Arthur Robert Ling

“ The capacity of a malting is described by the number of quarters which are put through it every four days. A fifty quarter malting does not merely mean that the cisterns have a capacity of fifty quarters, but that this quantity of barley goes through the house every four days. ”

“ If, on the other hand, the grain be loaded in too moist a condition, and the temperature be raised too quickly, the proteolytic enzymes lose their activity and the proteïns remain for the most part unattacked. When germination is allowed to proceed on the kiln too great degradation of the proteïn occurs, and the malt is liable to produce fretty beers, on account of the presence of an excessive amount of nitrogenous nutritive matter, which leads to the development of disease organisms. ”

“ It is believed by some brewers that Goldthorpe barleys never yield malt of so high a quality as do Chevallier barleys. On the other hand, when well matured, Goldthorpes work evenly and freely on the malting floors; and from an agricultural point of view they have the advantage of standing up better against unfavourable weather conditions on account of their stouter straws. Numerous fresh varieties of barley are continually being introduced as a result of artificial cross-fertilization, but cross-fertilization rarely if ever occurs naturally. ”

“ Thoroughly mealy corns are opaque, whilst steely corns are transparent. When certain portions of a corn are steely, these present the appearance of lakes. By this means the percentage of mealy, steely, or half steely corns in a sample may readily be estimated.
E. Prior points out that steeliness of barley is of two kinds, one of which disappears after the grain has been steeped and dried, and therefore does not necessarily influence the malting value of the sample, and the other which is permanent, and therefore retards the modification of the corn. ”

“ The object of turning is in the first place to aerate the grain and freshen it, secondly to check excessive rise of temperature, and thirdly to promote evenness of growth. Too frequent turning is not to be advised. After remaining four days on the young floor three or four rootlets should have appeared, and the acrospire should have begun to grow up the back of the corn. The apple-like odour of the piece then gives place to one resembling that of the common rush, and this should continue the whole time that the malt remains on the floor. ”

“ The larvae are fleshy legless grubs, shorter than the perfect insect, with a series of tubercles along each side of the body; the head is round with strong jaws. The pupa is white, clear and transparent, showing the form of the future weevil. The female bores a hole in the grain with her snout and deposits an egg. The larva when hatched lives on the contents of the grain and undergoes its changes therein. ”

“ Windisch asserts that only barley which has ripened in the granary is attacked by weevil. Grain which is only slightly attacked should be kilned at a temperature of 122° F., which destroys the weevil in all stages of development. To detect weevil in a sample of barley, the grain should be spread out on a sheet of white paper in bright sunlight. If weevils are present they soon appear, and betake themselves to a position outside the sunlight, to which they are averse. Treatment of the grain with carbon bisulphide has been suggested as a means of destroying weevil ”

“ During the storage of barley access of air is necessary, otherwise the grain dies from asphyxiation. Sound barley after being kiln-dried retains its vitality for a number of years; but the statement that the corns found in the Egyptian mummy cases, in which they had remained for several thousands of years, were still capable of germination, is contrary to modern experience. Moisture must also be carefully excluded, as it initiates germination in a few cells only of the endosperm and causes heating. ”

“ A constant repetition of wetting such as may take place on account of alterations of the atmospheric temperature, which causes moisture to be deposited, in the form of dew, may ultimately destroy the vitality and foster the growth and development of mould fungi which usually grow on broken and damaged corns. In this connexion the advantage of screening and sweating of barley before storing it will be apparent (see below) .
An immense amount of damage is caused to the grain, during storage, by various insects, one of the most destructive of these being the common weevil (Calandra granaria) . ”

“ Proteolytic enzymes appear only to arise with the beginning of germination; but it has been asserted that raw barley contains proenzymes (zymogens) , which can be rendered active by treatment with dilute lactic acid at an appropriate temperature. The action of the diastase of raw barley on starch has been studied by Julian L. Baker.
Barley should not be cut until it is properly ripe, but over-ripeness is much more to be guarded against by the maltster than premature cutting, as it is accompanied by a loss in germinative power. ”

“ It is pointed out, however, that actual discontinuity in the cell-contents can only take place when the tensile strength of the protoplasmic matrix in which the starch granules are embedded has been surpassed, and this being so it might be anticipated that those cells which contain the larger amount of proteïn material would probably best resist the internal stresses and strains, a deduction in close agreement with observed facts, steely grains being as a rule richer in proteïn than mealy grains. ”

“ The thickness at which the young floor is spread depends upon the outside temperature and the nature of the barley. If the weather be warm, or if there be a tendency for the barley to heat, the piece must be spread all the thinner. At this stage the grain loses its external wet appearance. When spread too thickly the grain will begin to sweat, and the rootlets will be thrown out suddenly and unevenly. ”

“ Even in an otherwise dry season a large amount of rain during harvest causes the corns to become “weathered,” whilst some of them begin germinating and rot. At the same time heavy dews at night whilst the barley lies cut in the field, or even a sprinkling of rain, assists in mellowing the grain, which often in consequence works the more freely on the malting floors. Properly harvested barley is all the better for remaining in stack for two or three months, as was the practice in former years ”

