The Bar Towel

The difficulty is nothing, the time required is only a few days in a year and the inconvenience not much: the advantages are very many. The saving in money is near half in half; and the housekeeper is sure that nothing but wholesome ingredients have gone into the liquor, which he never can pretend to know if he buys it of a brewer. Most people have been desirous of brewing at home but they have been deterred by their thinking there was some mystery and secret in doing it well; and that there required a great deal of room, and a great many large vessels, for the brewing a moderate quantity of drink. We have shown this to be an error in both respects. The secret is in a manner nothing, a few plain words have described it; and in the method which we have laid down, a moderate copper, and a few common vessels answer the purpose of brewing a couple of hogsheads

Derek wrote:

The difficulty is nothing, the time required is only a few days in a year and the inconvenience not much: the advantages are very many. The saving in money is near half in half; and the housekeeper is sure that nothing but wholesome ingredients have gone into the liquor, which he never can pretend to know if he buys it of a brewer. Most people have been desirous of brewing at home but they have been deterred by their thinking there was some mystery and secret in doing it well; and that there required a great deal of room, and a great many large vessels, for the brewing a moderate quantity of drink. We have shown this to be an error in both respects. The secret is in a manner nothing, a few plain words have described it; and in the method which we have laid down, a moderate copper, and a few common vessels answer the purpose of brewing a couple of hogsheads

A compleat body of husbandry: Volume 3 - Page 326
Thomas Hale - 1758

Still true 250 years later! And they go on to recommend sterilization (not in those words), well before any of Pasteurs experiments.

I'm no historian, but google books are neat...
http://books.google.ca/books?id=-u8TAAA ... ng&f=false