The same is visible in other Preparations, derived from the Spagyrick Arts and Alchimy;

as for Example: If anyone would make Beer of Barley, Wheat, or other Corn, all these
degress must be most perfectly known to him, before he can from those Grains extract
their most subtil Essence and virtue, and reduce the same into a most efficacious Drink.
First, the Grains must be so long steeped in Water, as until they be able sufficiently, to
open and resolve themselves (as I, when I was a Young Man, travelling into England and
Holland, diligently observed to be done in those places) this is called Putrefaction and
Corruption. This Key being used, the Water is drawn off from the Grain, and the
macerated Corn is laid on Heaps close together, and left so for a due time, until it
spontaneously conceive heat, and by the same heat, germinating, the Grains adhere each
to other: this is Digestion. This being finished, the Grains which adhered in their
Germination, are separated, and dryed, either in the Air, or by Heat of Fire, and so
hardened. This is Reverberation, and Coagulation. When the Corn is thus prepared, it is
carried to the Mill, that it may be broak and ground small; this is Vegetable Calcination.
Afterward, by heat of Fire cocting these Grains, the more noble Spirit of them is
extracted, and the Water is imbibed with the same; which without the aforesaid
Preparation could not have been. This way the crude Water is converted into Beer, and
this Operation (though I speak but rudely) is and is called Distillation. The Hops, when
added to the Beer, is the Vegetable Salt thereof, which conserves and preserves from all
Contraries, endeavouring to corrupt the same. This way of boyling Water into Drink, by
extraction of the Spirits from the Grains, the Spaniards and Italians know not, and in my
native soil of Germany about the Rhine, few are found skilled in this Art.
After all these works are performed, a new Seperation is made by Clarification, viz. of
the Drink, in this manner: a little Yeast or Ferment is added, which excites an internal
motion and Heat in the Beer, so that it is elevated in it self, and (by the help of time)
Separation of the dense from the rare, and of the pure from the impure is made; and by
this means the Beer acquires a constant virtue in Operating, so that it penetrates and
effects all those Ends, for which it was made and brought into use: which before could
not have been; because the Spirit, the Operator was hindered, by its own Impurity, from
effecting its proper Work.
In Wine also doth not Experience teach the same? That cannot, before the time come, in
which the Impuritys may be separated from it, so very perfectly and efficaciously
perform its own Work, as after Separation of the pure from the impure: which by
Drunkeness is manifest; for Beer or Wine unsettled, and not purifyed, give not forth from
themselves so much Spirit for inebriating, as after Clarification. But of this no more.
After all the aforesaid, a new Operation may be instituted, by Vegetable sublimation, for
separation of the spirit of the Wine or Beer, and for preparing it by Distillation into
another Drink of Burning Wine, which may also be made of the Lees or Dregs of Wine
and Beer. When this is done, the Operative Virtue is separated from its own Body, and the
Spirit being extracted by Fire, forsakes its own unprofitable dead Habitation, in which it
was commodiously hospited before. Now, if this Burning Wine, or Spirit of Wine, be
rectifyed, an Exaltation is made by often distilling it, and by a certain method of
Operating, the pure part (free from all Phlegm and Aquosity) may be so concentred, and
as it were condensed, as one Measure of it may effect more, then twenty or more could
have done before. For it sooner inebriates, and is swift, volatile and subtil for penetrating

and operating.