The Practical Distiller by Samuel McHarry (best classic books of all time .txt) 📖

in our country, and thereby saving the expenditure of millions of dollars; and ultimately rendering our liquors an article of export and source of wealth—I presume every mind will be struck with the propriety of encouraging a branch of business so promising in wealth and comfort.

The following receipts are intended to convey all the instruction necessary in the science of distilling, and producing from the growth of our own farms, the best spirits of every description, and such as I flatter myself will supersede the use of all imported liquors, and thereby fulfil the views and wishes of

The Author.

PRACTICAL DISTILLER. SECTION I. Observations on Yeast.

That yeast is the main spring in distilling, is acknowledged by all distillers, tho' but few if them understand it, either in its nature or operation; tho' many pretend a knowledge of the grand subject of fermentation, and affect to understand the best mode of making stock yeast, and to know a secret mode unknown to all others—when it is my belief they know very little about it; but, by holding out the idea of adding some drug, not to be procured at every house, which has a hard name, and that is little known to people of common capacities: Such as Dragons blood, &c. frequently retailing their secret, as the best possible mode of making stock yeast, at ten, twenty, and in some instances one hundred dollars.

Confessing it a subject, abstruse, and a science little understood in Pennsylvania, and notwithstanding the numerous experiments I have made with care and close observation, yet from a consciousness of not understanding it, too well, I have in several instances purchased receipts, and made faithful experiments; but have never yet met the man of science, theory, or practice, whose mode 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.

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 of wheat flour, add small quantity of whiskey, in which, previously dissolve a little salt, when you have stirred the middlings with a stick, rub it between your hands until it becomes pretty dry, then spread it out thin, on a board to dry in the sun ... rubbing once or twice in the day between your hands until it is perfectly dry, which will be in three or four good days—taking it in at night before the dew falls—when it is properly dried, put it up in a paper and keep it in a dry airy place for use.

Thus yeast will keep good, if free from moisture, for any length of time, and it is the only effectual mode of preserving stock yeast pure and sweet ... when put up conformably to the foregoing instructions, the distiller may always rely on having it good, and depend on a good turn out of his grain, provided he manages the other parts of his distilling equally well.

About two hours before you mean to use the dried yeast, the mode is to take two gills, place it in any convenient vessel, and pour thereon milk-warm water, stir and mix it well with the yeast, and in two or three hours good working yeast will be produced.

In the spring every distiller ought to make as much as would serve 'till fall, and every fall as much as will serve thro' the winter, reckoning on the use of one pint per week, three