hist-brewing: Historical "non-sanitization"--any experience?

[PBLoomis at aol.com]

In a message dated 5/5/99 6:24:12 PM EST, renfrow at skylands.net writes:

<< Elijah Bemiss (1815) sterilizes his cask with scalding water and then dries
 it, >>
	I hate to think of sterilizing or even sanitizing a 500-gallon 
hogshead 
with scalding water, and how does one dry the inside of such a behemoth?

<<  or, he "sent it with a linen rag dipped in brimstone".  >>

	What does "sent it" mean?  Scent it?
	Linen rather than cotton because the fibers are longer and less 
likely 
to come loose?
	"Brimstone??"  Flowers of brimstone (powdered sulfur)?  Liquid 
brimstone (melts at temperatures above the boiling point of water; nasty
stuff)?  Hydro-sulphuric acid (H2S, slightly more toxic than cyanide but 
dissipates or metabolizes quickly)?  Brimstone water (dilute sulfurous 
acid [H2SO3], a bit unpleasant but not really dangerous)?  The latter 
seems the most likely to me, and is, IIRC, like Campden tablet solution.
	Scotti

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