To Refine Beer, Ale, Wine, or Cider
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the isinglass
Soak the isinglass shavings in the quart of liquor for a few days, whisking daily until dissolved.
Mix and return to the cask
Draw off a third of the cask.
Mix the drawn-off portion with the dissolved isinglass, pearl ashes, salt of tartar, and burnt alum.
Stir the mixture well.
Return the mixture to the cask.
Stir the mixture with a clean stick.
Stop up the cask.
Clear
Let it sit for a few days until it clears.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- Isinglass shavings
- A fish-derived gelatin that dissolves and binds suspended particles so they settle out.
- Pearl ashes
- An alkaline potassium salt that helps the clearing agents work in the liquid.
- Burnt alum
- An acidic mineral salt that helps haze particles coagulate and drop out of the beer.
The step that matters
Returning the mixture and stirring it in the cask. The clearing agents must be evenly distributed through the beer so they can bind haze throughout the whole volume. Poor mixing leaves cloudy pockets, and the cask must then be sealed so the sediment can settle undisturbed.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
You might also like
Vegetable Soup350 recipes
Raspberry Vinegar214 recipes
Brown Coffee with Egg175 recipes
Blackberry Cordial129 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.