Selecting Malt for Brewing.
It is of material consequence to the brewer to have the best malts for the purpose of brewing. Some brewers, when working with inferior malt, think that an additional quantity will compensate for quality. This is, however, an erroneous opinion. Inferior malts can never impart the same mellowness and richness to ale or beer as those of superior quality. From using inferior malt, we also run a risk of having unsound worts. The best, therefore, will be found the cheapest.
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 make it stand out to its measure, but perhaps even produce a little increase in bulk, which was no doubt a great desideratum.
When the malt was used immediately, this treatment might possibly do no harm, further than occasioning some little decrease in the quantity of the extract, the wetting having caused a trifling increase in its bulk, without improving its quality. When, however, the malt so wetted before shipping, was kept for any length of time, it became slack, and the beer brewed with it, as will invariably happen under such circumstances, did not keep, and soon became acid or stale.
This, therefore, was without doubt the cause of the shipped malts having got into such bad repute in the London market. It is to be hoped that the country maltsters have by this time discovered their error, and that they do not now practise the injurious system of watering (or liquoring, as it is called) their malt after its being taken off the kiln. The better price they would be enabled to obtain by the production of a really good article, would more than compensate for the profit arising out of any little increase in measure, which they might have formerly realised by their liquoring.
It might be requisite, however, for some little time, for them to produce certificates that no water had been used previous to the shipment of the malt.
How to judge of Quality.
In buying malt, a good judge, on taking up a handful, examines narrowly the different pickles, to ascertain if the spire be well grown, that is, at least, two-thirds up the back of the pickle; he also looks for sleepers or dead corns which have not sprung at all. Should there be many of these, he will probably reject the malt. But a mode of judging of malt which is very good, is one that is old and simple. Count out indiscriminately from the bulk about 200 pickles; throw them into a tumbler of cold water and stir them; the pickles thoroughly malted will float horizontally on the surface, those half-malted will float vertically, one end hanging down, and the unmalted will sink to the bottom. We can thus at once form an accurate estimation of the quality of any malt.
The next thing we have to attend to is the weight of malt. Barley, in the process of malting, loses rather more than one-fifth its weight, the malt consequently should be lighter in the same proportion than the barley from which it is made. Some time ago about 40 lbs. per bushel was thought a maximum weight for malt, and many would not have bought it if above that weight. Now, however, from superior culture, the quality of barley has been very much improved, and fine samples may be found weighing 56 or 57 lbs. per bushel. The finest malt from such barley will weigh about 43 or 44 lbs. per bushel; and if it be really all malt, its value may be determined by its weight, the heavier malt always yielding the greater produce. Still the final criterion must be the specific gravity of the worts as determined by the hydrometer or saccharometer. There are fewer husks proportionally in heavy than in light malt; and according to the weight and paucity of husks will be the extract in the mash-tun.
Malt of 40 lbs. weight per bushel should yield from 80 to 84 lbs. gravity per quarter by Long’s instrument, or from 220 to 233 specific gravity by Allen’s or Bates’s saccharometer. Good malt, however, if above that weight, will be found to produce more than the other, in proportion to the difference in weight, and is of course of greater or less value accordingly. In Ireland, all malt is sold by weight, 168 lbs. being allowed for a barrel, and it would perhaps be as well for the buyer, if the same method were adopted in this country.
Grinding Malt.
Whether malt gives the best extract when ground with stones, or crushed with rollers, is undecided. We have seen this point put to the test. From the same bulk of malt, equal quantities were taken, and the one ground with stones, the other crushed with rollers: these were mashed in separate tuns for the same brewing: the difference in produce, however, was so trifling, as to make it a matter of little importance which was used. Perhaps grinding will yield a little more from coarse imperfect malts.
Many brewers think, if the pickle is at all broken, it is better than finer grinding or crushing. These, however, attach immense importance to the brilliancy of the first tap or wort. If the extract be thoroughly made, as will be afterwards explained, the brilliancy of the tap is of little consequence.
Malt, when ground, should never be allowed to remain in sacks, or be in any way exposed to the atmosphere. From exposure it imbibes moisture, and hence acquires acidity. We have invariably seen tainted or unsound worts produced from malt thus exposed.
Kiln-drying Malt.
All brewers who make their own malt, have kilns always at hand; and there can be no doubt that every brewer who can command the means, ought to make his own malt: he can then at all times so modify the colour and flavour, as to produce in his beer those which are most desirable to his customers. When the brewer is necessitated to purchase instead of making his malt, it is in all cases very desirable that he should have a kiln in his premises, for the purpose of re-drying malt which has suffered injury by exposure to the atmosphere, or by imbibing moisture during a sea voyage. Such malt, if used without re-drying, will invariably produce unsound worts, and consequently bad beer; but if re-dried previous to mashing, the beer will have a fair chance of being good. Malt absorbs moisture very readily, and loses colour by keeping and exposure to light. Re-drying in such cases will be found a very simple and useful method of producing sound and well-flavoured worts, and should never therefore be omitted by the brewer. Maltsters generally tell you that the re-drying of malt spoils it. It undoubtedly spoils their own profits by reducing the bulk, but certainly not the malt—an additional price would therefore be necessary to reimburse the maltster for re-drying.
Brown Malt.
Brown, or, as it is commonly called, blown malt, is usually made for porter-brewers, by applying a very strong heat to the malt immediately when put upon the kiln. This is done by means of faggots of dry, hard wood, commonly beech or birch; fir imparting a tarry taste. This process occupies only a few hours. The malt is spread very thin, and derives the name of blown, from the extreme heat separating and blowing out the husk from the kernel, so as to make the pickles appear of much greater bulk than they would otherwise be; thus producing perhaps 32 per cent. less extract than malt dried in the common way.
We are of opinion, however, that high dried, close amber malts, are better than blown malts in every respect. These are dried in the common way, the colour being thrown in without blowing, by a brisk fire of dry hard wood, just before being taken off the kiln, as already described.
Blown malts are now comparatively but little used; they are generally made of the worst barleys, and although bought at a much lower price, are very unproductive. Both colour and flavour can now be given quite as well with the best roasted malt, but great care must be taken in the selection of it. A great deal of it also is made from the worst malt, and often with a mixture of barley; and if such be used, it will give neither the requisite flavour nor colour. Some of it also is too much carbonised or roasted, which imparts a disagreeable roughness to the beer, without the other requisites. It should therefore always be bought from respectable houses, who, although they must charge higher prices, will not attempt to deceive. There are many respectable houses in and about London who now make roasted malt, from among whom we shall particularise three, for the information of country brewers, who may not otherwise know where to apply, viz., Mrs. Backhouse, Coxe’s Square, Spitalfields; Messrs. Howel & Co., Queenhithe; and Mr. H. B. Walmsley, 24, New Road, Mile End;— all in London.
About five per cent., or one quarter in twenty of well-made roasted malt, with well-cured pale malt alone in the grist, will generally be found sufficient, or rather less if used with a mixture of high dried close amber malts. As the grains are sometimes objected to by the cow-feeders when the roasted malt is used in the mash-tub, it will answer equally well when thrown into the copper, where the quantity can be easily adjusted to the colour required.