We shall now proceed to describe the process as usually conducted in a brewing establishment on a moderately large scale. The first operation is the proper grinding, or rather crushing of the malt ; this is sometimes performed between mill-stones, in the manner in which corn is ground, only the stones are set rather further asunder; but of late years it has become more common to crush the malt between two cylinders. The malt is then suffered to lie some time in a bin or cool room, to mellow, as it is called. Grist thus exposed to the air it is said requires less mashing, and the strength of the malt is more per fectly obtained. Mashing in the large way is usually performed in a circular wooden or cast iron vessel, called the mash tun, and furnished with a false bottom perforated with holes. Between the real and false bottom, which are generally a few inches asunder, are two side openings ; to one is fixed a pipe for conveying hot water into the tun, and to the other a pipe and cock for dis charging the liquor into another vessel. The mashing is performed by machinery invented for that purpose. These machines are variously constructed ; the following is one of the most approved description. In the centre of the tun is a vertical axis, which is turned round by wheel-work at the top. Upon this axis is a bevelled wheel, which turns a horizontal axis extending from the centre to the circumference of the tun. This axis has four wheels upon it, over which pass four endless chains, which also pass round wheels on a horizontal axis near the bottom of the tun. Upon the endless chains are fixed iron rakes, which, as the wheels revolve, bring up the malt from the bottom of the tun to the top. These also receive a slow progressive motion round the tun by the following means: the outer ends of these axes are supported in bearings in a vertical frame, which rises to the top of the mash tun, and is braced to a collar on the vertical shaft. On the to of this frame is a bearing, to support the outer extremity of a horizontal shaft, on the inner end of which shaft is a bevelled wheel, which works in another bevelled wheel on the vertical shaft. The horizontal shaft, by means of another bevelled wheel fixed at its outer extremity, gives motion to an endless screw, supported by a carriage attached to the vertical frame, and the endless screw acting upon a ring of teeth fixed upon the curb of the mash tun, causes the mashing apparatus slowly to perform the circuit of the tun. After mashing, the tun is generally covered to prevent the escape of heat, and the whole remains untouched until the insoluble parts separate from the liquor, when the wort is discharged into another vessel usually placed beneath the mash tun, and called the underback. To extract entirely the saccharine matter from the malt, a second, and sometimes a third, mashing is taken, and the whole extract is received into the underback, and thence conveyed to the copper. For heating the water and boiling the wort, large establishments use a copper crowned with a hemispherical dome, surrounded by a pan which will contain a succeeding wort. The liquor is generally boiled by steam in the following way : From the centre of the dome rises a perpen dicular pipe, and from the upper extremity of this pipe four inclined pipes descend, the lower extremities of which terminate near the bottom of the pan, and consequently in the water or wort contained therein. By this contrivance the steam which rises from the copper must bubble up through the fluid in the pan, and speedily heat it. The advantages of this plan are, that the instant the copper is emptied, a fresh supply of liquor can be let in to cover it, in order to prevent the intense heat of the fire from injuring the bottom of the copper, while the successive fluids are heated by one fire. The copper is provided with two man-holes, fitted with lids which screw tight down. One of these is for the purpose of admitting a man to clean the copper, and by the other the hops are introduced ; the general proportion is I lb. of hops to a bushel of malt. After the first boiling with hops the liquor is let off, and the wort is conveyed into the jack or hop-back, furnished generally with a cast iron floor full of holes, so as to drain the wort from the hops. Then those left in the hop-back are filled by men into tubs which are drawn up by a tackle worked by the engine, and again boiled in the copper with the second and third worts. From the hop-back the worts are next conveyed to the coolers. These usually consist of several floors or stages, erected in the most airy and exposed situation which the premises afford. They are surrounded by shallow ledges, and the worts are pumped on to these to the depth of a few inches, and by the aid of a current of air operating upon a very extended surface, they are in the course of seven or eight hours cooled down to about 600, which is the average temperature for setting to work. There are several inconveniences attending this method of cooling : a considerable loss arises from evaporation ; the process is tardy and uncertain, depending greatly upon the temperature of the atmosphere; and the erection of such extensive and lofty buildings as are necessary adds considerably to the expense of the plane. To obviate these evils, many persons have pro posed to cool the worts by causing them to flow through thin metal pipes sur rounded by cold water, and many arrangements for the purpose have. been
