36. The _kind of beer_, for a labourer's family, that is to say, the _degree of strength_, must depend on circumstances; on the numerousness of the family; on the season of the year, and various other things. But, generally speaking, beer _half_ the strength of that mentioned in paragraph 25 will be quite strong enough; for that is, at least, one-third stronger than the farm-house "_small beer_," which, however, as long experience has proved, is best suited to the purpose. A judicious labourer would probably always have some _ale_ in his house, and have small beer for the general drink. There is no reason why he should not keep _Christmas_ as well as the farmer; and when he is _mowing_, _reaping_, or is at any other hard work, a quart, or three pints, of _really good fat ale_ a-day is by no means too much. However, circumstances vary so much with different labourers, that as to the _sort_ of beer, and the number of brewings, and the times of brewing, no general rule can be laid down. 37. Before I proceed to explain the uses of the several brewing utensils, I must speak of the _quality_ of the materials of which beer is made; that is to say, the _malt_, _hops_, and _water_. Malt varies very much in quality, as, indeed, it must, with the quality of the barley. When good, it is full of flour, and in biting a grain asunder, you find it bite easily, and see the _shell thin_ and filled up well with flour. If it bite _hard_ and _steely_, the malt is bad. There is _pale_ malt and _brown_ malt; but the difference in the two arises merely from the different degrees of heat employed in the drying. The main thing to attend to is, the _quantity of flour_. If the barley was bad; _thin_, or _steely_, whether from unripeness or blight, or any other cause, it will not _malt_ so well; that is to say, it will not send out its roots in due time; and a part of it will still be barley. Then, the world is wicked enough to think, and even to say, that there are maltsters who, when they send you a bushel of malt, _put a little barley amongst it_, the malt being _taxed_ and the barley _not_! Let us hope that this is seldom the case; yet, when we _do know_ that this terrible system of taxation induces the beer-selling gentry to supply their customers with stuff little better than poison, it is not very uncharitable to suppose it possible for some maltsters to yield to the temptations of the devil so far as to play the trick above mentioned. To detect this trick, and to discover what portion of the barley is in an unmalted state, take a handful of the _unground_ malt, and put it into a bowl of cold water. Mix it about with the water a little; that is, let every grain be _just wet all over_; and whatever part of them _sink_ are not good. If you have your malt _ground_, there is not, as I know of, any means of detection. Therefore, if your brewing be considerable in amount, _grind your own malt_, the means of doing which is