THE BREWERY.
Site and Construction.
An airy unconfined situation should, if possible, always be selected for the site of a brew-house, so as to admit of a free current of air round the coolers.
In building, the boiling and mashing departments ought to be kept separate from the cooling and fermenting departments. This arrangement will prevent the steam retarding the cooling of the worts, and also from coming into contact with the fermentations, which has often an injurious effect.
If a current of steam be directed over a gyle of beer in a vigorous state of fermentation, the head will very soon drop. If a fermenting tun be placed directly under an iron-jack or hop-back, on the boiling worts being turned into the jack-back, the head on the worts, however vigorously going on, will very soon drop.
Size of Copper.
The size of the copper or coppers and mash-tuns must be proportioned to the quantities of malt to be brewed.
Where there is but one copper it is much better that it should be too large than too small, as a large copper gives much greater facility in going on with the process, and also often enables the brewer to boil all the worts at once; thus saving both time and fuel. The copper should, therefore, contain from four to five barrels for each quarter of malt to be brewed; or say for 10 quarters, 50 barrels, and so on. By inserting a damper in the flue, say about 18 inches above the crown, any copper can be made to boil 10 barrels or less, without injury to itself. This damper being shut, and another opened higher up, the copper becomes serviceable to its full extent. We have seen a copper containing only 42 barrels for mashing 18 or 20 quarters of malt: this caused such delay in the process, as was often very injurious. There was no occasion to brew more than eight or nine quarters at a time, which could be done well and safely; but it was with the greatest difficulty that the proprietors were persuaded to adopt that alteration, and it is doubtful if they altogether now adopt it.
Size of Mash-Tun.
The mash-tun should contain nearly four barrels for every quarter of malt to be brewed. This enables us to turn on a sufficient quantity of liquor for making a large extract in the first mash, which will be found the most beneficial mode of brewing every kind of beer. We do not, however mean that a large quantity of liquor should be turned on at first.—See MASHING.
The under-back must be proportioned to the mash-tun. In some newly constructed brew-houses there are no under-backs, which is a great improvement. The liquor boiler and mash-tun are placed high enough to command the wort-copper. The worts then run directly from the mash-tun into the copper (see page 47.). It is certainly the best construction that can be adopted, as it not only saves time and labour, but also prevents the possibility of the worts getting tainted between the mash-tun and copper; which sometimes happens by lying too long in the under-back.
Coolers.
Where there are no refrigerators, the coolers should be spacious, and so constructed as that the worts may be run from the one into the other, which very much facilitates cooling; and where there are no artificial means of cooling, the coolers should be of such dimensions as to prevent the necessity of the worts being at an average more than two inches deep; or two and a half inches at the utmost. Blowers or fans are very useful, as they not only facilitate the cooling of the worts, by sweeping off the fob or froth, thus allowing a free radiation of caloric, but also by keeping the worts in constant motion, they assist in preventing their becoming tainted. Refrigerators are now very much used. We have lately, however, been inclined to think, that when improperly constructed, they sometimes occasion a little faintness in the worts by galvanic action, although the injury may perhaps as frequently arise from want of cleanliness. Our opinion, however, on this subject will be more fully expressed under the articles Refrigerators and Regulators.
Fermenting Tuns.
The fermenting or gyle-tuns should be of sufficient dimensions to contain the worts, and leave at least six inches of the depth unoccupied: they must also have on the top a sufficiency of what is called lubber boarding or frame work, for the rise of the head during fermentation. After what has been said upon electro-chemical action, it is almost unnecessary to add how the tuns should be placed; they should of course be isolated as much as possible, and in no way connected with the earth, either by pipes or otherwise. If main pipes must be had for cleansing, the gyle-tuns should be detached from them during the progress of fermentation. VVhen ready for cleansing, they may again be connected by union screws and pipes. Long chains of pipes connecting different vessels together, must be injurious in every case, as they will be found to produce electro-chemical action.
The chains of pipes now so frequently employed in cleansing, for the purpose of saving labour and waste of beer, although not so injurious as during fermentation in the gyle-tuns, may nevertheless be found prejudicial to a certain extent. The old mode, therefore, of cleansing with leather hoses (or pipes), although more troublesome, will be found safer, as far at least as regards perfection in beer.
Several plans might be suggested of getting through the process of cleansing as quickly and with as little waste as by long chains of pipes.
Of Metals, such as are generally used in the Brewery.
It is now beginning to be admitted by many well-informed brewers, that metals, generally speaking, had better be dispensed with in the brewery, in all cases where their use can possibly be avoided, as they find that they often tend to injure the beer, particularly in the coolers and tun-room. As some metals, however, are more detrimental than others, it may be well to point out such as ought particularly to be avoided on account of their injurious effects.
All salts of lead or of zinc are poisonous, and should, therefore, be avoided in every department of the brewery. Lead becomes oxydized, in the presence of carbonic acid and stale beer, and should not, therefore, be allowed to come in contact with either in the brewery. Zinc also, in many cases, may be found very detrimental. All salts of copper are also poisonous; but when vessels of this metal are kept clean, as in coppers or boilers for water or worts, they are then not found to be injurious; but they should always be kept well scoured and bright. All salts of iron are harmless, if not used in excess; iron is, therefore, the safest metal to use in the brewery, where metals cannot be dispensed with.
Copper, or zinc coolers, have lately been occasionally tried, but were found so injurious as to be very soon abandoned. Even iron coolers, although quite safe in some respects, will not be found so free from objection as the old wooden ones, when these are kept in good order. Perhaps slate coolers might be preferable to any if they could be kept quite tight. They could be easily cleaned, and liquids get much sooner cool, on account of the difference in the radiation of heat, when exposed in vessels having black than they do in those with white surfaces.
This was exemplified many years ago in Glasgow, during what was called the teapot war, which occurred during the residence of my friend the late Dr. Birkbeck there. Black porcelain teapots had then been lately introduced there, and were getting into use. The ladies, however, declared that their tea when made in these was by no means so good as formerly, and strongly objected to them on that account. The gentlemen ridiculed the idea, that it could make any difference in the tea whether it was made in a white or a black teapot. The ladies, however, stuck to their point, and the dispute ran so high that Dr. Birkbeck was appealed to on the subject; he, after due examination, gave it in favour of the ladies, on account of the water not retaining its heat in the black teapots so well as in the others, and, consequently, not causing the tea to draw (as it is called) in equal perfection.
Dr. Birkbeck told this story with great glee, calling it the war of the teapots in which he had been engaged.