spread out, begin and turn it over again three or four times. Repeat this procedure once in four or five hours, eight or ten times, making the heap deeper each time. This cools, dries and deadens the grains so that they become mellow, melt easily in brewing, and separate entirely from the husk. Then throw up the malt in heaps as high as possible, and let it lie until it becomes as hot as the hand can bear it, which is usually about thirty hours. This perfects the sweetness and mellowness of the malt. Now, after it is sufficiently heated, throw it abroad to cool, and turn it over again after six or seven hours. Then dry it. The different degrees of dryness produce the different kinds of malt, viz.: pale, amber, brown and roasted malts. The best and safest means of drying is by the cold air blast. If the malt is not well dried, it will not dissolve well in the working, nor can it be well ground. Pale malt is dried the most slowly and the least, producing more extract than the high dried malt, and of a better quality. The amber colored, or that between pale and brown, produces a flavor much admired in many extracts. Brown malt loses much of its nutritive qualities, but has a peculiar flavor desired by many palates. Malt roasted after the manner of coffee is generally used to give color and flavor to porter, which in the first instance has been made from pale malt. Soft water makes a stronger but more easily fermented extract than hard water.

TESTS FOR MALT.

Where the operator has not the facility to malt his own barley, some care in selecting a good article should be used. An ancient custom of determining a good sample was to take a glass nearly full of water, and put in some malt; if the grains swam the sample was considered good, but if any should sink to the bottom it was not considered true malt. I think the best test is the general appearance, etc. First notice whether the grains have a round body, break soft, are full of flour the whole length, smell well and have a thin skin. Masticate some of the grains, and if sweet and mellow they should be considered good; but if hard and steely and retaining something of the barley nature, the malt is not properly made, and weighs heavier than good malt.

TO GRIND THE MALT.

To obtain the extract, it is best to merely break the grain. For this purpose the malt is passed between revolving stones placed at such distance apart that each grain may be crushed without reducing it to a powder, for if ground too finely it thickens the solution and is difficult to percolate, while if not broken at all the extract is not all obtained. Pale malts are generally ground coarser than amber or brown. Malt should be used within two days after being ground to obtain the best results. Crushing mills or iron rollers may be substituted for the revolving stones, and on a small scale the malt grains can be broken by wooden rollers or even with an ordinary coffee mill.

MOISTENING THE MALT.

Take a convenient quantity of the ground selected malt, and having placed it upon a clean wooden platform, prepare a menstrum for it consisting of one volume of 94 per cent. alcohol to three volumes of water. For a bushel of malt, three gallons of such menstrum is sufficient. After having thoroughly dampened the malt with the menstrum cover it with a rubber blanket to prevent loss of alcohol, and allow it to stand about twelve hours, working it up with a shovel every three hours.

EXTRACTING THE DIASTASE.

The writer has found that the best results are obtained when the diastase of malt is first eliminated before preparing the starch for conversion into sugar by the former, so the dampened grain is transferred to a conical perculator, wooden preferred, cold water is gradually poured over it until the liquid begins to flow from the faucet of the percolator, then return the percolate and repeat until the liquor runs clear and free from starchy granules. Continue the percolation with fresh cold water, until a quantity of liquid equal to four times the amount of the malt is obtained. Then by means of a rubber hose and air pump transfer the percolate to the vacuum still in order to have the spirit slowly recovered.

RECOVERING THE ALCOHOL.

Having exhausted the still, cooler and air chamber by means of the air pump until the vacuum gauge registers twenty-seven inches, open the steam valve leading to vacuum pan and evaporate off the alcohol, which will condense in a cooler and can be collected in the air chamber. A temperature of 100° F. is generally enough to recover the alcohol with the vacuum. The time required for the recovery of the spirit varies according to the size of apparatus, amount of malt worked, etc., but for the working of one bushel the time generally required is about half an hour. In case the starch liquid is not ready for the still in time, it is best to allow some of the alcohol to remain with the diastase to preserve the latter until the starch liquid comes in contact with it. When the starch liquid is all prepared for evaporation, and having evaporated off all the remaining spirit, then stop the pump and remove the pressure by allowing the air to enter through the valve on top of the still. When the gauge registers zero, open the valve in the base of the air chamber and remove the recovered spirit which is usually quite weak.

