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Thus it may lye and be work'd on the floor in several parallels, two or three Foot thick, ten or more Foot broad, and fourteen or more in length to Chip and Spire; but not too much nor too soft; and when it is come enough, it is to be turned twelve or sixteen times in twenty-four Hours, if the Season is warm, as in March, April or May; and when it is fixed and the Root begins to be dead, then it must be thickned again and carefully kept often turned and work'd, that the growing of the Root may not revive, and this is better done with the Shoes off than on; and here the Workman's Art and Diligence in particular is tryed in keeping the floor clear and turning the Malt often, that it neither moulds nor Aker-spires, that is, that the Blade does not grow out at the opposite end of the Root; for if it does, the flower and strength of the Malt is gone, and nothing left behind but the Aker-spire, Husk and Tail: Now when it is at this degree and fit for the Kiln, it is often practised to put it into a Heap and let it lye twelve Hours before it is turned, to heat and mellow, which will much improve the Malt if it is done with moderation, and after that time it must be turned every six Hours during twenty four; but if it is overheated, it will become like Grease and be spoiled, or at least cause the Drink to be unwholsome; when this Operation is over, it then must be put on the Kiln to dry four, six or twelve Hours, according to the nature of the Malt, for the pale sort requires more leisure and less fire than the amber or brown sorts: Three Inches thick was formerly thought a sufficient depth for the Malt to lye on the Hair-cloth, but now six is often allowed it to a fault; fourteen or sixteen Foot square will dry about two Quarters if the Malt lyes four Inches thick, and here it should be turned every two, three or four Hours keeping the Hair-cloth clear: The time of preparing it from the Cistern to the Kiln is uncertain; according to the Season of the Year; in moderate weather three Weeks is often sufficient.
Wherefore I have given an Account of Brewing Beers and Ales after several Methods; and also several curious Receipts for feeding, fining and preserving Malt Liquors, that are most of them wholsomer than the Malt itself, and so cheap that none can object against the Charge, which I thought was the ready way to supplant the use of those unwholsome Ingredients that have been made too free with by some ill principled People meerly for their own Profit, tho' at the Expence of the Drinker's Health.
'We have now, said he, 'a splendid dinner before us. Which of all these dishes is unwholsome? The duke asserted, that he had observed the grandees of Spain diminished in their size by luxury.
I asked why their cardinals and princes did not invite and encourage industrious people to settle and cultivate the Campania of Rome, which is a desert? why they did not raise a subscription to drain the marshes in the neighbourhood of the city, and thus meliorate the air, which is rendered extremely unwholsome in the summer, by putrid exhalations from those morasses?
I have here observed that necessary Caution, which is perfectly requisite in the Choice of good and the Management of bad Waters; a Matter of high Importance, as the Use of this Vehicle is unavoidable in Brewing, and therefore requires a strict Inspection into its Nature; and this I have been the more particular in, because I am sensible of the great Quantities of unwholsome Waters used not only by Necessity, but by a mistaken Choice.
In Rivers, that run thro' boggy Places, the Sullage or Washings of such Soils are generally unwholsome as the nature of such Ground is; and so the Water becomes infected by that and the Effluvia or Vapour that accompanies such Water: So Ponds are surely good or bad, as they are under too much Cover or supply'd by nasty Drains, or as they stand situated or exposed to good and bad Airs.
Its air, then, as at present, was in most parts very unwholsome; and it is a remarkable circumstance that the character of the Sardi, who, after the complete reduction of the island by Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus, were brought to Rome in great numbers, and sold as slaves, and who were proverbial for their worthlessness, is still to be traced in the present inhabitants; for they are represented as extremely barbarous, and so treacherous, and inhospitable, that they have been called the Malays of the Mediterranean.
Others there are that will hang a Bag of Wheat in the Vessel that it mayn't touch the Bottom, but in both Cases the Wheat is discovered to absorp and collect the saline acid qualities of the Beer, Yeast and Hop, by which it is impregnated with their sharp qualities, as a Toast of Bread is put into Punch or Beer, whose alcalous hollow Nature will attract and make a Lodgment of the acid strong Particles in either, as is proved by eating the inebriating Toast, and therefore the Frenchman says, the English are right in putting a Toast into the Liquor, but are Fools for eating it: Hence it is that such whole Wheat is loaded with the qualities of the unwholsome Settlements or Grounds of the Beer, and becomes of such a corroding Nature, as to do this mischief; and for that reason, some in the North will hang a Bag of the Flower of malted Oats, Wheat, Pease and Beans in the Vessels of Beer, as being a lighter and mellower Body than whole Wheat or its Flower, and more natural to the Liquor: But whether it be raw Wheat or Malted, it is supposed, after this receptacle has emitted its alcalous Properties to the Beer, and taken in all it can of the acid qualities thereof, that such Beer will by length of Age prey upon that again, and so communicate its pernicious Effects to the Body of Man, as Experience seems to justify by the many sad Examples that I have seen in the Destruction of several lusty Brewers Servants, who formerly scorn'd what they then called Flux Ale, to the preference of such corroding consuming Stale Beers; and therefore I have hereafter advised that such Butt or keeping Beers be Tapp'd at nine or twelve Months end at furthest, and then an Artificial Lee will have a due time allowed it to do good and not harm.
The many Inhabitants of Cities and Towns, as well as Travellers, that have for a long time suffered great Prejudices from unwholsome and unpleasant Beers and Ales, by the badness of Malts, underboiling the Worts, mixing injurious Ingredients, the unskilfulness of the Brewer, and the great Expense that Families have been at in buying them clogg'd with a heavy Excise, has moved me to undertake the writing of this Treatise on Brewing, Wherein I have endeavour'd to set in sight the many advantages of Body and Purse that may arise from a due Knowledge and Management in Brewing Malt Liquors, which are of the greatest Importance, as they are in a considerable degree our Nourishment and the common Diluters of our Food; so that on their goodness depends very much the Health and Longevity of the Body.
Is't not a rare designe? and by such art And reasons I can name, most beneficiall To the common wealth, preventing the diseases Which some unwholsome haire breeds in mens heads, It will be worth our agitation, Sir; And you, after the rate of every thousand Per Annum milk'd out of the comon purse Into your owne, may easily defaulke To me a hundred for my first projection.
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