See that your finings are as smooth as and pour out like oil, or they cannot do their work properly.

There should be no lumps in them, and they should have just a very slightly acid taste.

You should be very careful indeed to see that the cask is not shaken during the process of fining, or the finings will almost certainly go to the bottom.

Fining should be done in the morning of the day before the beer is required for use, as you have then the greater part of the day to attend to it, but many cellarmen think that the last thing at night is the best time to do it, forgetting that there will be no one about to keep the bung-hole clear, the consequence being the coagulated finings fall into the beer, and, as I said before, it will very likely be " bitty " when drawn.

Many cellarmen also will use the same finings-bottle for months without having it washed out ; this, it is needless to say, is a dirty trick, and cannot be too highly condemned, as it frequently causes really good finings to go putrid and smell very badly in the course of a few days, while if the bottle is kept clean there will be no fear of anything of the sort.

I have known several casks of beer condemned as fusty and returned to the brewery by the publican, simply from his having allowed a fusty cork to remain in his finings-bottle, and his having put the fresh finings into the tainted bottle, and the publican should remember that such carelessness not only spoils the beer which has to go down the sewer on its return to the brewery, but that the cask itself is entirely unfit for use again, and has to be broken up for firewood.

Some cellarmen, especially in the country, seem to think the proper place to trim and fill their paraffin lamps is the head of a cask, not thinking or not knowing that that spirit will go quite through the wood of a cask and will even penetrate a certain distance into iron, and that the slightest quantity getting on, and especially getting into it, certainly renders the cask utterly useless.

Another thing, which, I am sorry to say, is even more frequently met with, is the practice of leaving empty casks out where rain or other water can get into them, particularly when, as is usually the case, the brewer finds taps, corks, bungs and spiles to put in, and not only that, but puts a label on each cask asking the publican to oblige him by keeping the empties bunged up and air-tight.

It is not at all an infrequent occurrence that a new cask is spoilt in this way, and has to be broken up after only having been out to one public-house, and at one brewery the writer has heard of there being about five hundred casks broken up each month, simply through the carelessness of their customers.

Of course the writer does not suggest that every publican allows his cellarman to be so careless, but simply states that such things do occur, and advises all who take an interest in their beers to look well after their cellarmen, and see for themselves that such things are not done.

Shrived running beers should drop bright in from a few hours to a couple of days, according to the state of the weather and time of year.

They are not so liable to dulness from changes in the temperature of a few degrees, and as a rule are riper when they are sent out. The principal thing the cellarman has to attend to in them is the amount of condition, which he can regulate to a great extent by the use or misuse of the spile-peg, which means that, after giving slight vent on their first arrival, they should be pegged tightly until they get into good condition, and the peg should only be loosened as required sufficiently to enable the beer to be drawn, unless of course the beer gets cloudy through too much condition, in which case leaving the peg loose (but not taking it out as many people do) is sufficient to cool the beer down again, when it should be again pegged down tightly, remembering always that thundery weather will frequently cause a fret on the beer, which may go off in a day or so if the cask is tried and the peg loosened, to give vent for a few minutes.

Sometimes, however, the beer will not quiet down in the ordinary way, and will go very sick and sour, but with patience it will frequently come round, and will then, in most cases, prove even better than before the storm.

Stock beers which are unfined and also heavily hopped, take a much longer time to get bright after stooling, the time taken depending on the time of year they are brewed, and also when they are put into the cellar. They, of course, have had their first fret before they are sent out.

These beers from some breweries will drop bright much quicker than others, and should in every case have a spile-peg put in the shive to give vent, and another low down in the front head to sample from ; and great care is required in putting these beers on the engine, as they must be just ripe and not in too low or too high condition to draw well ; and as also no two casks from the same brewery will be certain of getting ripe at the same time, they must be frequently examined, especially as all stock beers are subject to and should have a second fret or sickness, and one cask may be fit to draw some days before another of the same brewing, and it is, as I said before, the cellar management, a principal part of which consists of drawing the beers when ripe and in good condition, which makes a successful house.