Small beer

My work is intended chiefly for the benefit of cottagers, who must, of course, have some land, for I purpose to show that a large part of the food of even a large family may be raised without any diminution of the labourer's earnings abroad, from forty rod, or a quarter of an acre, of ground.

But, at the same time, what I have to say will be applicable to larger establishments, in all the branches of domestic economy, and especially to that of providing a family with beer." the kind of beer for a labourer's family that is to say the degree of strength must depend on circumstances on the numerousness of the family on the season of the year and various other things but generally speaking beer half the strength of that mentioned in paragraph twenty five will be quite strong enough for that is at least one-third stronger than the farmhouse small beer

which however as long experience has proved is best suited to the purpose

a judicious labourer would probably always have some ale in his house and have small beer for the general drink there is no reason why he should not keep christmas as well as the farmer and when he is mowing reaping or is at any other hard work a quart or three pints of really good fat ale a day is by no means too much however circumstances vary so much with different labourers that as to the sort of beer and the number of brewings and the times of brewing no general rule can be laid down before i proceed to explain the uses of the several brewing utensils i must speak of the quality of the materials of which beer is made that is to say the malt hops and water malt varies very much in quality as indeed it must with the quality of the barley when good it is full of flour and in biting a grain asunder you will find it bite easily and see the shell thin and filled up well with flour If it bite hard and steely, the malt is bad.

There is pale malt and brown malt, but the difference in the two arises merely from the different degrees of heat employed in the drying.

The main thing to attend to is this, the quantity of flour.

Nevertheless, when it is merely to make small

beer, beer not wanted to keep, in such cases the brewing machine may be of use, and, as will be seen by and by, a movable boiler, which has nothing to do with the patent, may in many cases be of great convenience and utility.