When the first fermentation is concluded, the beer is drawn off from the great fermenting vessels M, into the small fermenting casks, or cleansing ves sels N, of which there are a great number in the brewery. They are placed tour together, and to each four a common spout is provided to carry off the , yeast and conduct it into the troughs u, placed be neath. In these cleansing vessels the beer remains till the fermentation is completed, and it is then put into the store-vats, which are casks or tuns of an immense size, where it is kept .till wanted, and is then drawn Off into barrels and sent away from the brewery. The store-vats are not represented in the Plate, but are of a conical figure and of different dimensions, from fifteen to forty feet diameter, and usually twenty feet in depth. The steam-engine which puts all the machinery in motion is explained by the figure. On the axis of the large fly-wheel, is a bevelled cog-wheel, which turns another similar wheel upon the end of an horizontal shaft, which ex tends from the engine-house to the great horse wheel, which it turns by means of a cog-wheel. The borse-wheel puts in motion all the pinions for the mill-stones 66, and also the horizontal axis which works the three-barrelled pump k. The rollers as are turned by a bevelled wheel upon the upper end of the axis of the horse-wheel, which is continued for that purpose ; and the horizontal shaft H, for the mashing-engine, is driven by a pair of bevelled wheels. There is likewise a sack-tackle, which is not repre sented. It is a machine for drawing up the sacks of malt from the courtyard to the highest part of the building, whence the sacks are wheeled on a truck to the malt-loft A, and the contents of the sacks are thrown in.
The horse-wheel is intended to put in horses occa sionally, if the steam-engine should fail ; but these engines are now brought to such perfection that it is very seldom any accidents occur with them.
Fig. 2. Plate XL. is a representation of the ferment ing-house at the brewery of Messrs. Whitbread and Co. Chiswell Street, London, which is by far the most complete in its arrangement of any work of the kind, and was erected after the plan of Mr Richardson, who conducts the brewing at those works. The. whole of fig. 2. is to be considered as devoted to the same object as the large vessel M, and the casks N, fig. I. In fig. 2. r is the pipe which leads from the different coolers to convey the wort to the great fer-' menting vessels or squares M, of which there are two, one behind the other ; ff represents a part of the great pipe which conveys all the water from the well . E, fig. 1. up to the water cistern F. This pipe is. conducted purposely up the wall of the fermenting house, fig. 2., and has a cock in it, near r, to stop the pillage. Just beneath this passage a branch-pipe p, proceeds and enters a large pipe xx, which has the former pipe r, withinside of it. From the end of the pipe x, nearest to the squares M, another branch we proceeds, and returns to the original pipe j; with a cock to regulate it. The object of this arrangement
is to make all, or any part of, the cold water flow through the pipe xx, so as to surround the wort pipe r, which as-only :nade of thin copper, and lower the temperature of the wort passing through the pipe r, until, by the thermometer, it is found to have the temperature which is desirable, before it is put to ferment in the great square M. By means of the cocks at n and p, the quantity of cold water, lwhich shall pads in contact with the surface of the pipe r, can be regulated at pleasure, so as to have a command of the heat of the wort when it enters into the square.
When the first fermentation in the squares M is finished, the beer is drawn off from them by pipes marked v, and conducted by its branches w to the different rows of fermenting tuns marked NN, which fill all the building. Between every two rows are placed large troughs, to contain the yeast which they throw off. The Plate shows that the small tuns are all placed on a lower level than the bottom of the great vessels M, so that the beer will flow into them, and, by standing in them all, will fill them to the same level. When they are filled, the commu nication-cock is shut ; but, as the working off of the yeast diminishes the quantity of beer in each ves sel, it is necessary to fill them up again. For this purpose, the two large vats 00 are filled from the great vessels M, before any beer is drawn off into the small casks N, and this quantity of beer is re served at the higher level for filling up. The two vessels 00 are, in reality, placed between the two squares M, but we have been obliged to place them so that they can be seen. Near each filling-up tun o is a cistern t, with a pipe of communication from the tun 0, and this pipe is closed by a float. valve. The small cisterns t have always a commu nication with the pipes, which lead to the small fer menting vessels N ; and therefore the surface of the beer in all the tuns and in the. cisterns will always be at the same level ; and as this level subsides by the working off of the yeast from the tuns, the float sinks, and opens the valve, so as to admit a suffi ciency of beer from the filling up tuns o, to restore the surfaces of the beer in all the tuns, and also the cistern t to the original level. In order to carry of the yeast which is produced by the fermentation of the beer in the tuns 00, an iron dish or vessel is made to float upon the surface of the beer which they contain ; and from. the centre of this dish a pipe o descends, and passes through the bottom of the tan, being filled through a collar of leather, so as to be tight, at the same time that it is at liberty to slide down as the surface of the beer descends in the tun. The yeast flows over the edge of this dish, and is conveyed down the pipe to a trough beneath.