Beneath the fermenting house are large arched vaults P, built of stone, and lined with stucco. Into these the beer is let down when sufficiently ferment ed, and is kept till wanted. These vaults are used at Mr Whitbread's brewery instead of the great store vats of which we have before spoken, and are in some respects preferable, because they preserve a great equality of temperature, being beneath the sur face of the earth.
Figs. S. and 4. Plate XL. represent the malt-rollers, or machine for bruising the grains of malt. A is the hopper, into which the malt is let down from the malt loft above ; and from this the malt is let out gra dually through a sluice or sliding-shuttle a, and falls between the rollers BD. These rollers are made of iron, truly cylindrical, and their pivots are received in pieces of brass let into iron frames, which are bolted down to the wooden frame of the A screw, E, is sapped through the end of each of these iron frames ; and by these screws the brasses can be forced forwards, and the rollers made to work closer to each other, so as to bruise the malt in a greater degree. G is the shaft by which one of the rollers is turned ; and the other receives its mo tion by means of a pair of equal cog-wheels H, which are fixed upon the ends of the pivots, at the opposite ends of each of the rollers : d is a small lever, which bears upon the teeth of one of these cog-wheels, and is thereby lifted up every time a cog passes. This lever is fixed on the extremity of an axis, which passes across the wood frame ; and in the middle of it has a lever c, fig. S. bearing up a trough 6, which hangs under the opening of the hopper A. By this means the trough 6 is constantly jogged, and shakes down the malt regularly from the hopper A, and lets it fall between the rollers : e is a scraper of iron plate, which is always made to bear against the sur face of the roller by a weight, to remove the grains which adhere to the roller.
Fig. 5. is the screw by which the ground or bruised' malt is raised up, or conveyed from one part of the brewery to another. K is an inclined bar or trough, in the centre of which the axis of the screw H is placed, and the spiral iron plate or worm, which is fixed projecting from the axis, and which forms the screw, is made very nearly to fill the lower part of the in side of the box. By this means, when the screw is turned round by the wheels FF, or by any other means, it raises up the malt from the box d, and de livers it at the spout G.
The screw is equally applicable for conveying the malt horizontally in the trough k as inclined ; and similar machines are employed in various parts of breweries for conveying the malt wherever the situa tion of the works require.
Fig. 1. Plate XLI. is the mashing-machine. WW
is the tun,made of wood staves, hooped together. In the centre of it rises a perpendicular shaft NN, which is turned slowly round by means of the bevelled wheels KI at the top. RR. are two arms projecting from the axis, and supporting the short vertical axis S at the extremities, so that, when the central axis is turned round, it will carry the axle .S round the tun in a circle. The axis S is furnished with a number of arms T, which are shown in fig. 2, and have blades placed obliquely to the plane of their motion. When the axis is turned round, these arms agitate the malt in the tun, and give it a constant tendency to rise upwards from the bottom.
The motion of the axis S is produced by a wheel Q on the upper end of it, which is turned by a wheel P, fastened on the lower end of the tube 0, which turns freely round upon the central axis N. On the upper end of the same tube 0 is a bevelled wheel M, re ceiving motion from a wheel L, which is fixed upon the end of the horizontal axis F, which gives motion to the whole machine. This same axis has a pinion G upon it, which gives motion to the wheel H, fixed upon the end of an horizontal axle, which, at the opposite end, has a bevelled pinion I, working the wheel K, before mentioned. By this means the ro tation of the central axis N will be very slow, com pared with the motion of the axis S for the latter.