The Practical Distiller | Page 6

of making stock yeast, yielded a better preparation for promoting fermentation, than the simple mode pursued by myself for some years, and which I have uniformly found to be the best and most productive.
In making yeast, all drugs and witchcraft are unnecessary--Cleanliness, in preserving the vessels perfectly sweet, good malt, and hops, and an industrious distiller, capable of observation, and attention to the following receipt, which will be assuredly found to contain the essence and spirit of the ways and art of making that composition, a knowledge of which I have acquired, by purchases--consultations with the most eminent brewers, bakers, and distillers in this commonwealth, and above all, from a long practice and experience, proving its utility and superior merits to my most perfect satisfaction; and which I with pleasure offer to my fellow-citizens, as meriting a preference--notwithstanding the proud and scientific chymist, and the flowery declarations or treatises of the profound theorist, may disapprove this simple mode, and offer those which they presume to be better, tho' they never soiled a finger in making a practical experiment, or perhaps witnessed a process of any description.
ARTICLE II.
Receipt for Stock Yeast.
For a stock yeast vessel of two gallons, the size best adapted for that purpose.
Take one gallon good barley malt, (be sure it be of good quality) put it into a clean, well scalded vessel, (which take care shall be perfectly sweet) pour thereon four gallons scalding water, (be careful your water be clean) stir the malt and water with a well scalded stick, until thoroughly mixed together, then cover the vessel close with a clean cloth, for half an hour; then uncover it and set it in some convenient place to settle, after three or four hours, or when you are sure the sediment of the malt is settled to the bottom, then pour off the top, or thin part that remains on the top, into a clean well scoured iron pot, (be careful not to disturb the thick sediment in the bottom, and that none of it goes into the pot); then add four ounces good hops, and cover the pot close with a clean scalded iron cover, and set it on a hot fire of coals to boil--boil it down one third, or rather more, then strain all that is in the pot through a thin hair sieve, (that is perfectly clean) into a clean well scalded earthen crock that is glazed--then stir into it, with a clean stirring stick, as much superfine flour as will make it about half thick, that is neither thick nor thin, but between the two, stirring it effectually until there be no lumps left in it. If lumps are left, you will readily perceive that the heart or inside of those lumps will not be scalded, and of course, when the yeast begins to work, those lumps will sour very soon, and of course sour the yeast--stir it then till those lumps are all broken, and mixed up, then cover it close for half an hour, to let the flour stirred therein, be properly scalded, after which uncover and stir it frequently until it is a little colder than milk warm, (to be ascertained by holding your finger therein for ten minutes, but beware your finger is clean) then add half a pint of genuine good yeast,[1] (be certain it is good, for you had better use none, than bad yeast) and stir it effectually, until you are sure the yeast is perfectly incorporated with the ingredients in the pot--after which cover it, and set it in a moderately cool place in summer, until you perceive it begin to work, or ferment--then be careful to stir it two or three times at intervals of half an hour--then set it past to work--in the winter, place it in a moderately warm part of the still-house--and in summer, choose a spring house, almost up to the brim of the crock in water--avoiding extremes of heat or cold, which are equally prejudicial to the spirit of fermentation--of consequence, it should be placed in a moderately warm situation in the winter, and moderately cool in the summer.
[Footnote 1: If none can be obtained that is good, the following is a receipt to make it, viz.
Procure three wooden vessels of different sizes and apertures, one capable of holding two quarts, the other three or four, and the third five or six; boil a quarter of a peck of malt for about eight or ten minutes in three pints of water; and when a quart is poured off from the grains, let it stand in a cool place till not quite cold, but retaining that degree of heat which the brewers usually find to be proper when they begin to work their liquor. Then remove the vessel into