Mashing

“ The regulations dealing with the mashing operations are very stringent. Twenty-four hours at least before mashing the brewer must enter in his brewing book (provided by the Inland Revenue) the day and hour for commencing to mash malt, corn, &c., or to dissolve sugar; and the date of making such entry; and also, two hours at least before the notice hour for mashing, the quantity of malt, corn, &c., and sugar to be used, and the day and hour when all the worts will be drawn off the grains in the mash-tun. ”

“ Mash, mash, v.t. to beat into a mixed mass: to bruise: in brewing, to mix malt and hot water together.—v.i. to act violently.—n. a mixture of ingredients beaten or stirred together, as of bran, meal, &c., or bran and boiled turnips, &c., for feeding cattle or horses: in brewing, a mixture of crushed malt and hot water.—ns. Mash′ing; Mash′-tub, Mash′ing-tub, a tub in which the mash in breweries is mixed.—adj. Mash′y, produced by mashing; of the nature of a mash. [The noun is older than the verb, and seems to be connected with mix (A.S. miscian) ; cf. Mish-mash.] ”

“ Our process of mashing or making the extract, if properly conducted, need not exceed at the utmost six hours, by which time everything that is of any value in the malt will be obtained, and thus the risk of harm, which is likely to occur to the worts when the longer process is employed, may be avoided. ”

“ According to some experienced distillers from raw grain, the mashing temperature of the first liquor should not exceed 140° F.; whereas with malt it may be safely and beneficially 165° or 170°. When rye is used instead of malt, 90 bushels of it are mixed with 190 bushels of raw grain, constituting 280 bushels in whole, for the mashing of which 5200 gallons of water are required. An hour and a half more time is necessary for settling the mashing of the above mixture, than of grain alone. ”

“ Have sweet hogsheads, good yeast and clean water in your boiler; when the water is sharp, warm, or half boiling, put into every hogshead you mean to mash at the same time, six, eight or as many gallons of the half boiling water, as will completely wet one bushel corn meal—add then one [Pg 53] bushel chopped corn, stir it with your mashing stick till your corn is all wet; it is better to put in a less quantity of water first, and so add as you may find necessary, until completely wet (be careful in all mashings, that your mashing stick be clean) , this is called soaking the corn. ”

“ The malt, in this method of brewing, is ground quite fine, and although an ordinary mash-tun may be used for mashing, the separation of the clear wort from the solid matter takes place in the filter press, which retains the very finest particles with ease. It is also a simple matter to wash out the wort from the filter cake in the presses, and experience has shown that markedly increased yields are thus obtained. ”

“ As soon as the milky white colour of the extract has disappeared, and been succeeded by greater transparency, let the liquor run on more quickly; in a short time the mashing will be covered with the white froth; keep on mashing until you have turned on in all thirty barrels of liquor, or three barrels per quarter; when, after a couple of rounds of the machine, you may leave off. Let the tap stand one hour and a half; then let the worts run from the mash-tun into the underback; this should be about half-past nine: when drained off, we find in the underback twenty-two barrels, at 30 lbs. ”

“ It is now, we believe, universally admitted, that mashing or making the extract, is a strictly chemical process; the more closely, then, we adhere to chemical rules, the better we are likely to succeed. ”

“ We now return to the second mash in the mash- tun. Should the malt have risen up through the liquor on the top, no farther mashing will be necessary; but if it does not rise, it must be stirred up by oars or rakes. Let this mash stand until your first worts begin to boil; then let it run gently, so as to keep pace nearly with your boiling. As soon as this is drained, sprinkle over the malt, with your watering-can, about half a barrel of cold water, or a little more than two gallons per bushel ”

“ It sometimes happens with inferior malt, or too low grinding, that the grains will not rise, in which case they must be roused by the mashing machine. The second mash produces fifteen barrels and a-half, at 18 lbs.; and as the temperature is considerably higher than the first worts, it also raises their temperature, which tends to prevent their getting tainted; a few handfuls of hops should be sprinkled over them in the underback. ”

