The consequences resulting from the before-mentioned experiment have already been hinted at. But it is necessary to trace them farther, and to shew how much they tend to the information and use of the brewer.

Germinated barleys, so little dried, as that their particles remain within their sphere of attraction, are not in a preservative state, and therefore cannot properly be termed malts.

The first degree of dryness, which constitutes them such, as we have seen before, is that which occasions them to cause some effervescence. This cannot be effected, when they are dried with less than 120 degrees of heat; the highest that leaves them white. When urged by a fire of 175 degrees, they are charred, black, and totally void of fermentable principles. Now this difference of heat, being 55 degrees, and producing in the grain so great an alteration, as from white to black, the different shades or colors, belonging to the intermediate degrees, cannot, with a little practice, be easily mistaken.

White, we know, from Sir Isaac Newton’s experiments, is a composition of all colors, as black is owing to the absence of them. These two terms indicate the extremes of the dryness of malt. The color, which the medium heat impresses upon it, is brown, which, being compounded of yellow and red, the four tinges which shade malt differently, may be said to be white, yellow, red and black. The following table, constructed on these principles, will, on chewing the grain, readily inform the practitioner of the degree to which his malts have been dried. It is true some doubts have arisen, whether the increase of heat is by equal divisions (according to the scales marked on thermometers) or whether the degrees should not rather be in proportional parts: but if the effect of fire on bodies (as every experiment shews) is exactly corresponding to the expansion it is the cause of, this undetermined question in no wise affects the brewery.

A TABLE of the different Degrees of the Dryness of Malt, with the Changes of Color occasioned by each Increase of the Degrees.

N. B. The several letters against each degree, it is apprehended, will help in practice to fix the color.

The foregoing table not only enables us to judge of the dryness of the malt by its color, but also, when a grist is composed of several sorts of malt, to foresee the effect of the whole when blended together by extraction. Some small error may possibly occur in judgments thus formed upon the report of our senses; but as malt occupies different volumes, in proportion to its dryness, if, in the practice of brewing, upon mixing the water with the malt, the expected degree is observed, such parcel of malt may be said to have been judged of rightly, in regard to its dryness. So that the first trial either confirms or corrects our opinion thereof.

Though malt, dried to 120 degrees, is in a preservative state, yet is it the least so as malt: it then possesses the whole of its fermentable principles, which, if not impeded in the extraction, would be very speedy and active: the duration of the worts to be formed from grain so low dried, must entirely depend on the power given to the water by heat, to draw from the malt, oils of such consistence as shall sheath and retard the hasty effects of the fermentable parts. By extraction, then, malted grain, even so low dried as this, may, with very hot waters, and with the farther assistance of hops, be made to produce beers, which for years will be capable of maintaining themselves sound, or for a long time to resist the effects of the hottest climates. They may also, by a less heat being given to the extracting water, and blended with less hops, form drinks, which shall be fit for use in so short a time as a week, and perhaps a term much shorter: hence we see the degree of heat which dried the malt, and the degree of heat given to the water to extract it. The mean of these numbers (making an allowance for the quantity of hops used) is that which directs us to fix the properties and duration of the wort. In one sense, then, we may consider malt, so low dried as this, as being such as would in the shortest time furnish us with a fermented liquor, and in another, such as would yield the most delicate and strongest drink. When malt charrs, and becomes black, its parts are ultimately divided; it has lost the principles fit to form a fermentable wort, and which it once possessed. The degree of heat, prior to that which produces this effect, is the last which still retains any part of the fermentable properties. In worts from malt thus highly impressed by fire, fermentation would proceed with so slow and reluctant a pace, that, in this case, they might be said to be in the utmost state of preservation. No term can be fixed for their duration. A liquor of this sort, brewed with the greatest heat it would admit of, in the extracting water, might keep many years, and become rather accommodated to the temperature of the place it was deposited in, than to its own constituent parts. Experience has shewn, that drinks, impressed by the drying and extracting heat, with a medium of 148 degrees, with a proper addition of hops, at the end of eighteen months, have been found sound, and in a drinkable state; and at this degree we find the middling brown.—From these two extremes, and on these principles, the following table is formed, exhibiting the length of time drinks made from malt, impressed with each respective degree of heat, properly brewed, in the most favourable season, will require, before they come to their due perfection to be used.

