The Art of Brewing on Scientific Principles. Adapted to the Use of Brewers & Private Families; with the Value and Importance of the Saccharometer. The whole System of Ale, Table Beer, and Porter Brewing, and the Names and Proportions of the various Ingredients used by Porter Brewers (but prohibited by the Excise) made public. To which are added, Directions for Family Brewing; for Making Cider, Perry, Home-Made Wines, & c. & c.
London: Sherwood, Gilbert, and Piper. 4th Edition. Hardcover. 32mo. Very Good / No Jacket. Item #011800
N.d., [1870?]. Fourth edition, corrected & improved. Contemporary brown blindstamped cloth, gilt titles. xii, 238 pp. B&W illustrations in text. Slight bowing to rear board. Some damp staining to cloth, rubbing to extremities, bumping to corners. Blind publisher's device of James Cornish to rear board. Some moderate soiling and foxing to interior commensurate with age. Cracking to inner hinge at p. 13. This book was originally published in 1824 after the passage of The New Brewing Act, which regulated the prices of beer and improved competition for smaller breweries. This book offered an accessible introduction to the process of brewing in the wake of such changes to the industry. "There is not at present a subject occupying more general interest than the motion introduced into Parliament by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, having for its object the general extension of the trade in beer...Beer, used as an article of home consumption, is almost entirely confined to the lower and middling classes; men, in fact, of confined and scanty incomes are those who must bear the greater part of the cost and charges attendant upon the master brewer. The system of monopoly, and the well digested plan which the large brewers have acted upon, will soon receive their death-blow; and it is absurd to hear a number of men complaining of the dreadful loss of capital, they must sustain by the change, when a short reflection must tell them, that their wealth has been acquired by making the hard working mechanic pay from 30 to 35 per cent more for an article, than it is worth; in order that they might revel in luxury and splendor, and portion off their descendants among the aristocracy of the country. By the operation of this bill, however, they will be obliged to reduce the price of their beer, or close their establishments; and then a poor man may procure his beverage at a fair price. Beyond doubt, another good effect will be produced by the bill; the trade being thrown open, fresh breweries will be established throughout the kingdom, and scope offered for the employment of capital, at present almost useless." 0.
Price: $400.00