Malting

“ Mashing is the process of infusion, or mixing the malt with water at such a temperature as shall not only extract the saccharine matter existing in the malt, but shall also change the still unconverted starch into grape-sugar. This is accomplished by the principle called diastase, the power of which we have shown under the head of malting. Many mashing-machines have been invented, and many are in use. ”

“ The idea of malt-feeding was theoretically sound. By the malting of barley or other grain its diastase is made to act upon its insoluble starch, and to convert it more or less completely into soluble dextrine, a change which is absolutely necessary as a part of the business of digestion. Therefore, if you feed cattle on malted grain instead of raw grain, you supply them with a food so prepared that a part of the business of digestion is already done for them, and their nutrition is thereby advanced. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The lethargy in the malting trade, and in all matters relating to malting processes, induced by two centuries of restrictive legislation, is being gradually shaken off by the malting industry under the new law. ”

“ The degree of temperature employed in drying and roasting the barley determines the colour and commercial character of the malt, which may be pale, amber, brown or black. In the United States the light-coloured varieties of malt are chiefly made. An important change which takes place during the malting of barley is the conversion of its albuminous constituents into a peculiar ferment, termed diastase, which, although its proportion in malt does not exceed 0·003 per cent., exerts a very energetic action in transforming starch, first into dextrine, then into sugar (maltose) . ”

“ The air supplied to the corn can be inexpensively freed from disease germs and impurities. The capital needed for malting can be reduced by the diminished cost of installation, and the reduced stocks of malt on hand. The quality of the malt made is considerably improved. The percentages of acidity are much reduced. ”

“ The middle of the floor being the warmest starts soonest ; so, after a few hours, the grain is turned or stirred, so as to bring all to a similar state of forwardness. At this point conies the critical test of the maltster s skill ; no fixed rules can be laid down ; he must be guided by experience and circumstances. He has to consider the quality and growth of the barley, whether it came off light or heavy soil, the kind of malt intended to be made, the temperature and peculiarities of his particular malting. ”

“ In its resting stage the embryo of a barleycorn is generally free from starch; as soon as germination sets in, however, starch appears in the scutellum, while the amount of sucrose there present increases, these being apparently formed from maltose originating from the action of diastase on the starch of the endosperm. Sucrose also augments in the aleurone layer, but starch is never formed in the aleurone cells. These changes occur when the malt is first loaded on kiln; indeed, at no part of the malting process is there greater physiological activity. ”

“ In order to determine the quality of malt, a handful of it should be thrown into cold water, where those grains that are imperfectly germinated, will swim with one end upwards (Dr. Darwin supposes with the root end) ; and such as are properly malted, float on their side; whereas sound, ungerminated barley, uniformly sinks in water. Another criterion of good malt is, its agreeable saccharine taste; and, likewise, if the whole contents of the grain easily crumble into powder, and dissolve in the mouth. In short, it ought to be pure, dry, and to emit a strong, though agreeable, odour. ”

“ And she thought it was very dangerous to have that mallet there, for she said to herself: "Suppose him and me was to be married, and we was to have a son, and he was to grow up to be a man, and come down into the cellar to draw the beer, like as I'm doing now, and the mallet was to fall on his head and kill him, what a dreadful thing it would be!" And she put down the candle and the jug, and sat herself down and began a-crying. ”

“ The malt-liquor drunkard should, as a general rule, prefer porter to strong ale. Herb ale and purl are very pernicious, but the lighter varieties, such as small beer and home-brewed, are not only harmless, but even useful. The person who indulges in malt liquor should take much exercise. If he neglects this, and yields to the indolence apt to be induced by these fluids, he becomes fat and stupid, and has a strong tendency to apoplexy, and other diseases of plethora. ”

“ Both wine and malt liquors have a greater tendency to swell the body than ardent spirits. They form blood with greater rapidity, and are altogether more nourishing. The most dreadful effects, upon the whole, are brought on by spirits, but drunkenness from malt liquors is the most speedily fatal. The former break down the body by degrees; the latter operate by some instantaneous apoplexy or rapid inflammation.
No one has ever given the respective characters of the malt-liquor and ardent-spirit drunkard with greater truth than Hogarth, in his Beer Alley and [70] Gin Lane. ”

“ Malt itself, to produce intoxication, must be used in such large quantities as would very much diminish the brewer's profit. Of the wholesomeness of malt there can be no doubt; pale malt especially is highly nutritive, containing more balsamic qualities than the brown malt, which being subject to a greater degree of fire in the kiln, is sometimes so crusted and burnt, that the mealy part loses some of its best qualities. ”

“ The best malt is tried by the hardness and colour; for, if it look fresh with a yellow hue, and thereto will write like a piece of chalk, after you have bitten a kernel in sunder in the midst, then you may assure yourself that it is dried down. In some places it is dried at leisure with wood alone or straw alone, in others with wood and straw together; but, of all, the straw-dried [Pg 100] is the most excellent. For the wood-dried malt when it is brewed, beside that the drink is higher of colour, it doth hurt and annoy the head of him that is not used thereto, because of the smoke. ”

“ Malt spirit, or gin, the favourite liquor of the lower order of people, which is characterised by the peculiar flavour of juniper berries, over which the raw spirit is distilled, is usually obtained from a mixture of malt and barley: sometimes both molasses and corn are employed, particularly if there be a scarcity of grain. But the flavour of whiskey, which is made from barley and oats, is owing to the malted grain being dried with peat, the smoke of which gives it the characteristic taste. ”