patented. The following one is the invention of Mr. Bundy. A is a tub filled with cold water, in which is fixed a series of metal pipes, capable of cooling a certain quantity of wort per hour, according to the size of the apparatus. The wort may be let to run either direct from the boiler into the hop-back, or (as convenience may permit) be ladled into B after straining from the hops. The wort then passes from B through the main conducting pipe C into the series of pipes, and is delivered out through the cock D into the gyle tun, adjusting the quantity by opening the cock more or less, by which means the heat of the wort may also be regulated, so that it may run out of the proper temperature to be immediately fermented. The other vessel H is a longitudinal section of aprecisely similar vessel and apparatus as A, and consequently exhibits a section of all the series of pipes, their spiral winding and situation. Now if; instead of drawing the wort off at D, as before mentioned, that cock were kept shut, the wort would flow out of the first series ofpipes contained in the vessel A, into the pipe F, and there ascending to its level, it would descend and be dis tributed through the second series of pipes at E, contained in vessel H, which being kept constantly filled with cold water, condenses the vapours, whilst it rapidly cools the liquid wort in its extended circuitous passage through the convoluted series of pipes, till it is discharged at the cock. G, where it arrive properly refrigerated, in more than double the quantity in a given time than would be delivered at D if the vessel A alone were used. A continual supply of cold water is indispensable, which may be pumped into the tub H by passing along the shoot I, and descending by means of the trunk K. to the bottom, which being left open, drives the water that has been made warm by the wort in the pipes, to the upper part of the vessel, from whence it flows by the shoot L into the trunk of the vessel A, which is similar to that in H. By these means the water which is driven off at the top of the tub A is much hotter, and, con sequently, has deprived the wort passing through the pipes of much more heat than in the case of the single tub A being used. When the tub A is sufficient by itself for the purpose required, the cold water is then of course to be pumped into the shoot L.
An apparatus for the same purpose, in vented by Mr. Wheeler, of High Wycombe, Bucks, is represented in the accompanying cut. A series of copper plates tinned are first soldered lengthwise, and another similar series are connected with the former, by soldering their longitudinal edges together in such manner as to leave between them (except at the edges) a space of about a quarter of an inch ; they are afterwards convoluted into the form shown in the engraving, and placed in a tub or cylindrical vessel ; within the narrow and continuous chamber thus formed, the wort is made to flow from a copper or reservoir, while the water or other cooling fluid runs in a contrary direction, by which arrange ment the two fluids will nearly exchange their temperatures, the water becoming heated and the wort cooled, a represents passing round the coils it abstracts the heat from the wort contained in the flat chambers, and passes off in a heated state at the upper part of the pipe b, and descends into the trough e. The wort is received at d, the lower part of which pipe has an opening into the narrow convoluted chamber; the wort circulating through all these coils arrives at the centre, from whence it descends and passes out by a pipe f in a cool state. At g there is a small curved pipe, to allow the air in the wort chambers to escape; at h is a pipe and cock for discharging the water in the tub whenever needful. We are not aware of any brewing esta blishments having entirely dispensed with the cooling stages, but several com bine with them the plan of cooling by water, by surrounding the pipe which conveys the worts to the fermenting vessels with another pipe of a few inches larger diameter, and maintaining a current of cold water through the same. From the coolers the worts pass to the large fermenting square, where the yeast is added, and where the first fermentation is carried on. When the violence of it begins to subside, the liquor is conveyed by a pipe to a series of circular or square vats, ranged in double rows in a large building, called the fermenting house. In these vats (which are all of an equal height) the liquor purges itself, throwing up the yeast in large quantities, which, running over the tops of the vats, together with a portion of the beer, is conveyed by drains formed between every double row of vats, to cisterns formed to receive it. The beer which is thus carried over is replaced by a fresh quantity from a small reservoir on a level with the large fermenting square, and the liquor is maintained at the same level in all the fermenting vats by means of a ball cock. When the fermentation in the vats has ceased, the beer is in some establishments received into cisterns of wrought stone, built at some depth below the surface, in which the beer is left to mellow; in others it is pumped into immense vats, the heads of which are covered with sand to the depth of a foot, to preserve them air-tight.