| Extr. Malt. | Water. | Malt Extract in 100. | Sugar in 100. | Specific gravity. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 600 | + | 600 | 50·00 | 47·00 | 1·2180 |
| 600 | + | 900 | 40·0 | 37·00 | 1·1670 |
| 600 | + | 1200 | 33·3 | 31·50 | 1·1350 |
| 600 | + | 1500 | 28·57 | 26·75 | 1·1130 |
| 600 | + | 1800 | 25·00 | 24·00 | 1·1000 |
The extract of malt was evaporated to dryness, at a temperature of about 250° F., without the slightest injury to its quality, or any empyreumatic smell. Bate’s tables have been constructed on solutions of sugar, and not with solutions of extract of malt, or they agree sufficiently well with the former, but differ materially from the latter. Allan’s tables give the amount of a certain form of solid saccharine matter extracted from malt, and dried at 175° F., in correspondence to the specific gravity of the solution; but I have found it impossible to make a solid extract from infusions of malt, except at much higher temperatures than 175° F. Indeed, the numbers on Allan’s saccharometer scale clearly show that his extract was by no means dry: thus, at 1·100 of gravity he assigns 29·669 per cent. of solid saccharine matter; whereas there is at that density of solid extract only 25 per cent. Again, at 1·135, Allan gives 40 parts per cent. of solid extract, whereas there are only 331⁄3 present.
By the triple mashing operations above described, the malt is so much exhausted that it can yield no further extract useful for strong beer or porter. A weaker wort might no doubt still be drawn off for small beer, or for contributing a little to the strength of the next mashing of fresh malt. But this I believe is seldom practised by respectable brewers, as it impoverishes the grains which they dispose of for feeding cattle.
The wort should be transferred into the copper, and made to boil as soon as possible, for if it remains long in the under-back it is apt to become acescent. The steam moreover raised from it in the act of boiling serves to screen it from the oxygenating or acidifying influence of the atmosphere. Until it begins to boil, the air should be excluded by some kind of a cover.
Sometimes the first wort is brewed by itself into strong ale, the second by itself into an intermediate quality; and the third into small beer; but this practice is not much followed in this country.
We shall now treat of the boiling in of the hops. The wort drawn from the mash-tun, whenever it is pumped into the copper, must receive its allowance of hops. Besides evaporating off a portion of the water, and thereby concentrating the wort, boiling has a twofold object. In the first place, it coagulates the albuminous matter, partly by the heat, and partly by the principles in the hops, and thereby causes a general clarification of the whole mass, with the effect of separating the muddy matters in a flocculent form. Secondly, during the ebullition, the residuary starch and hordeine of the malt are converted into a limpid sweetish mucilage, the dextrine above described; while some of the glutinous stringy matter is rendered insoluble by the tannin principle of the hops, which favours still further the clearing of the wort. By both operations the keeping quality of the beer is improved. This boil must be continued during several hours; a longer time for the stronger, and a shorter for the weaker beers. There is usually one seventh or one sixth part of the water dissipated in the boiling copper. This process is known to have continued a sufficient time, if the separation of the albuminous flocks is distinct, and if these are found, by means of a proof gauge suddenly dipped to the bottom, to be collected there, while the supernatant liquor has become limpid. Two or three hours’ boil is deemed long enough in many well-conducted breweries; but in some of those in Belgium, the boiling is continued from 10 to 15 hours, a period certainly detrimental to the aroma derived from the hop.
Many prefer adding the hops when the wort has just come to the boiling point. Their effect is to repress the further progress of fermentation, and especially the passage into the acetous stage, which would otherwise inevitably ensue in a few days. In this respect, no other vegetable production hitherto discovered can be a substitute for the hop. The odorant principle is not so readily volatilised as would at first be imagined; for when hop is mixed with strong beer wort, and boiled for many hours, it can still impart a very considerable degree of its flavour to weaker beer. By mere infusion in hot beer or water, without boiling, the hop loses very little of its soluble principles. The tannin of the hop combines, as we have said, with the vegetable albumen of the barley, and helps to clarify the liquor. Should there be a deficiency of albumen and gluten, in consequence of the mashing having been done at such a heat as to have coagulated them beforehand, the defect may be remedied by the addition of a little gelatine to the wort copper, either in the form of calf’s foot, or of a little isinglass. If the hops be boiled in the wort for a longer period than 5 or 6 hours, they lose a portion of their fine flavour; but if their natural flavour be rank, a little extra boiling improves it. Many brewers throw the hops in upon the surface of the boiling wort, and allow them to swim there for some time, that the steam may penetrate them, and open their pores for a complete solution of their principles when they are pushed down into the liquor. It is proper to add the hops in considerable masses, because in tearing them asunder, some of the lupuline powder is apt to be lost.
The quantity of hop to be added to the wort varies according to the strength of the beer, the length of time it is to be kept, or the heat of the climate where it is intended to be sent. For strong beer, 41⁄2 lbs. of hops are required to a quarter of malt, when it is to be highly aromatic and remarkably clear. For the stronger kinds of ale and porter, the rule, in England, is to take a pound of hops for every bushel of malt, or 8 lbs. to a quarter. Common beer has seldom more than a quarter of a pound of hops to the bushel of malt.
It has been attempted to form an extract of hops by boiling in covered vessels, so as not to lose the oil, and to add this instead of the hop itself to the beer. On the great scale this method has no practical advantage, because the extraction of the hop is perfectly accomplished during the necessary boiling of the wort, and because the hop operates very beneficially, as we have explained, in clarifying the beer. Such an extract, moreover, could be easily adulterated.