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 vessel 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.

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