MASHING THE MALT.

While the alcohol is being recovered from the diastatic percolate, the operator should give his attention to the preparation of the starch liquid. To this end the malt is transferred from the percolator to the mash tub, where the starchy matter must first be gelatinized before it can be acted on by the diastase now in the still. A volume of water abou four times the weight of the malt employed is then added, and the whole mixed thoroughly. By means of the steam valve at the base of the mash tub, the water is heated under constant stirring, until it arrives at the boiling point, at which temperature it is kept for two minutes under constant stirring, in order to insure the perfect coagulation of albumenoids not extracted in the first percolation, and to gelatinize and dissolve every particle of starch. The heat is then removed and an amount of water equal to half the weight of the malt is added, and the whole, after being well mixed, is allowed to stand for about fifteen minutes. The outlet

valve of the tub is then opened, the liquor re-percolated until clear, and then collected in a receiver to be cooled down at least 150° F. It is then transferred to the still by means of the hose and air pump, and it is there converted by the diastase into malt sugar.

EVAPORATION.

When the liquids are mixed in the still the whole is to be rapidly evaporated as soon as the vacuum gauge registers twenty seven inches. The temperature necessary for rapid evaporation ranges from 110° to 140° F., the temperature rising above 110° F. as the extract begins to thicken. In no case should the temperature be allowed to rise above 150° F., as it would impair the flavor, although the diastase may not be injured at a higher temperature, and the evaporation should never be stopped when once started, until at least ten per cent. of the liquid has been evaporated off.

The proper consistence for the extract depends upon the season of the year, that which would answer for summer not being suitable for winter, but the writer has found that a malt having a specific gravity of 1.4, while a little difficult to handle in winter, will keep well in summer, and hence is of a desirable density.

PRESSING THE MASH.

After the liquid has entirely drained from the mash tub, the malt is next transferred to a press, and the remaining liquid entirely pressed out and allowed to settle, the clear liquid poured off and mixed with the starch liquor in the still by means of the hose and air pump, an equal volume of warm water is again added to the malt in the press, and the pressing repeated until the malt is entirely exhausted, the resulting liquids being allowed to settle, added to still and evaporation continued.

PRECAUTIONS.

While the operator should observe all the general prcautions necessary to operate a vacuum apparatus, yet there are some in the manufacture of malt extract deserving special attention.

In the first place, unless the operator gives close attention to the

apparatus while running on the malt, he will find that in nine cases out of ten the resulting product will be worthless as a digestive agent. From the time the malt is first moistened to the time it is in the form of a finished extract, quickness in detail and constant attention are essential for a good product.

The percolating process is quite often found troublesome. In the first percolation, after the process has proceeded far enough to drive out all the alcohol, it is possible that the malt has been so finely ground that when the water menstrum has been poured on, the latter will swell the small particles of the grain sufficiently to either cause the percolation to proceed so slowly as to impede progress, or to stop up altogether and thus incept fermentation; and again, even after this percolation has been successful, trouble may arise in the mash tub, should the heat be allowed to continue longer than merely to coagulate the albumenoids and gelatinise the starch; especially when the malt has been finely ground a paste is liable to form and again interfere with percolation; in such a case the best course to pursue is to transfer the whole to the press and squeeze out the liquid as quickly as possible. Care should also be taken that the starch liquid is cooled down below 150° F. before it is allowed to come in contact with the diastase.

Under no circumstances should the evaporation be stopped until the extract is of the consistence of simple syrup at least; even in that condition it should not be allowed to stand any length of time before the evaporation is completed and the extract is of the proper consistence.

Sufficient time should also be allowed in boiling so that the albumenoids in the mass are entirely coagulated, and hence retained in the dregs after percolation, as with their presence in the finished extract there is liable to set up a fermentation.

In the process of evaporation the operator should note the rate of distillation by glancing every few minutes through the eye piece of the air chamber, and regulate the same by the time available to complete the process; and should keep the distillation at as constant a rate as possible; especial care should here be used, as the writer has observed that a pecu