level in all the fermenting vessels by means of a regulating cock. When the fermentation has ceased, the liquor is sent into large vats, or barreled and sent into market.

In the brewing of porter, the first mash should be heated in the copper to 150°, in the proportion of two barrels to each quarter of malt, which ought to be a mixture of best pale and brown malt, and should be kept mashing for about three-quarters of an hour, while the liquor should remain on the goods for an hour. The tap of the mash-tun is then opened to let off the liquor as quickly as possible, and the tap should be left open till the next liquor is brought into the tun that the goods may drain. In the mean time, the second liquor has been heating, and may, in from two to three hours, have acquired the heat of 160°; the quantity being one barrel to a quarter of malt. Mash this, for half or three quarters of an hour; let it stand for one hour, and then let it be run off in the course of half an hour more. At about five and one-half hours from the beginning, the third mash should be made at 180°, the quantity being one barrel to the quarter; mash this for half an hour, let it stand an hour and tap as before.

A fourth liquor is seldom mashed, but if it be, it may be cold or blood warm, as it is of no use but to make the sour-beer for finings; and it is of little consequence how it is done. Some brewers use it for the first liquor of the next brewing; but this, perhaps, is not a good plan, as it may taint the whole brewing.

These worts are to be boiled with from twelve to fourteen pounds of hops to the quarter of malt, if the liquor is intended for keeping eight or twelve months; but, in the ordinary run of porter not intended for keeping, five pounds may be sufficient. The first worts should be boiled one hour, the second two, and the third four hours.

The worts are now to be cooled down as expeditiously as the weather will permit, to about 60°, if the medium heat of the atmosphere be about 60°. If it be more or less, allowance must be made. All the three worts are to be brought together into the gyle-tun, and about five pints of yeast to the quarter of malt put in, and due time allowed for fermentation and cleansing. The criterion for cleansing is the attenuation, and one great point in porter making is, that of separating the barm completely from the liquor. The proportion of colouring is arbitrary, as it greatly depends on the colour of the malt. Formerly it was the practice to employ Socotorine aloes, in the proportion of half an ounce to a barrel, in the second worts; and to give a retentive head, as much salt of steel as would lie on a half-crown piece was added with the finings to a barrel. Quassia, in the proportion of a pound to about twenty barrels, was used as a substitute for the aloes,

and copperas for the salt of steel, but these ingredients being noxious and unwholesome, have been discontinued..

As the colour of porter is chiefly to be attributed to the quantity of brown or roasted malt used, care is taken to infuse such a quantity of that material as will produce the degree of colour required, and fining is effected by isinglass dissolved in stale beer, till it becomes of a glutinous consistence, a pint of which is the usual allowance for a barrel, but sometimes more is necessary.

A good colouring article is procured by moistening a quantity of brown sugar with water, spreading it in a frying-pan to about an inch deep, placed on a fire, and stirred until it is ignited; when it is burned sufficiently, the flame is extinguished, and water is added to the residuum till it has the consistency of molasses, and it is then mixed with the worts in the copper in such quantity as the depth of colour requires.

In Ireland, the brewing trade, though not so extensive as in England, is, notwithstanding, conducted on a respectable scale. In Cork, Bandon, Limerick, Fermoy, Waterford, Clogheen, Clonmel, Kilkenny, and Carlow, are the principal establishments of the south. That of Beamish and Crawford, situated in the South Main-street, Cork, is the most considerable; it is elegantly fitted up, having appropriate machinery, with vessels on an extensive scale, and is capable of brewing upwards of 150,000 barrels of porter annually. The concerns of Messrs. Lane and Co., W. Cashman and Sons, W. Condon and Co., in that city, are respectably conducted, and the liquor produced is of superior quality. In the north, there are many highly respectable breweries, viz. Drogheda, Castlebellingham, Dundalk, Newry, Armagh, Monaghan, Dungannon, Donoughmore, Lurgan, Belfast, and Derry, where malt drink is manufactured to great perfection. The ales of Drogheda, Castlebellingham, Lurgan and Belfast, have obtained a high character, while the porter and ales of Dublin are accounted equal to any brewed in the empire: the extensive exportation of these articles is a proof of this assertion, for, until within these few years, there was not any export of porter to England, the British manufacturers supplying that commodity; and such was the force of prejudice, that nothing but an English beverage could satisfy an Irish palate. The house of Messrs. Arthur Guinness, Sons, & Co., was the first to open the trade of exportation, and they have been successfully followed by several other respectable houses in Dublin. The premises of this most enterprising firm are situated at James's Gate, in the west of the city. The range of buildings covers nearly four acres; the arrangement and machinery are upon the most complete and efficient plan, and every department is so systematic and well

managed, that the work proceeds with the utmost precision and regularity; no confusion, bustle, nor disorder ensues; the grain is taken up, and weighed in its passage to the lofts, by ingenious mechanical contrivances. There are three mash-tuns capable of mashing 600 barrels at a brewing, with three coppers containing 2,040 barrels. The mashing is performed by rakes worked by steam-engines, of which there are two of fifteen horse-power that work all the machinery on the premises.

Under the bottom of the mash-keives there is a screw fixed in a trough, so contrived as to draw off all the grains into an adjoining yard, where they are disposed of to the public. The labour of one man is sufficient for a keive, through a hole between the real and artificial bottom of which he is employed to discharge the grains, to be carried off by the screw. This aperture is secured and rendered water-tight by means of a cover fastened down to prevent the egress of the liquid. There are three immense fermenting tuns, and fortyfour vats calculated to hold from 350 to nearly 3,000 barrels ; three of which contain the latter quantity.

