Of The Fining Of Malt Liquors
It is most desirable to have beer fine of itself, which it seldom fails
to do in due time, if rightly brewed and worked; but as disappointments
some times happen, it will be necessary to know what to do in such
cases.
Ivory shavings boiled in your wort, or hartshorn shavings put into your
cask just before you bung it down, will do much towards fining and
keeping your liquor from growing stale.
Isinglass is the most common thing made use of in fining all sorts of
liquors; they first beat it well with a hammer or mallet, and lay it in
a pail, and then draw off about two gallons of the liquor to be fined
upon it, and let it soak two or three days; and when it is soft enough
to mix with the liquor, they take a whisk, and stir it about till it is
all of a ferment, and white froth; and they frequently add the whites
and shells of about a dozen of eggs, which they beat in with it, and put
altogether into the cask; then with a clean mop-stick, or some such
thing, stir the whole together; and then lay a cloth, or piece of paper
over the bung-hole, till the ferment is over; and then bung it up close,
in a few days it will fall fine.
But if you want to fine only a small quantity, take half an ounce of
unflacked lime, and put it into a pint of water, and stir it well
together, and let it stand for two or three hours, or till the lime
settle to the bottom; then pour the water off clear, and throw away the
sediment; then take half an ounce of isinglass cut small, and boil it in
the lime water till it dissolves; then let it cool, and pour it into the
vessel, &c.