Equally as with hot extracting waters, low dried pale malt may be made to yield beers which will long continue in a sound state; so high dried malt, acted upon by cooler and low extracting water, may be made to furnish a wort soon fit for use, though less agreeable and more inelegant. It might here be asked, why, then, at any time, is malt dried with heats exceeding 120 degrees? In answer to this, it might justly be said, it would be very difficult for the malster exactly to hit this point of drying, without deviating from it either on the one side or on the other; and suppose this difficulty removed, still he could not be certain every individual grain was equally affected: if the drying was less than 120 degrees, the malt, by receiving the moist impressions of the air, would regerminate, and be spoiled. Before the use of hops, malt was high dried, as a means to keep the extracts sound. To eradicate an ancient custom or prejudice requires a long time. This, and the conveniency of keeping malts, was the reason why, for many years, it was in general dried to excess; an error which for some time past has been losing ground, as no reason at present subsists, why malts should exceed in color a light amber.

A TABLE, shewing the age beers will require, before being used, when brewed from malts, which, in drying and extracting, have been impressd with a medium heat corresponding to the following degrees.

It must be observed, that the foregoing table is constructed on the supposition, that these different sorts of malt are brewed, fermented with the utmost care, with waters heated to extract it, in proportion to the dryness of the grain, and to intent of time there set down, and with an adequate addition of hops; an ingredient which shall be considered in its proper place. What is meant by the water being heated to extract malt in proportion to the dryness of the grain, may merit some explanation.

Grapes, when ripe, carry with them the water they have received, both during their growing state, and that of their maturity. This quantity is sufficient to form their musts with. To dried grapes or raisins, water is added, to supply what they have lost; and for the same reason it is requisite in regard to malt: but as grapes stand in no need of artificial fire, to give to their fermentative principles a due proportion, so what they produce themselves, or cold water applied to them, when dry, is a sufficient menstruum. But barleys, wanting the assistance of a great heat to bring their parts to the necessary proportion, require, when malt, a similar or rather a greater heat to resolve them: without which, experiment shews, the flour of the grain would come away undissolved, and thus considerably impoverish the grist.—Should, on the other hand, too great a heat be applied, an equal loss would be sustained, from some of the finer parts being coagulated or blended with oils, tenacious beyond the power of fermentation to exhibit them. The proportioning therefore the heat of the water to the dryness of the malt, more especially to obtain from the grain the whole strength it is capable of yielding, as well as to cause the drink to preserve itself sound its intended time, is of real necessity.

Well-brewed drinks should not only preserve themselves sound their due space, in order to be meliorated by time; they should likewise be fine and transparent.—These circumstances prove the artist’s skill and care, as well as the salubrity of the drink; and are the surest signs of a well-formed must, and of a perfect fermentation. If then the rules for obtaining these ends can be deduced from the foregoing principles and experiments, we may flatter ourselves with possessing a theory, which will answer our expectations in practice.

According to the laws of nature discovered by Sir Isaac Newton, the spaces between the parts of opaque bodies are filled with mediums of different densities, and the discontinuity of parts, each in themselves transparent, is the principal cause of their opacity. Salts in powder, or infused in an improper medium, will intercept the light; gums make a muddy compound, when joined to spirits; and oils, unassisted by salts, refuse to be incorporated with water. Musts, therefore, whose constituent parts are not capable of being dissolved by water into one homogeneous body, are not fit, either for a perfect fermentation, or a pellucid drink.