“ It is often sprinkled late, and loaded on kiln often in a sodden condition. In some cases sprinkling on kiln is resorted to, but it is doubtful if this leads to the desired object. Other things being equal, the smaller the corns—i.e. the greater number of embryos in a given weight—the higher the diastatic activity of the malt. In selecting a barley for the production of highly diastatic malt, the diastatic power of the original raw grain is a factor of great importance. ”

“ In Germany malt is, as a rule, dried and cured with hot air, whilst in Great Britain the products of combustion are passed through the malt, as it is believed that they exert a beneficial influence on the flavour. The proportion of fuel used for drying and curing malt varies according to the quality of the fuel and the construction of the kiln, but on an average it may be placed at 50-80 ℔ per quarter. ”

“ On the other hand, J. Grüss has pointed out that the action which takes place on the cell walls of the endosperm during germination does not consist in their complete solution. Schulze has shown that these cell walls consist of two carbohydrates, an araban and a xylan. Grüss states that the araban is completely dissolved, whilst the xylan is more or less unattacked. The cell walls become, however, transparent so that they can only be seen in sections which have been stained ”

“ Moreover, unless proper modification of these proteïn bodies occurs it is impossible to produce tender malt. A barley which contains a high percentage of reserve proteïn is as a rule unfitted for malting purposes, and indeed, the higher the proteïn content the greater the difficulty the maltster experiences in dealing with it. Proteïn hydrolysis requires the presence of a certain amount of moisture, and if this be removed too rapidly by a forced draught at the early stages of kilning the proteolytic enzymes cannot perform their function. ”

“ Moreover, unripe corn may to a certain extent be matured in stack, whilst a great improvement in germinative capacity is frequently produced by sweating. Very wet seasons are prejudicial to the ripening of the grain, and when the latter is stacked in too moist a condition it is apt to become what is known as mow burnt. ”

“ In the common six-rowed English barley or Scottish bere (H. vulgare) , the two lateral rows of spikelets springing from one side of the rachis, either partially or entirely intersect and overlap the alternate lateral spikelets which spring from the opposite side of the rachis. This has given rise to the term “four-rowed barley.” Figs. 1–4 show some typical barleys in the ear. ”

“ In some of the older maltings there are no arrangements for heating the steep water, and in the winter steeping has occasionally to be performed with water at a temperature near its freezing-point. Steeping should be carried out at a temperature as near as possible to 55° and not higher than 60° F. The usual practice is to fill the cistern up to a certain height with water and throw the barley into it, stirring it until it is about level; the heavy corns will then sink directly to the bottom, whilst the light corns and refuse float on the surface and may be skimmed off. ”

“ Careless threshing or dressing is responsible for much damage done to barley. In this way many of the corns may be broken, have the palcae partly stripped off or portions removed along with the awn. All broken and dead corns are prone to become mouldy on the malting floors, the contagion thus presented becoming general. ”

“ Storing.—After the malt has passed through the curing stage it is generally heaped up for a few hours. This is believed to increase its flavour. The malt is then stripped from the kiln, and the rootlets, technically known as the coombs, are removed. Formerly this was effected by workmen treading the malt, who wore heavy boots for the purpose. At the present time, however, the rootlets are usually removed by machinery, special forms of which have been devised for this as well as for dressing and polishing the malt. ”

“ Kilning has been specially studied by J. Grüss, who divides the process into four stages, the first being that at which the temperature limit is 113° F. It is characterized by a continuation of the living processes, especially growth of the acrospire, which, as already stated, proceeds too far if the malt be loaded too wet. In any case the rootlet dies away. The metabolism of the carbohydrates already mentioned is accompanied by that of the nitrogenous constituents, the reserve proteïn of the sub-aleurone layer being attacked by proteolytic enzymes and broken down into simpler compounds. ”

“ It is placed on the drying kiln in a layer not exceeding one inch and a half in thickness. A moderate heat from burnt wood is first applied until the bulk of the moisture has been driven off, when the temperature is suddenly raised so that the grains swell some 25% and the malt takes up a strong empyreumatic flavour from the products of combustion. This kind of malt weighs 270–300 ℔ per quarter. Black or roasted malt is prepared by roasting malt in a cylinder. ”

“ On arrival at the malting the barley has to be put through the following operations seriatim: receiving, hoisting and weighing, rough screening, drying and sweating, storing until required for use, screening, grading and removing broken corns, steeping, couching, flooring, withering, drying and curing, dressing and polishing, storing, weighing, sacking and discharging the finished malt.
In sweating barley the temperature should not be allowed to rise above 120° F.; it is usually conducted at 100° F.; and subsequently the barley should be stored for some weeks before it is steeped. ”

“ Within the ventral furrow at the proximal end is the rachilla already referred to. The skin or husk of a barleycorn consists of two paleae, one adhering to the dorsal side (the palea inferior) and the other to the ventral side (the palea superior) ”