February 1, 1915] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



251 



Rubber in the Brewery. 



By C. li. Bevingtpn. 



WHILE tin a are few industries in which, tot orti purpose 

 or another, rubber is nol used, it would perhaps be 

 difficult to select one in which it is employed for so 

 many uses and is so truly indispensable, as in the brewery. 



Dealing at almost every step in the production of beer with 

 fluids, in liquid or gaseous form, the brewer is constantly de- 

 1" ii , m on rubber for the means of transporting or confining 

 them, while the condition of moisture in which he constantly 

 works makes rubber an indispensable element in much of his 

 apparatus. For the most part, the rubber goods used in brew- 

 eries are of the sturdy class, strong and substantial, to withstand 

 the by no means gentle usage they are liable to meet with from 

 the heavy-handed brewery workmen; and the proprietors are, 

 in consequence, keenly alive to the necessity for high-grade ma- 

 terial and plenty of it, and reliable workmanship, in purchasing 

 this class of supplies. 



Although there is no lack of rubber goods manufacturers who, 

 catering constantly to the trade, arc familiar with the uses to 

 which rubber is put in the brewery and know just what the 



brewer wants in this 

 line and what he wants 

 it for, there are others 

 to whom the purposes 

 for which rubber is 

 used in the brewing in- 

 dustry are not as fa- 

 miliar, and these may 

 find it worth wdiile to 

 take an imaginary trip 

 through a big modern 

 brewery, with its at- 

 tendant bottling works. 

 in the course of which 

 they may learn of uses 

 in this connection of 

 which they were pre- 

 viously unaware. 



Right at the entrance 

 we note a big hopper, 

 into which a gang of 

 men are busily dumping 

 the contents of sacks 

 arriving in a succession 

 jf wagons. This is malt, the body of beer, which is raised into 

 big bins, on an upper floor, whence it descends through the dif- 

 ferent departments in the course of its transformation into beer. 

 We note at once that the belt of the big elevator is of rubber, 

 the material that best resists the heavy wear and the dust-laden 

 atmosphere in which it works, and which is least liable to gen- 

 erate and conduct electricity. This is important, as a spark in 

 the atmosphere, 1. jaded with line, dry- dust, may mean a disas- 

 trous explosion. The heavy rubber belting is, moreover, least 

 subject to the constant "stretch," which makes "taking up," an 

 operation often necessary with other elevator beltings. Then, 

 again, rubber belting does not require the dressing with oil, etc., 

 that is absolutely essential to the life of a leather belt,' and 

 which, in a malt elevator, would be objectionable on account of 

 the sensitiveness to foreign odors, etc., of the brewers' malt. 



If "conveyors" are needed to forward the malt into its bin, 

 a rubber belt, to which the necessary "flights'' are. bolted, i,s as 

 likely as not to be found dying duty, or-^he malt is simply ,dis- 

 cnargecTontc-an endless rubber. J^.i^viflg flange<j, edees,.,and 

 running horizontally, that quickly transports the material to its 

 destination. 



While on the subject of rubber belting, it may be just as well 

 to dispose of it finall) In slating that whether working in dust 

 or an atmosphere overcharged with steam or moisture, the rub- 

 ber belt is the only belting that meets brewery conditions, hard- 

 ly am othei being used. 



Rubber Elevator Belt. 



BER Belt for CONVEYING Malt. 



From the storage bins, the malt is weighed out as required 

 and ground or crushed between rolls, in a malt-mill driven by 

 rubber belting, on a lower floor; re-elevated into the ground 

 malt bin. whence it descends as needed into the mash tubs, huge 

 receptacles containing a powerful stirring apparatus, in which 

 it is mixed with the necessary water and extracted. The spent 

 grains, or exhausted malt, are removed by means of a manhole 

 and chute, the ponderous manhole cover being made tight by 

 means of a rubber gasket. Exposed to the action of fluids at a 

 temperature from 212 degrees down and containing a liberal 

 proportion of lactic acid, as well as to the wear of removal and 

 scrubbing once or twice every day, there must be nothing flimsy 

 or "shoddy" in the make-up of these gaskets, and they are spe- 

 cially made with a view to the conditions they are called upon 

 to meet. 



From the mash tub, the liquor extracted from the malt — the 

 "wort," as the brewer calls it — gravitates to the kettles on a 

 lower floor, huge copper receptacles, with steam-heating jackets 

 or coils, as a rule, in which the worl is boiled with the hops. 

 Here, again, more big manholes and more gaskets, this time of 

 material capable of withstanding prolonged exposure to boiling 

 heat without softening or imparting any rubbery or other foreign 

 taste to the fluids with which they come in contact. 



Cooled by exposure to the air in a great shallow pan. and by 

 trickling over a stack of pipes, through which cooled water or 

 refrigerated brine is passing, or into which the ammonia re- 

 frigerant from the ice machine is allowed to expand, producing 

 a temperature much lower than freezing, the beer is then ready 

 for the fermenting cellar. 



The joints of these huge return-flow coolers must be made 

 absolutely tight, and there is no other material but rubber that 



BrewERS' Hose. 



i 

 will insure this. Rubber washers or rings arc depended '.upon 

 ,tp : .Jake -caiTstipf. the. constant expansion and contraction of metal 

 pajts -inseparable,, fr.omvthe •widesifluctuations of -temperature in 

 this apparatus. At the same time, they must be of a quality to 

 resist brine, ammonia fumes, cold or hot or mildly acid fluids, 