“ Malt′-horse, a heavy horse, such as used by brewers—hence (Shak.) used in reproach for a dull, stupid person; Malt′ing; Malt′-kiln; Malt′-mill, a mill for grinding malt; Malt′ose, a hard, white, crystalline sugar, formed by the action of malt or diastase on starch; Malt′ster, Malt′man, one whose trade or occupation it is to make malt (-ster was up to the end of the 13th century a feminine affix) ; Malt′worm (Shak.) , a lover of malted liquors, a tippler.—adj. Malt′y.—Malt liquor, a liquor, as beer, ale, or porter, formed from malt; Malt tea, the liquid infusion of the mash in brewing. ”

“ As more or less of hops is put in, no doubt the saccharine principle of the malt is subdued, or is suffered to predominate. But in malt there is, besides the mere sugar which it contains in common with so many other vegetables, a flavour peculiar to itself: and this is brought out and modified by the application of more or less of the great chemical agent, heat, to the malted barley. In short, fire makes malt more or less savoury, much as it makes a brandered fowl, or a mutton steak, or a toasted oaten cake, more or less savoury. ”

“ There is another combination which, though utterly absurd from a therapeutical point of view, is not in itself quite so dangerous as coca wine. It will probably do a larger amount of mischief, however, because more people take it. I refer to the various preparations, so largely advertised, which profess to be compounded of port wine, extract of malt, and extract of meat. To the medically uneducated public this doubtless seems a most promising combination: extract of meat for food, extract of malt to aid digestion, port wine to make blood. ”

“ Every form of malt and spirituous liquors should by all means be avoided. They derange the nervous and digestive systems of both mother and babe. Custom, happily, has to a large extent done away with the idea that “nursing women must have ale or beer.” To those who still maintain this view, I would recommend the study of the question, whether the help expected is at all commensurate with the danger incurred of a pernicious appetite being cultivated in both mother and child. ”

“ Fat is very necessary in nervous troubles; hence plenty of cream, fresh butter and cream cheese should be taken; also pure oil with the salad.
MALT EXTRACT.
L.F.H. writes.—Is malt extract a good thing to take daily with an ordinary non-flesh diet, two teaspoonfuls or so at breakfast? And is the desiccated or dry malt extract to be preferred to the ordinary sticky article?
Malt extract of good quality, containing an active form of diastase, is a good form of relish to take with meals. The diastase promotes starch digestion and makes a good addition to foods of the cereal order. ”

“ Persons of a spare habit of body, are those likely to derive most benefit from malt liquors. I often recommend them to delicate youths and young girls who are just shooting into maturity, and often with the best [252] effect. Lusty, full-bodied, plethoric people, should abstain from them, at least from porter and strong ale, which are much too fattening and nutritious for persons of this description. They are also, generally speaking, injurious in indigestion and bowel complaints, owing to their tendency to produce flatulence. In such cases, they yield the palm to wine and spirits. ”

“ Another way to make a cheap malt liquor is to take a bushel of malt, with as much water and hops as if two bushels of malt were allowed in the common way, and put seven pounds of the coarsest brown sugar into the boiling wort. This makes a very pleasant liquor; is as strong, and will keep as long without turning sour or flat, as if two bushels had been employed. Twenty gallons of good beer may be made from a bushel of malt, and three quarters of a pound of hops, if care be taken to extract all their goodness. ”

“ The cupidity of fraudulent brewers and publicans frequently induces them to introduce other ingredients than malt and bitters into their liquors, with a view of giving them a false appearance and strength. Thus, to give pungency—capsicum, grains of paradise, ginger, &c., have been added; to give intoxicating properties—opium, cocculus indicus, tobacco, &c.; as a substitute for malt—molasses, treacle, colouring, honey, &c.; to impart a false appearance of age—sulphuric acid, alum, green vitriol, glycerin, mustard, &c.; to remove acidity—pearlash, soda, chalk, &c. ”

“ It is of material consequence to the brewer to have the best malts for the purpose of brewing. Some brewers, when working with inferior malt, think that an additional quantity will compensate for quality. This is, however, an erroneous opinion. Inferior malts can never impart the same mellowness and richness to ale or beer as those of superior quality. From using inferior malt, we also run a risk of having unsound worts. The best, therefore, will be found the cheapest. ”

“ Treating it with malt, which, in a manner not yet known, by a substance contained in it (diastase) , has the power of lacerating the cuticles of the starch granules. The diastase contained in malt is said to be a solid, white, tasteless, uncrystallised body, soluble in water, but insoluble in alcohol. Dissolved in water, it turns sour very soon. ”

“ But its strength is not so pronounced or decisive either in the form of an infusion or in that of bread, much as in these forms it contributes to health and vigour: it is not when it is put into the pot, or when bruised by the miller, that it comes out in the fulness of its might; it is when it is immersed in water, and subjected to heat, and metamorphosed into malt. In this form it can be converted into a beverage that is simple and healthful, and, when used aright, conducive to strength of muscle and general vigour of life ”

“ To these arguments, all of which were plausible, and some of them unanswerable, it was replied, that malt-spirits might be considered as a fatal and bewitching poison which had actually debauched the minds, and enervated the bodies, of the common people to a very deplorable degree ”

“ On coming into warm climates it is obvious that the increased perspiration must be supplied by a considerable quantity of diluting liquids; and such of these as the person has been most accustomed to ought to be preferred. For the rest, diluted malt liquors seem preferable to spirits and water. Cyder, though very agreeable when fresh, is apt to become vapid, and even get a putrescent taint. Perhaps a plain infusion of malt, of late found so useful at sea, might also prove beneficial at land, where proper fermented liquors cannot be had. ”