ROBERTS'S SCOTTISH ALE-BREWER.

LIKE all human productions formed for endurance, ale consists of !, simples and essences, (which are in fact but simples of another kind,) evolved, combined, and rendered homogeneous by time, •(, labour, skill, and the operation of that great producer of all good tt things, both mental and physical, heal. The three chief irlre' t. clients in this national beverage, as most people know, are water, ,•• malt, and hops. The first gr aid principle of brewing is to es' • tract the essences of the malt and hops, ,and combine them with the hops w ith the flakes fall immediately to the bottom," leaving . he simple basis of the liquor, water. lhe great means by which tthis is neesmplished is tire. And when this is done satisfac- garnation begins. The first step towards this is cooling during wily, the opposing elements of bitter, sweet, and a pure medium, fire timalgated into one congruous whole, by the aid of yeast—the which, the times or residuum, still held in solution, should be de- ace'dent or stimulus of genius—which excites an inward struggle posited, and the fermentation take place with almost pure liquid. cared fermentation, that ends in changing the tripartite nature This fifth process is carried on in large stallow vessels, called, water be used, it must be pure. If a river receive in its course any deposited is merely the Inpulin of the hop, and is highly useful, as tributary streams from marshy ground,—if well or any other preserving the worts from turning acid in the coolers, as well as water contain putrescent vegetable or animal substances,—the in assisting the subsequent fermentation: but Mr. ROBERTS has brewer's hopes will be dashed. " Whatever is unpleasant in the ascertained that the /uptilin held in solution is very small, and taste ef the water will be communicated to the ale r " the the mucilage with incidental impurities very large. Upon this slighteet putrid impregnation, although imperceptible to the taste, point, as well as upon the " heats" of mashing, he is, however, might in the latter stage of fermentation prove fatal to the at odds with Mr. BLACK.

brewer's expectation." The pitcher. in short, is broken at the The next stage is analogous to the task of composition in fihntain; without metaphor, the stream of ale is poisoned at its macs of genius: and hear Mr. ROBERTS upon its importance.

source. " We have now reacted the sixth stage, namely, Fermentation ; a process Malt is the next agent to water ; and has two features of excel- w ich is the most difficult of all to conduct properly, the most precarious in its lenee—good nature and good workmanship. Such are the natural differences in the barley, that whilst a bushel of some malt will he fail in this, the advantages which he Ins obtained will be of little avail, and yield thirty pounds of saucharuta or fermentable matter, others will csmplete disappointment mu-t ensue, inasmuch as the muiltice will he wanting yieal only twenty. On this point, as in all others, the guess ef iu cvety requte property—io spirituobiq, flavour, and transparency."

knewiedge is better than that of ignorance, but nothing save ex- During this stage, all liquors are very susceptible of imbibing periment will decide with any exactness. The goodness of the foreign flavours: so, much so that smoking is never allowed mantel,cture is more readily discoverable: the keowing tell by the abroad in the wine-fermenting rooms—even the German must go bite and by its lightness, the greater part of bait made malt sink- without his pipe. Although, as it seems, a purely natural process, hie, whilst the well-mado fleets. Of hops there are three ye- yet nature must be aided by art. The temperatures of the worts rieties,—the Worcester, very mild ; that grown ripen the still' clays are set, in England at a high degree — an average of 650;

of Nettinoliamshire, and called North-elay hops, ‘,Ineh are rank, in Scotland at a lower—an average of 50 ; so that the Southrons eiCy litied for strong, long-kveping beers; and the Kent Imps, despatch file process in six days, whilst North of the Tweed it is, thst bit iii the characteristic qualities el the extuer in a just 'me- even in despite of pry/tette innovations, very much longer. The dim, :nal are now getA:rally preferred. The essential property of movement itself too must be assisted, as u.ell as excited; and the tract the essences of the malt and hops, ,and combine them with the hops w ith the flakes fall immediately to the bottom," leaving .

the liquor dear.

Tho essential esences are noa. extracted ; the process of amt.-

brewer's expectation." The pitcher. in short, is broken at the The next stage is analogous to the task of composition in fihntain; without metaphor, the stream of ale is poisoned at its macs of genius: and hear Mr. ROBERTS upon its importance.

source. " We have now reacted the sixth stage, namely, Fermentation ; a process Malt is the next agent to water ; and has two features of excel- w ich is the most difficult of all to conduct properly, the most precarious in its

minks; but at the same time, of the greatest importance to the operator. For. although lie has been successful in all the proceeding stages, yet, should

differences in the barley, that whilst a bushel of some malt will he fail in this, the advantages which he Ins obtained will be of little avail, and yield thirty pounds of saucharuta or fermentable matter, others will csmplete disappointment mu-t ensue, inasmuch as the muiltice will he wanting yieal only twenty. On this point, as in all others, the guess ef iu cvety requte property—io spirituobiq, flavour, and transparency."

knewiedge is better than that of ignorance, but nothing save ex- During this stage, all liquors are very susceptible of imbibing periment will decide with any exactness. The goodness of the foreign flavours: so, much so that smoking is never allowed mantel,cture is more readily discoverable: the keowing tell by the abroad in the wine-fermenting rooms—even the German must go bite and by its lightness, the greater part of bait made malt sink- without his pipe. Although, as it seems, a purely natural process, hie, whilst the well-mado fleets. Of hops there are three ye- yet nature must be aided by art. The temperatures of the worts rieties,—the Worcester, very mild ; that grown ripen the still' clays are set, in England at a high degree — an average of 650;

of Nettinoliamshire, and called North-elay hops, ‘,Ineh are rank, in Scotland at a lower—an average of 50 ; so that the Southrons eiCy litied for strong, long-kveping beers; and the Kent Imps, despatch file process in six days, whilst North of the Tweed it is, thst bit iii the characteristic qualities el the extuer in a just 'me- even in despite of pry/tette innovations, very much longer. The dim, :nal are now getA:rally preferred. The essential property of movement itself too must be assisted, as u.ell as excited; and the

the hyp is an aromatic bitter, which so rapidly evaporates that agent of this actin is yeast. Upon the excellence of this, much. bees Lt a twelvemonth depreciute in value from twenty-live to it not all, depends; and though the brewer make his own yeast,

