MALT, a term applied to grain which has been made to germinate artificially to a certain extent, after which the process is stopped by the application of heat. The barley is steeped in cold water for a period not less than forty hours, by which it increases in bulk and imbibes moisture, while at the same time a quantity of car bonic acid gas is emitted, and a part of the substance of the husk is dissolved. The weight of the barley is increased in the proportion of 147 to 100, and the bulk is increased about one-fifth. When it is sufficiently steeped, the water is drained off, and the barley thrown out of the cistern upon the malt floor, where it is formed into a rectangular heap, called the couch, sixteen inches deep. In this state it remains about twenty-six hours. It is then turned by means of wooden shovels, and diminished a little in depth : this operation is repeated twice or thrice a day, and the grain is spread thinner and thinner, till at last its depth does not ex ceed a few inches. On the couch it ab sorbs oxygen from the atmosphere, which it converts into carbonic acid ; the tempe rature gradually increases, and in about four days the grain is ten degrees hotter than the surrounding atmosphere. The grain now becomes moist, and exhales an agreeable odour ; this is called the sweat ing. A small portion of alcohol appears to be volatilized at this period of the process. The chief business of the malt
ster is to the temperature from be coMing excessive, which is done by turn ing. The temperature may vary from fifty-five to sixty-two degrees. At the period of sweating, the roots of the grains begin to appear, which increase in length till checked by turning the malt. In one day after the sprouting of the roots, the rudiments of the future stem, called acre spire by the maltster, may be seen to lengthen, and it is now time to stop the process. As the acrospire shoots along the grain, the appearance of the kernel, or mealy part of the corn, undergoes a con siderable change. The glutinous and mucilaginous matter is taken up and re moved, the colour becomes white, and the texture is so loose that it crumbles to powder between the fingers. The ob ject of malting is to produce this change: when it is accomplished, which takes place as soon as the acrospire has come nearly to the end of the seed, the pro cess is stopped by drying the malt upon the kiln. The malt is then cleaned to separate the small roots, which are con sidered as injurious. Barley by malting generally increases two or three per cent. in bulk, and loses about one-fifth of its weight.