Ale, Welsh, How To Brew It...recipe Dated 1850-1900

Step 1.
Pour forty-two gallons (4.543457liters) of water, hot, but not quite boiling on eight bushels of malt, cover and let it stand three hours.

Step 2.
In the mean time infuse four pounds of hops in a little hot water, and put the water and hops into the tub, and run the wort (the liquid created by the mashing of malted barley to use in brewing beer) upon them, and boil them to-gather three hours. Mashing that is mixed with hot water and steeped.

Step 3.
Strain off the hops, and keep for the small beer. Let the wort stand in a high tub till cool enough to receive the yeast, of which put two quarts (1.13586 liter) of ale yeast, or if you cannot get it, of small-beer yeast.

Side note
Small beer: (also, small ale) is a beer/ale that contains very little alcohol. Sometimes unfiltered and porridge-like, it was a favoured drink in Medieval Europe and colonial North America where George Washington had a recipe involving bran and molasses. (Wikipedia)

Step 4.
Mix it thoroughly and often.

Step 5.
When the wort has done working the second or third day, the yeast will sink rather than rise in the middle, remove it then, and tun the ale as it works out; pour a quart in at a time, and gently to prevent the fermentation from continuing too long, which weakens the liquor. Put a bit of paper over the bong-hole two or three days before stopping up.

First Warning

I would advise you to drastically reduce the above quantities until you become more efficient with far smaller batches than stated above.

Second Warning

If you choose to ignore the above warning, then please invite the neighborhood to help you consume your first batch.

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About The Author, Perry Keenan
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