In one apartment are an immense number of fixed casks in which the liquor undergoes the process of cleansing, and in another a number of cylindrical vessels, termed rounds; there are 100 of these, holding six barrels each, so arranged in rows as to admit between them large and deep troughs to hold the discharge of the barm, as it works off from each vessel.

The number of persons employed is very great, among which are no less than eighty coopers. The concern is lighted with gas, and to secure it from fire, there are pipes so contrived that any quantity of water can be instantaneously conveyed to every part of the premises; these pipes are supplied from a cistern holding 1,100 barrels, and so elevated as to command the entire establishment. The quantity of porter capable of being sent out annually, is, at an average, upwards of 100,000 barrels, that of the other brewers of the city is equally respectable in proportion to the magnitude of their concerns. The reputation of the Dublin double X porter being so high, the demand for it in England is almost incredible; and it is said to be improved by the voyage, the motion of which is thought to operate upon it, in the same manner, as Madeira-wine is acted on by the agitation of the ship. The export houses are Messrs. Arthur Guinness, Sons, and Co., Manders and Powell, Watkins, D'Arcy and Co., O'Connell and Co., L. Finn, Messrs. Sweetman, and the Messrs. Conlan, &c. &c. Besides the places already mentioned, there are several breweries in Ireland which manufacture excellent malt-drink; of these, the esta

blishment of Mr. Cassidy at Monasterevan, and that of Darley & Co. at Stillorgan, are eminent, while the neat concern worked by Mr. Colgan at Kilcock, endeavours to rival more extensive houses in the quality of its liquors.

The practice of domestic brewing is not carried on to any extent in Ireland, the making of malt-drink being almost exclusively confined to the public establishments. The art of extracting a good ale, or beer, from malt is very simple, and it is surprising this has been so long overlooked when the means are sufficiently ample for the purpose. Many have neglected it on account of their ignorance of the process, others from a fear of the revenue laws, and some from not having proper apparatus, and the public drink being so easily procured. From a careful perusal, however, of what has been just written as well as the account given of domestic brewing in England, it will be seen that it might be to the advantage of the landlords and farmers to brew for themselves. This practice could not fail at all times to produce a pleasing, wholesome beverage, alike acceptable to the poor and to the rich.

To persons desirous of more minute and extensive knowledge on this subject, the following works may be consulted to advantage, viz: Shannon's Treatise on Practical Brewing, Richardson's Philosophical Principles of the Science of Brewing, Combrune's Theory and Practice of Brewing, Baverstock on Brewing, the Art of Brewing in the Library of Useful Knowledge, and the several articles on the subject in the different Encyclopædias, &c.

From the first period of the introduction of aqua vitæ, the distillation of ardent spirits, with the exceptions noticed, remained uncontroled by duty till the Restoration, at which time it had acquired sufficient magnitude to be deemed a productive article of revenue. On the 25th December, 1661, a duty of four-pence was established on every gallon of aqua vita distilled in the kingdom.

This duty was collected by means of a system of survey calculated to ascertain the quantities of wash, low-wines, and spirits produced in a given period, and as the distiller was not obliged to shew any stated quantity of work in the month, (that being the period for making up the accounts,) the increase or decrease depended, in a great measure, on the vigilance and integrity of the officer, whose business it was to attend the distillery.

Shortly after the accession of George III. a specific quantum of work in the way of charges or doublings was laid on the stills of this kingdom, which, in 1779, the time at which the principal change took place,* numbered 1,152, producing a revenue of £63,818. In 1782,

19 Geo. 3,

on a five hundred gallon still there were four doublings, and the following year eight, the duty being fourteen-pence per gallon; while in 1792, there were sixteen charges on two hundred gallon stills, the general size wrought at that time. The charges gradually increased until 1806, when the trade assumed a degree of importance that it had not previously possessed, being then principally confined to a few individuals of weighty capital.*

At this period, the government refused to license stills under five hundred gallons, and, in the same year, all the laws relating to the distillery trade in the kingdom were compressed into one act,† in which every thing relating to the business was fully defined. Among other matters, it was found to be necessary to fix the dimensions of stills, to place the process on an equitable footing, as it was obvious that if these dimensions were not determined, the distillers could produce a much greater quantity than the law required, by making the bottoms of their stills as large as possible, so as to have the advantage of exposing more surface to the heat of the furnace.

It was ordained, that the diameter of every still, taken in the middle part, most remote from the bottom, should be to the altitude of each still, taken in a perpendicular line from the centre of the diameter to the bottom, in the proportion of not more than three to one-i. e., for every inch of altitude, the diameter should not exceed three inches, and so on in proportion.

This law ceased to operate on the 10th of October, 1823. It was soon discovered that the ingenuity of the Irish distillers, like that of their Scotch neighbours, when the license system prevailed, far outstript the enactments of the legislature in the extent of work. In 1807, it was considered prudent to license stills of two hundred gallons and upwards; the work was then considerably increased on all stills from 200 to 1250 gallons' capacity, but no addition was made at that time to the work of larger stills. In 1815, there were 5,675 per cent. added, on an average to the proportions of work previously required; and, in the same year, an act was passed allowing stills of from fortyfour to one hundred gallons to be licensed. Considerable advantages were granted to these, in expectation that they might tend to the suppression of illicit distillation, it being intended that they should be confined to those districts of country in which that baneful practice prevailed.

The charges on those small stills were far short of the proportion allotted to the larger ones. A still of one hundred gallons' contents

Vide Addenda for the number of stills and their contents for some years prior to 1806, with a scale of work required by stills in that year.

†46 Geo. 3. c. 88.