50 On Malting. 



by leaving a larger proportion of the unfermented wort j 

 while in others it is required to be almost entirely dissipated 

 by a more complete fermentation, and between these a va- 

 riety of flavour may easily be imagined. 



What has been said will be sufficient to explain the case 

 as far as regards that flavour which it is desirable to obtain : 

 but there is another point of view in which it is to be con- 

 sidered, and that is, those bad flavours which malt acquires 

 in its progress through a manufacturing state, and which 

 greatly depreciate its value. The principal of these, and in- 

 deed the only one with which the present inquiry is imme- 

 diately connected, is that of mouldy malt, arising from the 

 vegetation ceasing after having made some progress j most 

 of the grains which are bruised by being trodden under the 

 feet of workmen or others while m a state of malting, pass 

 into a mouldy or putrid state ; but the principal source of 

 mouldy malt is in wet grain buried under other corn, and 

 too long excluded from the influence of the atmosphere : a 

 simple experiment will sufficiently illustrate this ; if a sam- 

 ple of half malted barley be placed under a bell-glass, air- 

 tight at the bottom, the corn will vegetate freely until the 

 inclosed oxygen is all consumed, when the vegetation will 

 cease, and the grain will pass into a state of decay similar to 

 mouldy malt, and the more moist the grain was when in- 

 closed under the glass, the sooner it will become mouldy. 



In watering on the floors it is invariably the practice to 

 turn over the grain immediately after it has been sprinkled, 

 hence the wet corn is placed at the bottom, and it will ne- 

 cessarily happen that some of this will again be thrown un- 

 dermost in the subsequent turnings, and this cannot fail to 

 destroy the vegetation and render such grain mouldy, and 

 not only the grains individually dead, but all others with 

 which they happen to come in contact will acquire a dis- 

 gusting taint, which will afterwards materially aff"ect the 

 flavour of the liquor drawn from the malt, 



rXo be continued.). 



Vin. Chemical 



