The London and Country Brewer | Page 9

V.
Of the Nature of several Waters and their use in Brewing. And first of
Well-waters.
Water next to Malt is what by course comes here under Consideration
as a Matter of great Importance in Brewing of wholsome fine
Malt-liquors, and is of such Consequence that it concerns every one to
know the nature of the water he Brews with, because it is the Vehicle
by which the nutritious and pleasant Particles of the Malt and Hop are
conveyed into our Bodies, and there becomes a diluter of our Food:

Now the more simple and freer every water is from foreign Particles,
the better it will answer those Ends and Purposes; for, as Dr.Mead
observes, some waters are so loaded with stony Corpuscles, that even
the Pipes thro' which they are carried, in time are incrusted and stopt up
by them, and is of that petrifying nature as to breed the Stone in the
Bladder, which many of the Parisians have been instances of, by using
this sort of water out of the River Seine. And of this Nature is another
at Rowel in Northamptonshire, which in no great distance of time so
clogs the Wheel of an overshot Mill there, that they are forced with,
convenient Instruments to cut way for its Motion; and what makes it
still more evident, is the sight of those incrusted Sides of the
Tea-kettles, that the hard Well-waters are the occasion of, by being
often boiled in them: And it is further related by the same Doctor, that a
Gentlewoman afflicted with frequent returns of violent Colick Pains
was cured by the Advice of Van Helmont, only by leaving off drinking
Beer brewed with Well-water; It's true, such a fluid has a greater force
and aptness to extract the tincture out of Malt, than is to be had in the
more innocent and soft Liquor of Rivers: But for this very reason it
ought not, unless upon meer necessity, to be made use of; this Quality
being owing to the mineral Particles and alluminous Salts with which it
is impregnated. For these waters thus saturated, will by their various
gravities in circulation, deposit themselves in one part of the animal
Body or other, which has made some prove the goodness of Water by
the lightness of its body in the Water Scales, now sold in several of the
London Shops, in order to avoid the Scorbutick, Colicky,
Hypochondriack, and other ill Effects of the Clayey and other gross
Particles of stagnating Well-waters, and the calculous Concretions of
others; and therefore such waters ought to be mistrusted more than any,
where they are not pure clear and soft or that don't arise from good
Chalks or stony Rocks, that are generally allowed to afford the best of
all the Well sorts.
Spring-waters are in general liable to partake of those minerals thro'
which they pass, and are salubrious or mischievous accordingly. At
Uppingham in Rutland, their water is said to come off an Allum-rock,
and so tints their Beer with its saline Quality, that it is easily tasted at
the first Draught. And at Dean in Northamptonshire, I have seen the

very Stones colour the rusty Iron by the constant running of a
Spring-water; but that which will Lather with Soap, or such soft water
that percolates through Chalk, or a Grey Fire-stone, is generally
accounted best, for Chalks in this respect excell all other Earths, in that
it administers nothing unwholsome to the perfluent waters, but
undoubtedly absorps by its drying spungy Quality any ill minerals that
may accompany the water that runs thro' them. For which reason they
throw in, great Quantities of Chalk into their Wells at Ailsbury to soften
their water, which coming off a black Sand-stone, is so hard and sharp
that it will often turn their Beer sour in a Week's time, so that in its
Original State it's neither fit to Wash nor Brew with, but so long as the
Alcalous soft Particles of the Chalk holds good, they put it to both uses.
River-waters are less liable to be loaded with metallick, petrifying,
saline and other insanous Particles of the Earth, than the Well or Spring
sorts are, especially at some distance from the Spring-head, because the
Rain water mixes with and softens it, and are also much cured by the
Sun's heat and the Air's power, for which reason I have known several
so strict, that they won't let their Horses drink near the first rise of some
of them; this I have seen the sad Effects of, and which has obliged me
to avoid two that run cross a Road in Bucks and Hertfordshire: But in
their runnings they often collect gross Particles from ouzy muddy
mixtures, particularly near Town, that make the Beer subject to