George Barrell Cheever: Deacon Giles' distillery (1844)

They sung these devilish curses with dreadfully malignant satisfaction; and when all the processes in the preparation of the liquor were finished, with equal delight they proceeded to draft it in immense quantities into hogsheads and casks of every dimension. Into every vessel, as they filled it, they put a certain quantity of potash, lime, salt, and sulphuric acid, and then drove in the bung, and wrote upon the cask head, according as it suited their fancy. Some of the inscriptions were as follows:

"BEST LONDON PORTER, FROM DEACON JONES' BREWERY."

"PALE ALE, OP THE PUREST MATERIALS."

"TEMPERANCE BEER, FROM DEACON JONES' BREWERY."

"MILD AMERICAN PORTER, FOR FAMILY USE."

"BEST ALBANY ALE, FROM DEACON JONES' BREWERY."

They also filled an immense multitude of bottles from the fermenting tun, and packed them very neatly in strong square baskets, which they labelled in shining letters in these words:

"RESTORATIVE FOR WEAK CONSTITUTIONS.—DEACON JONES' BEST BOTTLED PORTER."

A very queer label, as I thought, was used by some, and that was:

"PALE ALE FOR THE NURSERY."

This work was finished just as it grew towards dawn, and having converted the Deacon's old distillery into an extensive brewery, they all vanished from the building before light, in the same unaccountable manner in which they came into it%

In the morning the deacon walked out towards the establishment, not a little disturbed in his thoughts, as to what might have been going on over night. He found the outside of his distillery not very much altered, though a number of new windows were observable, surmounted with an out-jutting piece of plank like a penthouse, and covered with coarse blinds,through which the steam from the brewery was pouring in volumes. He thought likewise that the brick walls looked larger and longer than ever before, and more saturated with alcoholic perspiration, as though, indeed, they might have taken a midnight sweat. He found the man in blue and velvet walking about in the clear morning air, and surveying the scene apparently with peculiar satisfaction.