190 MALTING 



sprinkling allowed than is absolutely necessary to keep the germination alive; in 

 season-made malt, sprinkling is but very seldom required, but an exceptional warmth 

 or dryness of the atmosphere may make it at times a necessity. 



If the rootlets or radicles appear languid, shrivelled, and of a dull yellowish tint, 

 lay the floor a little thicker; it may be that the barley is more intractable than was 

 supposed at first ; and if in the course of two or three hours its appearance is not 

 materially improved, then administer the sprinkling, about a good third of a can-full 

 to the quarter (i.e. 8 bushels), well plough, rake, turn, and thin out ; but let it carefully 

 be borne in mind that whatever is done in the way of increasing or decreasing the 

 vigour of the germination must be done most gradually, or the radicles will be liable 

 to break off, therefore leaving the grain maimed, and less able to attain the desired 

 result, and as a consequence the quality of the malt will bft impaired, On the other 

 hand, if the rootlets appear robust and vigorous, the floor must be well turned and 

 thinned out, or the middle of the floor will become the warmer, and an uneven germi- 

 nation will result ; when a floor has been allowed to remain too long unturned, it may 

 easily bo perceived from the faint smell that attends it, and also it may bo observed 

 that the main or centre radicle is of unusual length and strength in comparison with 

 its mates ; great care must then be exercised, for to be checked too rapidly would 

 certainly cause them to break off, and prove an injury ; this must particularly be 

 attended to in the young floors. If all has gone on as it should have done, when the 

 grain has spent the moisture absorbed in the steep, the acrospire will have attained 

 about three-fourths the length of the grain, and the culm (rootlets) somewhere about 

 half an inch in ordinary English barley, but more than that in the strong Yorkshire 

 barleys, and more still in the heavy Scotch ; this excitation will occupy from perhaps 

 nine to twelve days, according to the circumstances, of the kind of barley, and state 

 of the atmosphere, and the culm will then begin to grow languid, fade, and wither, 

 and of course will cease to develope any more ; the acrospire too will remain almost 

 stationary, though not quite so, for germination is not extinct, but only retarded. 

 The floor must now be laid thicker, very gradually, frequently disentangled and 

 turned, but kept just warm enough to cause most of the remaining moisture to 

 pass away from the grain till when taken up in the hand it feels light and dry, 

 and when the kernel is forced out from the husk with the thumb-nail, it should rub 

 abroad between the thumb and forefinger easily and smooth ; this process is called 

 the ' mellowing,' and occupies from two and a half to four days ; it is then ready for 

 the kiln. 



TJte Kiln-Floor. The mellowed floor is then loaded into baskets, craned up to the 

 kiln-floor, upset in regular heaps over it, and when all the charge is in, it should 

 immediately be griped over and levelled. In area the kiln-floor should allow at least 

 three square yards to every quarter of barley steeped, thus for a 15-quarter cistern, 

 the area for the kiln-floor should be at least 45 square yards, this will allow the barley 

 to lie from 7 to 9 inches thick upon the kiln, and that thickness is a medium between 

 extremes. In England coke is most commonly used for the kiln-fires, and there should 

 be from 15 to 25 feet below the centre of the kiln-floor; the greater the height the 

 better the draught. 



Immediately above the fire-place, and supported at the four corners, a disperser is 

 placed from 6 to 9 feet above the fire-bars, according to the strength of the draught and 

 character of malt it is intended should be made usually ; it is well to have all the 

 draught-course, both above and below the malt, under perfect control, so as to at all 

 times cause the stream of heated air passing from the fire to disperse itself to the 

 extreme limits of the kiln-floor ; but with all the aid that art and experience can give, 

 nothing can relieve the workman from that careful watching and regulating of the 

 fires, that is the real secret of success in the finishing of malt. The ' old floor ' being 

 now ' loaded ' on the kiln and griped over, the fire is placed and regulated so that the 

 heat shall accumulate in the space under the floor-tiles, and fill it to the remotest 

 corner with a temperature of about 90, which must be the same throughout the whole 

 area of the floor, no one place being hotter than another, or the finishing will be 

 freckled and uneven : the advantage of having a good height over the spreader will be 

 now seen, by reason of its allowing a better opportunity for the thorough mixture and 

 attemperating of the atmosphere and also decreasing the liability to a hot-air current 

 through any particular portion of the floor. 



In a short time the heat may be increased three or four degrees, but the floor 

 should not be molested till all apparent moisture or steam has been driven from 

 it; this will take about 12 hours, when it may be griped over, again turning the top 

 to the bottom ; fires damped up and left for the night ; next morning the floor must 

 be griped again, and turned with the shovel, the fires may be broken up, and the 

 heat increased 3 or 4 degrees more, and the floor must be turned 3 or 4 times with 

 the shovel, and by the following morning it will most likely be dry ; the finish 



