An obvious place to add finings would be in the racking tank. As that would be a good way of making sure they were mixed evenly through all the beer. But, for various reasons, Faulkner wasn't keen on that. Instead, he preferred to add them to the cask. And that could happen either in the brewery or in the pub cellar.
Nowadays, I don't think there are any brewers who would trust pub landlords to fine their beer correctly. In the past, it seems to have been commonplace.
"It may be asked, If the tank is unsuitable for fining operations, where should it be accomplished ? Now, I have spoken, among other matters, of London beers that are fined by the publican, and, in many large towns, more especially in the North of England, it is quite customary for the brewer to supply finings to the publican, which he applies as he thinks proper.
The London manipulation is, however, unique in its way, the finings practically being thrown out of the bung-hole on account of the beer itself being supplied to the houses in very fresh, and what I may term yeasty, condition; while, in the other towns mentioned, the beer is supplied very clean, and the finings go directly to the bottom, the cask being bunged tightly up."
"The Theory and Practice of Modern Brewing" by Frank Faulkner, 1888, pages 290-291.
That's something I've never heard before: that London beer was delivered in a very lively condition. I always thought that finings took stuff to the bottom of the cask, not expel it through the bunghole.
I wonder exactly what he means by "very clean". Does that mean it was pretty bright and free of yeast?
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