers intended for long keeping, the fermentation is to be governed by the heat of the worts or musts, more than by that of the exterior air.

38 A must or wort, when under fermentation, from its internal motion, increases in heat 10 degrees, and no keeping beers, when under this act, should exceed a heat of 60 degrees; for this reason, worts of this sort should at first be set to ferment at a heat of 50 degrees, and 50 degrees is nearly the mean of the heats these liquors are impressed with, when deposited in cellars, from the time of their being formed, to that of their coming into use. Their long continuance in this state is the reason why six pints of yeast per quarter of malt is a sufficient quantity to be used when the heat of the air is at or below 50 degrees. If, through necessity, processes of this sort are to be carried on when the mean heat of the natural day is more than this, the quantities indicated in the table will be the fittest rule.

39 Though the air bubbles produced from malt liquors are more uniform, as to their size or consistence, than those of natural wines, yet they are not perfectly so; for this reason, and because it requires a greater power to cause a wort or must of malt to ferment, than it does to keep this act continued, after it is once begun, it is necessary, at first, to apply such a sufficient quantity of yeast as will obtain this purpose; therefore, one half of the remaining six gallons of yeast is put to the wort on its first coming down.

40 The yeast or air bubbles produced from natural wines, vary not only in their consistence, but also in their volume; so that, in their act of fermentation, a progressive effect is the consequence of this want of uniformity. The yeast or air bubbles of barley wines are more uniform; to imitate nature, it is necessary to apply this principle of fermentation by degrees, to cause a progressive effect only. Feeding of drink is the only means to gain this end; thereby the newly applied yeast maintains the drink in its required agitation, in a similar manner as the increased heat and action raised by fermentation causes the air bubbles in natural wines to act and explode, in proportion to their consistence, and to the quantity of elastic air the bubbles contain; and so requisite it is periodically to apply more yeast to this sort of liquor, or regularly to feed it with this enlivening principle, that, in very hot weather, when this, through carelessness, has been omitted, I have known this ale to become foxed or putrefied, and could attribute this accident to no other cause but to a neglect of this sort, as the worts had been regularly brewed, laid thin in the coolers, received all the cold the night could give them, and the tun in which the drink was worked was perfectly clean.

41 I confess this chapter is rather a matter of curiosity, an effusion of fancy, than of any use to me known; if I have suffered it to remain, it has been to shew that when we have long reflected upon a subject, our ideas often lead us beyond power of practice; and with this farther view, that, perhaps, it may become of service in the hands of some more ingenious and more penetrating artist than myself. However, if I trouble my reader with it, it may be said to be in imitation of an author far superior to myself in rank and knowledge.

42 It must be observed, the wines of France in general make the best brandies, and of these, such which justly are termed green wines, (and soon would become acid) this leads us to the nature of the grain, and of the extractions to procure an equal, pure, nutty spirit. Barley, dried scarcely to the denomination of malt, and extracted with the lowest medium, or perhaps one inferior to this, most likely would answer this purpose. I have tried the experiment in a very imperfect manner, and found it answer beyond expectation.