350 ELLIS ON MALTING WHEAT. 



heavy, and is scouring : wheat malt also differs much 

 from barley malt, for the former if well made, will 

 return a pleasant, brisk, nourishing, wholesome, ale 

 and beer ; while barley malt is apt to make a more 

 heavy, scorbutic, and less nourishing liquor. This 

 wheat-malt has an admirable quality in it, that no other 

 has ; and that is, the drink of it will never be windy) 

 which is a pernicious quality inherent in most other 

 (malt) liquors, and is very unwholesome in barley and 

 other malt drinks ; but this, whether in barrel or bottle, 

 and kept ever so long, will always be free from that 

 mischievous effect. The goodness of this malt dis- 

 covers itself in making more potent ale and beer than 

 any other sort can ; in short, the ale or beer made 

 with wheat malt is thought by many that have proved 

 it, to be the very best of all liquors." 



Ellis gives also a number of cautions on the malting 

 of wheat particularly, that it may be of good quality, 

 not smutty ; as in his time, some of the brewers 

 bought that inferior kind of malt made from smutty 

 wheat. He allows, however, that the coarse bearded 

 wheat, or rivets, will make malt, but still inferior to 

 that made from the best species. In order to do 

 justice to wheat malt, the wheat must be soaked in 

 good water, and have its due time in the cistern, couch, 

 floor, and kiln. The wheat intended for malt must not 

 be field-grown or mow-burnt ; for like barley, with 

 similar defects, it is very apt to rot in the couch. 

 When laid on the kiln to dry, it must be spread thin 

 and have a leisure or moderate fire, otherwise wheat 

 malt cannot be made in perfection. It must spire 

 gradually, and have a slow fire on the kiln, that its 