“ In the after mashings we generally find that the malt will yield a little more than the quantity turned on, which may be easily accounted for by the decrease in the bulk of the malt after every subsequent mashing. ”

“ Grinding. 2. Mashing. 3. Sparging. 4. Boiling. 5. Cooling. 6. Fermenting. 7. Cleansing. 8. Racking and storing.
Grinding.—This is a very important operation; for, if im perfectly performed, some of the " goodness," or " extract " as it is called, will be left in the grains after mashing, thus entailing a heavy pecuniary loss on the brewer. The malt is crushed rather than ground between plain metal rollers ; this is enforced by law, for the purpose of facilitat ing the examination of the grain as to whether it has been malted or not. ”

“ It is a common practice with many brewers, after having made a certain proportion of ale, to make small beer from the same malt. To assist the small beer, or make it better, they sprinkle over the same mash an additional quantity of fresh malt, and again proceed with the mashing as before ”

“ Is to rise at four o'clock every morning. Wash and clean out the boiler, fill her up with clean water, put fire under her, and to clean, fill and put fire under the singling still—to collect and put in order for mashing, his hogsheads—and as soon as the water is warm enough in the boiler to begin mashing, which he ought to finish as early in the day as possible; for when the mashing is done, he will have time to scald and clean [Pg 124] his vessels, to attend his doubling and singling still, to get in wood for next day, and to make his stock yeast, if new yeast is wanting. ”

“ It ought to be continued, till the malt is sufficiently incorporated with the water, but not so long as till the heat necessary to the grist be lessened. As bodies cool more or less speedily, in proportion to their volume, and the cohesion of their parts, a mash which has but little water, commonly called a stiff mash, requires a longer mashing to be sufficiently divided, and, from its tenacity, is less liable to lose its heat. ”

“ Concentrated [197] or thick mashes require that the stirrers be of massive construction, capable of being rapidly rotated in the liquid.
In preparatory mash vats for use with concentrated mashes, means must also be provided for clearing the mash. These mash cleaners and husk removers usually form part of, or are attached to the vat itself and are driven by gearing from the main shaft carrying power to the mashing room.
A good idea of the general arrangement and correlation of the various apparatus of a plant may be gathered from the sectional view of a grain distillery shown in Fig. 55. ”

“ This screw is equally applicable for conveying the malt horizontally in the trough K, as slantingly; and similar machines are employed in various parts of breweries for conveying the malt wherever the situation of the works require.
Fig. 106. is the mashing-machine. a a is the tun, made of wood staves, hooped together. In the centre of it rises a perpendicular shaft, b, which is turned slowly round by means of the bevelled wheels t u at the top. c c are two arms, projecting from that axis, and supporting the short vertical axis d of the spur-wheel x, which is turned by the spur-wheel w ”

“ When done stirring, co [Pg 51] ver the hogshead close for half an hour, then stir it to ascertain whether your grain be sufficiently scalded, and when nearly scalded enough, uncover and stir steady until you have it cool enough to stop scalding; when you see it is scalded enough, and by stirring that the scalding is stopped, uncover your hogsheads, and stir them effectually, every fifteen minutes, until they are fit to cool off—remembering that sweet good yeast, clean sweet hogsheads, with this mode of mashing carefully, will produce you a good turn out of your grain. ”

“ Having, upon full investigation, ascertained, in the first place, that this caused no detriment in any way to the worts, I determined to try the same method more generally, and have now come to the conclusion that, when the first mash has been scientifically and thoroughly made, and a second mash of sufficiently hot water has been used, all that remains of the extract will be washed out better with cold water, say not above the temperature of the atmosphere in mild weather, than in any other manner whatever. ”

“ The sooner the raw wort can be used the less risk we run of unsoundness; and any one, upon reflection, will see that turning all the raw wort over in the first mash is the surest mode of getting the soundest and best extract. When turned all over in the first mash, much about the additional gravity, contained in the raw wort, will be shown in the tap; and what remains in the grains will be much better washed out by hot liquor alone, than when it is mixed with raw wort. ”

