ALCOHOL 
certain substances called enzyms, which 
usually are developed for this particular 
purpose in a portion of the grain used 
for mashing, by a process called malting. 
Malting—When the seeds of any cereal 
are moistened and allowed to sprout, 
changes in their chemical composition 
take place which are fully as striking as 
the accompanying changes in the appear- 
ance of the grains. Most important of 
these is the formation of bodies which 
have the power, when dissolved in water 
and allowed to act at a suitable degree of 
warmth, of corroding the insoluble starch 
granules of the grain, of rendering them 
soluble, and of converting the starch ulti- 
mately into a fermentable sugar called 
maltose Grain which has been treated 
so as to develop these bodies is called 
malt. 
These enzyms, or active bodies of the 
malt, are usually grouped under the name 
diastase, and they appear during the 
sprouting of all starchy seeds. Their for- 
mation has been utilized technically in 
the case of several of the cereals, such 
as wheat, rye, oats, maize, and barley. 
Rye and barley produce diastase more 
abundantly than the other grains, and are 
employed in large quantities in the malt- 
ing industry. Of the two, barley is most 
used on account of the protection which 
is afforded by its husk to the tender ker- 
nel of the grain during the rough handling 
incidental to the malting process. 
In making malt the barley is cleaned 
thoroughly by screening and washing, and 
is then steeped in water until the grains 
have absorbed enough water to soften 
them thoroughly and prepare them for 
germination. The excess of water is then 
drained off, and the wet grain is spread 
evenly on a smooth and scrupulously clean 
floor in a well-ventilated room which can 
be kept at a temperature of about 55 de- 
grees to 60 degrees Fahrenheit. The grain 
is turned frequently, with wooden shovels, 
to keep it uniformly moist and to prevent 
its overheating, and as sprouting pro- 
gresses it is gradually spread over a great- 
er floor area so that a pile which originally 
was from 12 to 18 inches deep may finally 
have a depth of only three or four inches. 
25 
Malt which is intended for shipment is 
usually grown for about a week at a tem- 
perature not exceeding 68 degrees Fahren- 
heit, after which it‘is dried slowly in 
kilns that are gradually raised from 95 
degrees to 125 degrees, until only two or 
three per cent of moisture remains. Malt 
which is made in the distillery where it 
is to be used may be grown at about 55 
degrees for three or four weeks, and 
should then be used without having been 
dried Green malt, thus prepared, has a 
much higher diastatic power (1) than the 
dried malt of commerce. 
One hundred pounds of good barley will 
make about 75 pounds of kiln-dried dis- 
tiller’s malt, which will be strong enough 
to saccharify about 1,000 pounds of raw 
grain (maize). The same barley, grown 
longer and used as green malt, can be 
made to saccharify nearly twice as much 
raw grain. 
In converting starch into sugar, malt 
diastase exerts two distinct forms of chem- 
ical activity—liquefaction, and sacchari- 
fication. The intensities of these activ- 
ities depend largely upon the temperature 
at which the diastase ismadeto act upon 
the starch, and the two forms of activity 
are differently affected by alterations in 
this temperature. The liquefying power is 
exerted most strongly at about 158 de- 
grees Fahrenheit, is weakened at approxi- 
mately 175 degrees, and is destroyed at 
about 200 degrees. The saccharifying 
power is strongest between 120 degrees 
and 1380 degrees Fahrenheit, is weakened 
seriously at 145 degrees, and is destroyed 
completely at 175 degrees. These facts 
show the need of drying distiller’s malt 
at a relatively low temperature, and indi- 
cate the temperature limit below which 
saccharification must be conducted. 
Mashing—tThe first stage of every mash- 
ing is a scalding, which gelatinizes and 
partially liquefies the starch of the raw 
materials, When this preliminary cook- 
ing has gone far enough, the mash is 
cooled somewhat and malt 1s added, where- 
upon the liquefaction is completed and 
the soluble starch is more or less com- 
(1} The power of converting starch into 
sugar. 
