Page:A Practical Treatise on Brewing (4th ed.).djvu/39

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MALTING.
23

Shipped Malts.

Shipped malts, as they are generally termed, are those which have been manufactured in various parts of the country, and from thence sent by sea to London.

Such malts have not, in general, been thought so good, nor have they brought so high a price, in this market as those made at Ware, or in other districts nearer town. The beer when brewed from them was not considered so good, nor thought to keep so well, as that from malts made nearer home, and the country maltsters were not considered to be so well acquainted with their business, and, consequently, their malt did not bring so good a price as that of the others. We are, however, inclined to think that the bad repute into which their malt had fallen did not proceed from any want of skill or care in the country maltsters, or even from any inferiority in the article itself, but from their having adopted an erroneous mode of treating it, immediately after it had been taken off the kiln. They had an idea that by sprinkling it with a little water when it was quite hot, it was rendered mellow, and that this being done before the malt was shipped, caused it to stand out to its measure upon its arrival at its destination, without otherwise in any way injuring it.

Wetting the malt in this way, would not only