in a coarse thin Cloth and put it into the Vat, where by its spungy and
flowery Nature and close Bulk it will absorp a quantity of the Drink, and
breed a heat to forward its working. I know an Inn-keeper of a great Town
in _Bucks_ that is so curious as to take off all the top Yeast first, and
then by a Peg near the bottom of his working Tub, he draws off the Beer or
Ale, so that the Dreggs are by this means left behind. This I must own is
very right in Ales that are to be drank soon, but in Beers that are to lye
nine or twelve Months in a Butt or other Cask, there certainly will be
wanted some Feces or Sediment for the Beer to feed on, else it must
consequently grow hungry, sharp and eager; and therefore if its own top
and bottom are not put into a Cask with the Beer, some other Artificial
Composition or Lee should supply its Place, that is wholsomer, and will
better feed with such Drink than its own natural Settlement, and therefore
I have here inserted several curious Receipts for answering this great
End.




CHAP. XIV.


_Of an Artificial Lee for Stout or Stale Beer to feed on_.


This Article, as it is of very great Importance in the curing of our malt
Liquors, requires a particular regard to this last management of them,
because in my Opinion the general misfortune of the Butt or keeping Beers
drinking so hard and harsh, is partly owing to the nasty foul Feces that
lye at the bottom of the Cask, compounded of the Sediments of Malt, Hops