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
ome 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.



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