The malt is chosen according to the intended character of the
brewing--pale, amber, roasted, or any mixture of them, as the occasion may
require. It is bruised or crushed in a mill (malt-mill) before employing
it in brewing, that it may be the more readily acted on by the water. It
should not be ground too small, as it would then make the wort thick, and
cause it to run with difficulty from the mash-tun. The crushed malt may
advantageously lie for a few days in a cool situation, by which it will
attract a considerable quantity of moisture from the air, and be the more
easily exhausted by the water used in mashing. Pale malt may be used
coarser than amber or brown malt. A bushel of good malt should measure
1-1/4 bushel when ground; and a quarter should yield between 9-1/2 and 10
bushels, the quantity slightly varying according to the degree of bruising
it has undergone. On the large scale, malt is ground in crushing mills
furnished with plain iron rollers; on the small scale, by wooden rollers
or mills worked by hand. For private brewing, the malt is generally bought
ready crushed or ground, for convenience sake.
The hops, after being taken from the 'pockets' or 'bag,' are crumbled with
the hands ready to be thrown into the copper. For general purposes those
grown in Kent, and of the present season, are preferred. For the finer
sorts of ale, East Kent hops are commonly used; and when it is intended to
keep the liquor for a long time, those known by the names of Country's,
Alton's, or Farnham hops, are employed.
The quantity of hops required by a given measure of malt varies from 2
lbs. to 22 lbs. per quarter, according to the strength or gravity of the
wort, the character of the beer intended to be brewed, and the climate
which the beer may have to sustain. Export beer requires, as a rule, an
exceptionally large amount of hops to enable it to bear without injury the
heat of the country to which it is shipped. The following are the usual
proportions:--
Table beer 2 lbs. 1 qr.
Mild ale or porter 4 " 1 "
Brown stout 5 " 1 "
Scotch ale (best) 5 " 1 "
Strong ale (ordinary) 5-1/2 " 1 "
" (keeping) 8 " 1 "
Bitter ale 10 to 14 " 1 "
East India ale (export) 12 " 22 " 1 "
When a strong, coarse hop is used, a less quantity suffices for the same
strength brewed, but the flavour is always inferior.
The water, which should be clear, and free from all traces of decomposing
animal and vegetable matter, must be provided in abundance. Of late years
hard water has been preferred by many brewers, on the ground that beer
brewed with it is self-fining, and hence requires no artificial
clarification either in the vat or cask.
Hard water is also much to be preferred to soft in brewing stock beers;
since by its rendering the albuminous matters contained in the mash
insoluble, it prevents the fermentation to which these would otherwise
give rise, and so assists in the preservation of the beer, and in keeping
it free from acidity.
The German brewers, however, who do not brew beverages intended to be kept
for any time, on the contrary, employ a soft water, by which means the
albuminous substances contained in the malt are rendered soluble, and
become diffused throughout the beer, and possibly add in some measure to
its nutritive qualities. Hard waters are said to have the property, over
soft ones, of enabling the beer to retain more saccharine matter, and
hence to improve its flavour and to give it more body. The ales of Burton
are pre-eminent for their excellent quality and keeping properties. In the
neighbourhood of Burton there are extensive beds of new red sandstone and
gypsum, by sinking wells into which the Burton brewers obtain the water
from which they make their beers. From the subjoined analyses of Burton
well waters it will be seen that this water is a very hard one, and
contains, besides other salts, a very large quantity of sulphate of lime.