CURING, COOLING AND BALING. 



199 



English and German practice is to pack the hops, 

 while still warm, into sacks about six by three feet, con- 

 taining about 125 ppunds and called "pockets." These 

 bales are usually sent to market at once, and if not 

 promptly sold to the brewer (who puts them into cold 

 storage) are stored in large, cool, airy warehouses, so 

 stocked as to permit a free circulation of air about each 

 bale; otherwise, the hops may become crusted and 

 damp. Prompt packing while warm prevents the 

 escape of the volatile sulphurous acid gas, the reten- 

 tion of which in the bales adds to, or rather preserves, 

 the brewing qualities. This gas is exceedingly vola- 

 tile, and the more it escapes before hops are packed, 



FIG. 111. GROUND PLAN OF DOUBLE KILN SHOWN IN FIG. 110. 



the less will be its beneficial effect. Kammerer showed 

 in his tests at Nuremberg that sulphured hops left open 

 and unbaled for four weeks, steadily lost their binoxide 

 of sulphur, until after four weeks they contained only 

 25 per cent, as much as when first off the cloth. 

 Another argument for packing while still hot, is that 

 the hops contain less water than in any other period, 

 and if allowed to cool, will rapidly absorb water, thus 

 partly counteracting the object of the cure. Scientific 

 experiments on all these points would be highly 

 interesting. 



In America, however, thorough cooling is the 

 rule, partly because when baled cold the hops are 



