The Practical Distiller | Page 7

some warm situation near a fire, where the thermometer stands between 70 and 80 degrees (Fahrenheit,) and here let it remain till the fermentation begins, which will be plainly perceived within thirty hours; add then two quarts more of a like decoction of malt, when cool, as the first was; and mix the whole in the larger sized vessel, and stir it well in, which must be repeated in the usual way, as it rises in a common vat: then add a still greater quantity of the same decoction, to be worked in the largest vessel, which will produce yeast enough for a brewing of forty gallons.]
This yeast ought to be renewed every four or five days in the summer, and eight or ten days in the winter--but it is safer to renew it oftener, or at shorter intervals, than suffering it to stand longer. In twenty-four hours after it begins to work, it is fit for use.
Between a pint and half a pint of the foregoing stock yeast, is sufficient to raise the yeast for the daily use of three hogsheads.
ART. III.
The most proper vessel for preserving stock yeast is an earthen crock, that will hold three gallons at least, with a cover of the same, well glazed--as it will contract no acid from the fermentation, and is easily scalded and sweetened. There ought to be two of the same size, that when one is in use, the other may be sweetening--which is effected by exposing them to frost or fire.
ART. IV.
To know when Yeast is good or bad.
When you perceive your yeast working, observe if it works quick, sharp and strong, and increasing in bulk nearly double what it was before it began to work, with a sweet sharp taste, and smell, with the appearance of a honey comb, with pores, and always changing place, with a bright lively colour, then you may pronounce your yeast good; on the contrary, if it is dead, or flat and blue looking, with a sour taste, and smell, (if any at all,) then you may pronounce it bad, and unfit for use, and of course must be renewed.
ART. V.
How to renew Yeast when sour.
About two hours before you begin to make your beer, take one pint of the sour yeast, put it into a clean dish or vessel, and pour clean cold water over it--changing the water every fifteen minutes, until the acid be extracted, have it then in readiness to mix with the beer, which is to be prepared, in the following manner, viz. Take one pint malt, and scald it well in a clean vessel, with a gallon of boiling water, let it stand half an hour closely covered--then pour it into a pot with plenty of hops--then strain it into a well scalded earthen jug, when milk warm--add then a small quantity of the yeast, (sweetened as directed in the first part of this receipt,) with two or three table spoon fulls of molasses ... set it past for twenty four hours to ferment ... then pour off the top, or beer that is in the jug, leaving about a quart in the bottom ... then that which remains in the bottom will be yeast with which to start your stock yeast.
ART. VI.
The method of procuring and keeping stock yeast, by the generality of distillers, merits in the mind of the author of this work, most decided disapprobation. They generally procure yeast once a week, or month, from brewers, and if not convenient to be had in this way, they often use such as is used by country women, for baking bread, without paying any regard to the quality, or whether sour; with such, tho' generally bad, they proceed to make their daily yeast, and often continue the use of it, until the grain will no longer yield a gallon of whiskey to the bushel, and so often proceed in this miserable and indolent mode of procuring and renewing yeast, to the great prejudice of their own, and employer's interest ... attributing the small yield of liquor to the badness of the grain ... the manner in which it is chopped, or some other equally false cause. Then to the idle and careless habits of distillers, must be attributed any yield short of three gallons to the bushel of rye.... To ensure this quantity at least from the bushel, the author discovers the anxiety expressed, and the care recommended in the foregoing pages, on the subject of preserving and keeping good yeast, and recommends the following as the best mode of preparing.
ART. VII.
Stock Yeast good for years.
When the weather is moderately warm in autumn or the spring, take of your best stock yeast that has fermented about twenty four hours, and stir it thick with the coarsest middlings