There are many that do not conceive how their Drinks become Fox'd and
Tainted for several Brewings together; but I have in Chapter VI, in my
Second Book, made it appear, that the Taint is chiefly retain'd and lodged
in the upright wooden Pins that fasten the Planks to the Joists, and how
scalding Lye is a very efficacious Liquor to extirpate it out of the
Utensils in a little time if rightly applied; and one other most powerful
Ingredient that is now used by the greatest Artists for curing of the
same.




CHAP. XIII


_Of fermenting and working of Beers and Ales, and the pernicious Practice
of Beating in the Yeast detected_.


This Subject in my Opinion has, long wanted a Satyrical Pen to shew the
ill Effects of this unwholsome Method, which I suppose has been much
discouraged and hindered hitherto, from the general use it has been under
many Years, especially by the _Northern_ Brewers, who tho' much famed for
their Knowledge in this Art, and have induced many others by their Example
in the _Southern_ and other Parts to pursue their Method; yet I shall
endeavour to prove them culpable of Male-practice, that beat in the Yeast,
as some of them have done a Week together; and that Custom ought not to
Authorize an ill Practice. _First_, I shall observe that Yeast is a very
strong acid, that abounds with subtil spirituous Qualities, whose
Particles being wrapped up in those that are viscid, are by a mixture with