“ Our cooking consisted in pounding our corn into samp or hommany, boiling the hommany, making now and then a cake and baking it in the ashes, and in boiling or roasting our venison. As our cooking and eating utensils consisted of a hommany block and pestle, a small kettle, a knife or two, and a few vessels of bark or wood, it required but little time to keep them in order for use.
Spinning, weaving, sewing, stocking knitting, and the like, are arts which have never been practised in the Indian tribes generally. ”

“ With one exception—that of the Adair mixer, which has no arms nor beaters, but simply rotates, and by this action the flour and water pass through the rods of iron, which are placed crosswise in the machine, and become perfectly and proportionately mixed—they are all, more or less, on the same principle, of revolving arms, blades, or knives by which the flour and water are properly mixed, and the position of the dough being perpetually changed, it is effectually kneaded without the objectionable intervention of manual labour. ”

“ Beating is accomplished by cutting down through ingredient or ingredients with a mixing spoon, or a similar utensil, from top to bottom, turning ingredients over and over, cutting through them until all are thoroughly blended and lightened. By this motion ingredients are not only blended, but air, also, is incorporated which increases the lightness of the mixture.
Cutting and Folding means to combine two mixtures, one made very light by thorough beating or whipping, as heavy cream or whites of eggs. ”

“ Have materials and utensils cold, put liquid with salt, oil and yolks of eggs when used, in stone milk crock or deep pan, agitate for a moment by moving wire batter whip briskly back and forth, when the liquid will be full of bubbles. Sprinkle flour in, not too slowly, with the left hand, keeping up the agitating motion. When the batter is quite stiff, beat it (never stir it as that drives out the air) just enough to incorporate all the flour. ”

“ Set on a skillet, either full of milk, wine, water, verjuyce, or sack, make the liquor boil, then have twenty eggs beaten together with salt, and some sweet herbs chopped, run them through a cullender into the boiling liquor, or put them in by spoonfuls or all together; being not too hard boil’d, take them up and dish them with beaten butter, juice of orange, lemon, or grape-verjuyce, and beaten butter. ”

“ Season a pottle of flour with cloves, mace, and pepper, half a pound of sweet butter melted, and half a pint of 429 ale-yeast or barm mix’t with warm milk from the cow and three or four eggs to temper all together, make it as soft as manchet paste, and make it up into little manchets as big as an egg, cut and prick them, and put them on a paper, bake them like manchet, with the oven open, they will ask an hours baking ”

“ A THICK BATTER, which is known as a drop, or muffin, batter, is one that is made of 2 measures of flour and 1 measure of liquid. A batter of this kind may be poured, but it will not immediately seek its own level. Muffins, gems, puddings, and cakes are made of thick batters.
A SOFT DOUGH is one whose proportions are 3 measures of flour and 1 measure of liquid. A dough of this kind will stand up alone--that is, without support at the sides--and has more of the properties of a solid than of a liquid. Baking-powder biscuits, tea rolls, and certain kinds of cake are made of this form of dough. ”

“ Method.—Pass the meat 2 or 3 times through a mincing machine or chop it finely, then pound the suet and veal together in a mortar. Add the eggs one at a time, and the bread in small portions. Also add about 1⁄4 of a pint of cold water, but before using the whole, poach a little of the mixture in boiling water to test the consistency; if too soft, add a little more bread; if too stiff, a little more water, shape into quenelles, as directed on page 283. ”

“ Take a good fleshy cock, draw him and cut him to pieces, wash away the blood clean, and take away the lights that lie at his back, wash it in white-wine, and no water, then put the pieces in a flaggon, and put to it two or three blades of large mace, a leaf of gold, ambergriece, some dates, and raisins of the Sun; close up the flaggon with a piece of paste, and set it in a pot a boiling six hours; keep the pot filled up continually, with hot water; being boil’d strain it, and when it is cold give of it to the weak party the bigness of a hazelnut. ”