CRUSHING
THE MALT
The same powerful machinery which raises the malt into the store-houses, is now again set in motion to convey the quantity of malt requisite for each brew, from the store-rooms through a series of shutes, shakers, and magnet-studded slides, to and from the scales into the malt mill. On its devious course to this point the malt is shaken upon sieves, rocked to and fro, and constantly accompanied by currents of air, all of which is intended to separate all germs and dust from the malt, and to leave the latter as free as possible from useless and harmful matter. Shutes covered with powerful magnets, serve to attract and hold nails, bits of iron or other similar metallic substances, which may be in the malt. After being weighed—an operation which one man can perform by simply depressing any one of four levers attached to the scales and communicating with the store-bins—the malt is ground, or rather crushed between metal rollers. In its crushed state, it is again conveyed, in the same mechanical fashion to the top-floor, where it is deposited in smaller bins, three in number, each holding 500 bushels. The malt-scales, two in number, one to weigh the malt when it is received, and the other to weigh the quantity needed for each brew, are placed immediately below the store-bins. The double weighing operation enables the brewer not only to calculate, at any time, the quantity of malt consumed and still on hand, but also to determine, with accuracy and without much labor, the exact quantities which he requires from day to day. The latter is very important, because everything depends upon a proper proportion of ingredients.
Simple as all these operations may appear from our description, they are, nevertheless, effected by most complicated and costly machinery, in the construction of which human ingenuity was put to a severe test. The principal object of these machines is not, as might be supposed, the saving of labor, but rather the elimination of chance and accident from this preliminary work of the brewer. These most modern improvements preclude almost entirely the many chances of failure to which a less perfect method of sifting malt will always expose the operation of brewing. The presence of any metallic substance or of an excess of germ or dust, will inevitably spoil the wort. The methods spoken of here not only preclude this, but also tend to insure uniformity of quality, and offer, besides, a certain degree of immunity from the danger of explosion, which is ever present in any establishment where the elimination and collection of the malt-dust is effected in a less perfect way. As we have seen, the floors of the west wing of the main building serve the purposes of weighing, sifting and storing malt. On the upper floors of the other parts of this building we find, in separate rooms, the smaller bins before described; tuns for preliminary mashing; the cooling tank, and a number of colossal vats containing water of varying degrees of temperature, heated by exhaust steam.
MASHING AND
SPARGING
Having crushed his malt, the brewer now proceeds to mashing, a most important part of his art. The crushed malt is conveyed from the smaller bins to a “Vormaischbütte,” that is to say, a mash-tun in which the malt is thoroughly mixed with water, preparatory to its transfer to the regular mash-tuns. Neither manual labor nor physical efforts of any kind are required in thus conveying the malt to the mash-tuns; everything moves by steam-power. The object of mashing, i.e., the process of infusion or mixing the malt with water at a proper temperature, is two-fold, viz. 1, to extract from the malt the saccharine substance and dextrine which are contained therein; and secondly, to convert into maltose and dextrine the residue of unconverted starch. The three immense iron tubs, in which the malt is mashed, are set in wooden frames, rising about four to five feet above the flooring. Here, too, the magnificent plant of steam engines, of which we shall speak later on, is brought into application; it sets in motion the mashing apparatus within the tun, which is composed of a number of raking contrivances fastened upon two huge arms, revolving in opposite directions around central pivots, in such manner as to mix every particle of the grain, as it drops from the “Vormaischbütte” on the floor above.
Now is the time to realize the importance of the perfect cleaning and grinding of the malt, for the result of mashing depends in part upon these two preliminary processes. If the malt be insufficiently crushed, much of the extract will be lost, or rather, to be more precise, much of the starch will resist infusion and thus remain bound up in the grain, which latter then passes out of the tun with a considerable portion of its starch adhering to it. If, on the other hand, the malt be crushed too fine, or if it be insufficiently cleaned, retaining large proportions of dust, a part of the wort will become pasty and absorb much of the “goodness,” thus impairing the quality of the beer.
Before the invention of the modern appliances before referred to, the very best raw material frequently failed to yield the results which the brewer was justified in expecting from it, and such failures, the true causes of which were rarely understood, gave rise to trade-superstitions which the modern brewer laughs at, conscious of his superior knowledge.
While the process of mashing is going on, the brew-master must be constantly on the alert; he must watch the temperature of the water, with which he mixes his malt; gauge the effect of the heat upon the quantity and quality of his mash; and determine, at a glance, almost, when to open the valves of the mash-tun, in order to draw off the wort into the copper or boiling kettle below. As in everything connected with brewing, science furnishes him a reliable guide in the shape of a saccharometer, which indicates the proportion of sugar in the wort, and other instruments with which to test temperature, etc. When the opportune moment has arrived for drawing off the sugar-laden liquid, the brewer opens valves or doors in the bottom of the mash-tuns, through which the wort runs into pipes, and through a filtering apparatus into the boilers on the floor below. While this is going on, and before half of the wort is run off, we witness another operation called sparging, by which the useful substance still remaining in the malt is washed out. By the sparging machine a continuous shower of hot water is evenly thrown on every part of the grain; it issues from hollow arms, perforated on their reverse sides, and horizontally fixed to an upright pin. As soon as the water begins to force its way out of the holes, in opposite directions, these arms revolve automatically; the raking appliances, meanwhile, continue to whirl around, constantly stirring up the mash, thus enhancing the effect of the water and accelerating the operation. Insufficient or ineffective sparging means a considerable loss to the brewer.
When sparging is completed, the brew-master changes the scene of his activity; he descends to the floor immediately below the one where his mash-tuns are placed. These two floors are closely connected with each other; in fact, through large openings in the ceiling, which openings are surrounded by substantial guard rails, we gain an almost unobstructed view of both rooms at one and the same time; and even if we knew nothing at all of brewing, the sight of so many pipes, tubes, funnels and shafts connecting the upper floor with the lower, would convince us that the closest relation exists between the two rooms. On this lower floor our attention is at once attracted by three huge copper kettles, every part of which, as well as the many pipes which we see here, at once impresses us with the truth of the saying, that when a brewer is doing nothing, he cleans and polishes his utensils. Indeed, the pride which every journeyman brewer takes in the cleanliness of the establishment is made manifest at every step we take; but here, in the kettle-room, where every object far and near is faithfully reflected, as if in a mirror, upon the resplendent sides of the brew-kettles, an extra effort seems to have been made to outshine every other department.