'Nay 1,c1eent. Nor can any care prevent the delicate aroma yet he must not rely upon it too long. In beer as in breeding, it

e,c-oping ; after ulna, the hop is of no account for the finer ale. will not do to breed in and in. If this rule of interchange were Mr. 131.,tea, wo believe, dwelt long and learnedly upon the site altogether neglected, Scotch ale would degenerate like royalty, of the brewery, as w ell as upon the position, state, and so forth, of and get out of favour with the judicious. Mr. Bsscx, indeed, is

the utensils ; but Mr. ROBERTS, having provided his artist with again opposed to our author : but Mr. Roneavs stands to his the raw materials, and a saccharometer and thermometer, whose statement ; and it seems a wise provision of nature to promote superiority over the old-fashioned modes of taste and touch are harmony amongst rival craftsmen. Little presents—as they said advocated at great length, prepares to conduct us through the in the Committee of Public Safety during the Reign of Terror, seven stages of ale-brewing. The first of these is grinding or and meant heads—keep up friendship. crushing, with the object of enabling the hot water to penetrate Such is an outline of Roberts's ScAtish Ale-Brewer: bating a readily to every part of the malt and obtain its extract; which curious narrative of the facts of fermentation ; a scientific ac- object is defeated if the skin be not sufficiently broken, whilst if count of the important close of fermentation—attenuation ; and a the whole is ground too finely, it becomes a paste when wetted, brief account of the seventh stage, called cleansing. All details we and in either ease a woful waste of material ensues. The second haveof course omitted,and many leading points essential to practice ; stage is mashing ; whose end is to give effect to the preparative for Mr. ROBERTS, we imagine, has written morepages than we have crushing—to extract the essential properties of malt ; whose lines : but those, who are ambitious of brewing Scotch ale in Eng- means are water heated to the proper degree, and applied in right land, will, doubtless, have a communication with the book, or the proportionate quantities to the malt. Upon this point much de- author ; and to say the truth, we suspect the latter must be the pends; for it is the basis of all—the matter, as it were, of the case. Like PYTHAGORAS of old, or like that Mr. RICHARDSON future creation : and hard must the would-be brewer study Mr. whom the volume commemorates as publishing his general views Roam's, and often, we opine, must he practise in the laboratory, in print but selling his manuscript " mysteries" for one hundred ere he can exactly proportion his malt to his water, according to and fifty guineas, Mr. Roliettes appears to have an exoteric andan the qualities of the former, or regulate his heats in obedience to esoteric doctrine; or, perhaps, our " ignorant impatience.' of what the atmosphere, the character of the ale he requires, or the we do not practically understand, prevents our comprehending nature of his malt. The third stage, sparging, (or sprinkling,) the inward sense.

is a pure Scotch practice, adopted in lieu of the second mashing One conclusion, however, we have come to—which we publish of merry England; and forms one main distinction between for the benefit of the friends and families of those deluded persons English and Scottish brewing. It is of course handled in the who turn their houses out at window at stated seasons under the volume at a corresponding length, with plates ; and thither the pretence of home-brewing—and that is, the benefits to be de-

-curious must go. rived from "division of employments," as Mr. W AKEFIELD teaches. The liquor formed from malt and water is the well-known worts. Where is the lucky individual who has a well or a river of pure The hop should now be added, by the fourth process of boiling : and proper water ? or, if thus favoured by local position, can ,and here great judgment and nicety are required, and some dine- he profess to be skilled in malt and hops ? is he a dab at rence of opinion too exists. Scotch time varies from an hour to the saccharometer ? can he be acquainted with all the nice an hour and a half: Mr. ROBERTS prefers an hour. Boiling the and delicate points to be observed during the long and corn- wort for a long period extracts the coarse flavour of the hop; plicated processes enumerated above? or, greater than all, is he whilst the fine aroma, like the witches in Macbeth, goes "into able to decide between the vexed questions which disturb the quiet the air." to the gain only of those noses which happen to be pre- of the breweries? And if thus favoured by fortune, gifted by sent. On the other hand, the operator must not be too hasty, nature, and formed by art, is it worth while to build a spacious otherwise he will "not only fail to extract the aromatic flavour brewhouse for his amateur operations—and be it known, that

and the preservative principle of the hop, but to coagulate the without this, his work is liable to come to naught—that his superabundant gluten of the first Worts; —or, as it appears to us, friends may praise him with their lips but their inwards will turn

to purge off the grosser material particles of the malt. For, as against him ? Let home-brewing, then, with home-baking, hence- the boiling proceeds, the e gluten " separates from the worts ; forth cease amongst persons of taste, or let the parents devour Part sinking to the bottom, part floating in Bakes on the top, till their own children. Hereafter, we should as soon think of advising the worts become quite transparent ; and when the final consum- a friend to set up a journal fur his own uses as to turn his house minion is effected, dip in your sample vessel, and you will "see into a brewery.