Cathy,
As far as eighteenth and nineteenth-century brewing is concerned I have found
these two books indispensable:
Anonymous, One Hundred Years of Brewing, (New York and Chicago, H.S. Rich and
Company, 1903).
Stanley Baron. Brewed in America. (Little, Brown, and Company, Boston, 1962).
Stanley Baron's work yields a tremendous amount of primary sources that can
be used in understanding the bottling process in these breweries.
I hope this helps.
Greg Dubell