CURING, COOLING AND BALING. 209 



kilns can hardly be used for other purposes; they are 

 costly to build and maintain, and the average planter 

 finds it more pnjrital)le to run the risk of a quick cure 

 than to have sufficient accommodation to cure his hops 

 at a lower temperature, which would require 24 hours 

 to each load. The importance of the slower cure at 

 a lower temperature is becoming recognized, however, 

 and at Sonoma and Plcasanton only one floor is placed 

 on the kiln every 24 hours, and the hops are cured at 

 the lower heat. Even then, the cured hops hardly com- 

 pare with the sun and air dried hops of Germany. 



The usual temperature for a 12-hour cure in this 

 country is 140 degrees F., as tested by a thermometer 

 hanging in the midst of the hop floor or immediately 

 over it — not at one side; formerly it was 160 to 180 

 degrees. In England, the temperature ranges from 

 120 to 140. Where the 24-hour cure is followed in 

 California, the heat is kept at 100 or no. Whatever 

 the temperature decided upon, it should be kept 

 uniform. 



Should the heat go up suddenly, open the doors 

 of the kiln and the ventilators at the bottom of the 

 house, so as to reduce the temperature to the desired 

 figure. The utmost care and constant attention, com- 

 bined with good judgment, are needed to preserve the 

 temperature, to watch the hops and to see that the cure 

 proceeds properly. 



The extreme heat absolutely destroys a consider- 

 able proportion of the essential oils and other brewing 

 qualities. Mr. Meeker was perhaps the first American 

 writer to call attention to this point, which he did in 

 1883, and what he then wrote in his book, *'Hop Cul- 

 ture" (long since out of print), is equally true to-day: 



"This substance is most sensitive to injury by high 

 heat, and hundreds of tons of hops are injured annually, 

 and in manj' cases their value almost totally destroyed by 

 the careless or ignorant manner in which they are dried. 

 The writer knows by actual experience that when hops are 



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