1868 The complete Practical Distiller

ARRACK, OR SPIRITS OF RICE.

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only to malt a certain portion of the rice destined for distillation, and to mix it in the proportion of one-fourth or one-third of malted rice to three-fourths or two-thirds of unmalted; the fermentation would thus be equally complete. There is another method of predisposing rice to fermentation, which has been found successful. It is founded on the property which malted barley possesses of saccharifying the grain that is mashed with it. Supposing that 80 kilogrammes of rice are to be worked, they are first reduced into fine and well-divided This is thrown into a tub of about 12 hectolitres, and there it is diluted with 80 kilogrammes of water, such in temperature as to cause the thermometer, after the mixture has been well agitated and brought to a uni- form mass, to rise to 77° or 80°. This mixture is left to subside for about half an hour, while 20 kilogrammes of malt, ground into fine flour, are separately steeped and well diluted in an equal weight of water at 100°. The mixture of rice having been left to itself during the time indicated above, the tub is uncovered, and boiling water is let into it until the mass becomes thicker and has the consistence of a dense lob ; all this while the mixture is agitated until the thermometer has risen to 180°. Then the mashing commences ; it is efi*ected by throwing into the tub the portion of malt separately steeped. The mixture is then agitated in all directions to render it homogeneous, and to establish a perfect contact between the malted barley and the rice. When this condition is evidently fulfilled, the tub is covered up again, and the wort is left to subside for three or four hours. At this period a phenomenon worthy of remark takes place : the flour.