Length of time, which improves beers and wines, often rectifies our errors in this respect; for the oils being, by various frettings, more attenuated, and more intimately mixed, the liquor is frequently restored, and becomes of itself pellucid. Yet I never found this to succeed, where the error upon the whole of the dryness of the malt, and the heat of the extracts, exceeded the medium by 10 degrees.

Art has also, in some measure, concurred with nature to remedy this defect. When beers or wines have been suffered to stand, till they are rather in an attracting than in a repelling state, that is, when their fermentations and frettings apparently stand still; then, if they do not become spontaneously fine, they may be precipitated, by mixing with them a more ponderous fluid. The floating particles, that occasioned the foulness, are, by this means, made to subside to the bottom, and leave a limpid wine: but the power of dissolved isinglass, the ingredient generally used for this purpose, seldom takes effect, when the error exceeds the medium, as before, by more than 10 degrees.

Other ingredients, indeed, have been used, which carry this power near 10 degrees farther. It is not my province to determine, whether such be salutary: undoubtedly it would be better if there were no occasion for them. Beyond these limits, precipitation has no effect; the liquor, which cannot be fined thereby, if attempted, by increasing the quantity of the precipitants, will be overpowered by the menstruum, and injured in its taste. How frequent this last case of cloudiness is, would answer no purpose in this place to enquire. The use of doubtful ingredients, and such errors as have been mentioned, need no longer blemish the art, when a constant and happy practice, will be both the effect and the proof of a solid and experimental theory.

Beers which become bright of themselves, or by time alone, as well as those precipitated either by dissolved isinglass, or by more powerful means, each possess their respective properties in a certain latitude or number of degrees; and as these effects arise wholly from the heats employed in drying the malts, and in forming the extracts, the following table will be of use to point out the limits, within which each drink may be obtained.

A TABLE, shewing the tendency beers have to become fine, when the malt, in drying and extracting, has been impressed with heats, the medium of which answers to the following degrees, supposed to be brewed and kept in the most eligible manner.

The difference between the heat for forming grapes, and the greatest heat which ripened them, affords to us the number of degrees answerable to their constituent parts: the investigation of barley, in like manner, though less important to our purpose, yet may, with some propriety, be admitted.

Upon examination it will be found, barley ears, and the new grain begins to form (being still in possession of its flower) about the same time with us as grapes do, in June; when we found the mean heat of the air in the shade to be 57.60 degrees.

Barleys in general are mowed from August to September; so that, in their growth, they are benefited by the whole of our summer’s heat, and for like reasons as in page 59, we estimate this 61.10 degrees: 3.50 degrees then would be the number of their constituent parts, taken from the degrees of heat in the shade, and which perhaps would be different if the actual sun-shine heat and what is reflected from the earth, were accounted for. Barleys are annuals, unbenefited by the whole of the autumn sun; but, after being mowed, they are stacked, retaining still much of their straw, leaves, and outward skins. In these heaps they heat, more or less, according to the condition in which they were housed; and which heat may reach to 120 degrees or more, but in general is equal, or somewhat superior, to that of our bodies. The properties of the grain, by this means improved, ripen, and from hence are more capable of preserving themselves. This might be a reason why a farther allowance should be made to the number of degrees denoting their constituent parts: how much, by a very great number of observations, made from the germination, ripening, to the stacking of the barley, in many years, and in many cases, might probably be ascertained; but the difficulty of doing this, and afterwards the impossibility of complying with the information such enquiries would afford, and the little need there is for it, as nature has allowed a considerable latitude for our deviating from what may be styled perfection, without any sensible injury: these circumstances render such enquiries unnecessary, if not fruitless.

