Spring Beer
Take a small bunch of sweet fern sarsaparilla, wintergreen, sassafras, prince's pine, cumfrey root, burdock root, nettle root, Solomons' seal, spice-bush, and black birch; boil part, or all of them, in three or four gallons of water, with two or three ounces of hops, and two or three raw potatoes, pared and cut in slices. Their strength is better extracted by boiling in two waters; for when the liquor is saturated with the hops, it will rather bind up the roots than extract their juices. Boil the roots five or six hours; strain the liquor, and add a quart of molasses to three gallons of beer. To have the beer very rich, brown half a pound of bread and put it into the liquor. If the liquor is too thick, dilute it with cold water. When lukewarm, put in a pint of fresh, lively yeast. Place in a temperate situation, covered, but not so closely as to retard fermentation. After fermentation, bottle it close, or keep it in a tight keg.