MALT AND MALTING. Malt is grain, usually barley, which has become sweet and more soluble in water, from the conversion of its starch into sugar by artificial germination to a certain extent, after which the process is stopped by the application of heat. The making of malt, calledMailing, is conducted as follows— The barley is steeped in cold water for a period which (as regulated by law) must not be less than 40 hours ; but beyond that period the steeping may be continued as long as it is thought proper. Here it imbibes moisture, and increases in bulk ; at the same time a quantity of carbonic acid is emitted, and a part of the substance of the barley is dissolved by the steep-water. 100 bushels of grain, after being steeped, swell to the bulk of 120 bushels ; and the quantity of matter which the steep-water holds in solution varies from nth to of the weight of barley. It consists chiefly of an extractive matter of a yellow colour and disagreeable bitter taste. After the grain has remained a sufficient time in the steep, the water is drained off, and the barley thrown out of the cistern upon the malt-floor, where it is collected into a heap called the couch, about 16 inches deep. In this situation it is allowed to remain about 26 hours. It is then turned by means of wooden shovels, and is diminished a little in depth. This turning is repeated twice a day or oftener, and the grain is spread thinner and thinner, till at last its depth does not exceed a few inches.
When placed in a couch, it begins gradually to absorb oxygen from the atmosphere, and to convert it into carbonic acid, at first very slowly, but afterwards more rapidly. Tho temperature, at first the same with that of the external air, begins slowly to increase; and in about 96 hours the grain is at an average about 10° hotter than the surrounding atmos phere. At this time the grain, which had become dry on the surface, becomes again so moist that it will wet the hand, and exhales at the same time an agreeable odour, not unlike that of apples. At the time of this
moistening, which is called sweating, the roots of the grains begin to appear, at first like a small white prominence at the bottom of each seed, which soon divides itself into three root lets, and increases in length with very great rapidity, unless checked by turning the malt. About a day after the sprouting of the roots, the rudiments of the future stem, called acrospirc, may be seen to lengthen. It rises from the same extremity of the seed with the root, and, advancing within the husk, at last issues from the opposite end; but the process of malting is stopped before it has made such progres.
As the acrospire shoots along the grain, the appearance of the kernel, or mealy part of the corn, undergoes a considerable change. The glutinous and mucilaginous matter is taken up and removed, the colour becomes white, and the texture so loose that it crumbles to powder between the fingers. The object of making is to produce this change : when it is accomplished, which takes place when the acrospire has come near to the end of the seed, the process is stopped by drying the malt upon a kiln. The temperature at first does not exceed but it is raised very slowly up to 140° or higher, according to cir cumstances. The malt is then cleared, to separate the rootlets, which are considered injurious. In familiar language, melting may be considered as a change of the starch of grain into sugar, preparatory to a further change into spirit.
The subsequent processes of BREWING and DISTILLATION are described in previous Alit des.
The quantity of malt charged with excise duty in the last three years was as follows : 1848 37,545,012 bushels.
1849 • • 38,935,460 11 1850 40,745,050 „