A Practical Treatise on Brewing Author:William Black Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: finest malt from such barley will weigh about 43 or 44 Ibs. per bushel; and if it be really all malt, its value may be determined by its weight, the heavier malt... more » 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 Ibs. weight per bushel should yield from 80 to 84 Ibs. 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 Ibs. 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 tunsfor 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...« less