Bran Water

From the Profitable Book's "How to make your Bran Water". For use with Madder dyeing. The Whole Art of Dyeing also describes making bran water, as does the Plictho.

Ingredients:
4.5 gal water
1 lb bran

Process:
Simmer water 15 minutes, pour into pot over bran

Stir every 2 hours for 24 hours (while awake)

let sit for four days.

First day: no change. 2nd day: bit more stinky, mucousy bits floating on top. 3rd day: definitely stinky. 4th day: smells like vomit. Ready to go!

Notes:
This was redacted from the following recipe in the Profitable Book:

"How to make your branne water, wherewithall you shall use to dye red.
Ye shall take a hat full of wheat branne, and take so much water as will go into thre smal kettles, so let it haue a welling or two on the fire. Then poure it into a fatte, then take two other kettlefuls of water and warme it, and put it therein also, but first stirre it well, and so couer it wel. The first day you must stirre it often, and then it will be the better, then shall ye let it stand foure or fiue dayes till it waxe the riper, and which will be the better for your purpose, and then ye may occupie as yee shall see cause."

From experiments with madder dyeing, bran water (although slightly acidic) adds a bluer cast to madder red dyes. In addition, it softens the harsh feeling given to wool by madder. Use of bran to soften water for madder dyeing is discussed at length in James Haigh.s Dyer.s Assistant (1796). Haigh also says that bran can be used to counteract water with a high alkaline/chalk/mineral content when dyeing, by throwing a large bag of bran into the vat and boiling it for a while.

Experiments with soaking wool for long periods of time in fermented bran water (in the middle east, this technique is used when dyeing yarn for carpets) show that, when examined under an electron microscope, the sticky substance between the wool scales is eaten away, allowing deeper penetration of the dye stuffs. This results in brighter colors with much better resistance to sunbleaching.