Vegetables, but more particularly barley, from their first origin to such time as they might be ultimately separated by fire, may be divided into different periods, according to the distinct properties belonging to each, (and each of these require again a more exact enquiry.) Barley is under the act of germination, so long as the acrospire or stem is within the outward skin of the parent corn; this excluded, it vegetates so long as it receives nourishment by the interposition of its roots. It may be said to be in a state of concentration, when receiving but little or no support from the earth, yet it is acted upon by such heats as do not exceed what it might bear in the vegetative period; and in that of inaction, when, by the power of heat, it is placed in a passive state. Now malt is barley germinated, and, by a quick transition, is impressed with heats superior to those admitted in vegetation, and such as places the corn in a state of inaction. In the beginning of the process of malting, the more tenacious oils, together with some salts, are excluded from the body of the grain, to form the vessels requisite to forward the growth of the future plant. What remains in the parent grain (that choice food, at first necessary to the infant barley) are saccharine salts, alone applicable to the brewer’s purpose, and of the nature and quantity of which, he ought to be well acquainted. To retain these, and prevent a waste thereof, the germinated corn is placed in such heat, as destroys the union between its parts, from whence it becomes inactive. When this intent is obtained by the least heat capable of effecting it, the malt retains both its color, and the whole of its properties.

Vegetables, in no part of their growth, are ever affected by heats so great as to disperse their constituent parts; on the contrary, by natural heats, in general they are improved. The whole of their elements then, must be measured from the first degrees which form them, to the last which procure their highest perfection; and in climates where they are not benefited by the whole of such heat, their properties must be accounted only so many degrees, as in such places are between the extremes of their germination and maturation. Alike with malt, their whole number of constituent parts, denoted by degrees of heat, must be so many as are comprehended between that degree which leaves it in possession of the whole of their elements, and the first heat which excludes a part; for malt more dried than this, being less perfect, and losing some of its properties, fewer must remain.

The degree of heat which in malt divides the period of germination from that of inaction, we have found to be 119; the grain then is perfectly white, and shews little if any sign of effervescence; the first change, fire occasions therein, is to impress it with a light yellow color; this takes place at 129 degrees of heat, an alteration which can proceed from no other cause, but, in removing its original whiteness, to have expelled some of its primitive parts. The difference then between these two numbers of 10, specifies, in degrees of Fahrenheit’s scale, the number of properties constituting barley, malt.

It must be confessed this is establishing a principle of the art of brewing, upon the uncertain report of our senses, as perhaps our sight may deceive us in fixing this change of color exactly at 129 degrees; but we know white and black to be the two extremes of the dryness of malt, and that the middle color between them is brown, which being compounded of yellow and red, these four tinges, equally divided, as we have done in the foregoing tables, will corroborate our fixing the teint of yellow at this degree. The table shewing the tendency beers have to become fine, was formed from experiments made on brewings, whose governing medium heats were from 134 to 148, the proportion in point of time given by these, justifies the division between immediate pellucidity, at 119, and that taking place at two months, or 129 degrees. So from hence we may be satisfied, however an absolute perfection cannot be depended upon, yet this being the most exact division our senses afford, it approaches so near to truth, that if any mistake remains, it can be but trivial, compared to the latitude of errors, fermentation and time correct. But this number, 10 degrees, denoting the quantity of fermentable parts, must lessen in proportion as a continued, or a greater heat deprives the grain of more properties. A speedy spontaneous pellucidity is the effect of the whole fermentable parts; malt affected by heat, conveyed either through air or water, or through both, (so the medium of these exceeds not 138 degrees,) if assisted by the acids gained to the drink by long standing, such will obtain transparency. Beers, then, intended to be formed of themselves to become fine, in the calculations used to discover their elements, so many of the members of the constituent parts must be implied, as corresponds with the time the beer is intended to be kept; but when beers are made intentionally to require precipitation to become fine, in such proportion as we purpose to impress opacity on the drink, we must, in the calculations made to discover the temperature of the extracts, imply only so many of the constituent parts, as correspond to the medium heat which will occasion this foulness. These few observations shew the necessity of establishing this fundamental doctrine, the use of which will obviously appear in practice.

Thus does the success of this art depend on the instrument so often mentioned, which, by indicating the expansions caused by different heats, becomes a sure guide in our operations. I shall now close this account, by comparing with the principles here laid down, the defects which we, but too often, meet in barley when malted.