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 ve sel 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.





Procure three wooden vessels of different sizes and apertures, one

capable of holding two quarts, the other three or four, and the third

five or six; boil a quarter of a peck of malt for about eight or ten

minutes in three pints of water; and when a quart is poured off from the

grains, let it stand in a cool place till not quite cold, but retaining

that degree of heat which the brewers usually find to be proper when

they begin to work their liquor. Then remove the vessel into some warm

situation near a fire, where the thermometer stands between 70 and 80

degrees (Fahrenheit,) and here let it remain till the fermentation

begins, which will be plainly perceived within thirty hours; add then

two quarts more of a like decoction of malt, when cool, as the first

was; and mix the whole in the larger sized vessel, and stir it well in,

which must be repeated in the usual way, as it rises in a common vat:

then add a still greater quantity of the same decoction, to be worked in

the largest vessel, which will produce yeast enough for a brewing of

forty gallons.]



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.





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.