Dictionarium polygraphicum. To make bran-water.

Dictionarium Polygraphicum:
Or, The Whole Body of Arts Regularly Digested.
Vol I.
London: Printed for C. Hitch and C. Davis in Pater-noster Row, and S. Austen in St. Paul's Church Yard. MDCCXXXV.
1735
To make BRAN-WATER for preparing slight stuffs for dying. Put a hatfull of wheaten Bran into each pail of water, and boil them together for a quarter of an hour, then pour it into a clean tub, where to every two pailfulls of this liquor, pour in another pail of water, and throw on a handful of leven. The French dyers call these waters eaux sures, i. e. acid or sharp waters, and by how much they are the sowrer, account them so much the better, and fitter to attract the fatness of the stuffs, and dry it clean off, to make them limber, and correct the roughness of the water.