MALTING 189 



floor can be got ready for the kiln, the whole of the floor is literally impregnated with 

 it, a kind of blue bloom is to be perceived upon it, and it may even affect the atmo- 

 sphere above it, plainly showing that mould in the form of dust is present, ready to 

 fr.il on everything; some of it may be made to disappear, after drying and screen- 

 ing the malt ; but the taste is permanently attached to the malt, and follows it through 

 the remainder of its existence, even after it has changed its state- not that mould 

 can be always detected in the beer made from such malt, for unless it is very bad 

 indeed, it can be overpowered by the hop ; but there is a perceptible deficiency in 

 that fine, clean flavour, which is the perfection of a glass of good beer, its place 

 being usurped by a flavour coarse and tangey, and tending to acidity, the more BO 

 in proportion as the disease has ravaged the malt ; for let it not be forgotten, that 

 mould and acidity always go hand-in-hand. Therefore, where it is found necessary 

 to malt an indifferent sample of barley, it is much the wiser plan to treat it with a 

 sufficient steep, and work it as cool as possible upon the floors, giving it plenty of 

 time ; for heats approaching 60, and especially between 60 and 70 encourage disease 

 in barley on the floors, just as it does also upon an unsound wort in the fermenting 

 tin ; such malts should always be set apart to be brewed by themselves for a quick 

 consumption. 



If the heat on the floor should by any chance rise to temperatures between 70 and 

 75, it is almost a certainty that much of the saccharine constituent will have changed 

 into the lactic state. It is sometimes asserted that sprinkled malt will yield more 

 gravity per quarter than unsprinkled malt will do : the extra gravity is caused by an 

 excess of the albuminous constituent present in the wort, and this is but an increase 

 of trouble, disappointment, and loss to the brewer ; but the difference between sprinkled 

 and unsprinklod barley is perceived at once by the taste, being in favour of the latter, 

 from the superior sweetness in the mouth, and it far exceeds the former in the 

 brightening and keeping ability of its product, and in the general excellence of the 

 beer. The attentive reader will perhaps ere this have surmised from the mention of 

 the old floor, the young floor, and the floor to be sprinkled, that there must generally 

 be three steeps upon the floor at the same time, and under very exceptional circum- 

 stances there may even be four floors, exclusive of those on the kiln, and in either the 

 cistern or the couch. This of course necessitates plenty of area in the withering floor ; 

 there should be allowed 28 square yards at least to the quarter of barley steeped. 

 Therefore for one man-kiln, 15 quarters being steeped every four days nearly, the 

 withering-floor area should be 15 x 28 yards =420 yards, including the couch-frame; 

 about 30 feet in width is a nice arrangement for a kiln of this size, and is even a con-' 

 venient width for any sized kiln, for where the. floors are much wider, the sides and 

 middle work vary unevenly, and cause an amount of labour that is likely to be the 

 cause somewhat of neglect ; forty feet should be the extreme limit for a kiln of the 

 largest size ; of course the wider the floor is the less throwing forward it requires, and 

 this is a consideration ; the height of the place should be about six feet under the 

 beams, which should be underdrawn ; the windows should be glazed with blue glass, 

 -and the ventilation and temperature of the place should be under complete control. 

 At times the grain on the floors will suffer mutilation and crushing by the feet; the 

 excise officer must trample upon it, for the purpose of gauging, but it is quite unneces- 

 sary that any one else should. Some, to relieve the floor from injury by the tread, have 

 moveable gangways suspended from the beams above, or supported from the walls, so 

 that the workmen can pass from floor to floor the whole length of the house without 

 treading on the grain. 



The system of working upon the floors is of such extreme importance to brewers, 

 that it is necessary that we should give very special attention to the considera- 

 tion of the several points of guidance, which experience has established as incontro- 

 vertible. 



The first and most essential of these, is the selection and cleansing of the barley, 

 and this has already been treated in detail in an early part of the present article ; the 

 next is the class and temperature of the water, and this has also been treated upon, 

 and we must now consider the rule that must be adopted to produce a malt that shall 

 have the least amount of the albuminous constituent in its composition along with the 

 greatest amount of good sound saccharum as free as possible from acid tendency, and 

 perfectly free from mould. 



In the first place, in order to make good sound malt from carefully-selected barley, 

 the efficient steep is of paramount importance ; then the cooler it is worked upon the 

 floors, and the longer it can be made to take in growing the acrospire right up to the 

 opposite end of the grain, the better will bo the saccharific excellence of the malt. 

 The heat of the floors should never bo allowed to attain 60 Fahr., and it should be 

 kept on the floors from twelve to fifteen days, including couching. 



There is no danger of mould if the turning is properly attended to, and no more 



