1872 Cooling Cups and Dainty Drinks (Mixellany)

Qualities of 3fait. 95 make the beer flat. A handful of hops boiled in 2 quarts of beer, and put in two days before the clarification, will greatly improve and assist the process. Or 3 drachms of calcined powdered alum may be used, dissolved in alcohol, and mixed with 10 gallons of the beer. The quantity of malt requisite for a brewing depends upon the strength required. Malt ought to be crisp, tender, of sweet taste, full grain, and of thin skin. A simple test of good malt is this: take a tumbler nearly full of water, put in some malt; if it swims, it is good; if any sink to the bottom, that is not true malt. If malt is hard and feels like barley, it has not been well made, and will weigh heavier than that which has been properly made. Pale malt is the slowest and least dried, producing more wort than high-dried malt, and of better quality. Amber malt produces a flavour much admired in many malt liquors. Brown malt loses much of its nutritious qualities, but it confers a peculiar flavour on the beer. Roasted malt is used to give colour and flavour to porter. Ground malt is termed " grist/' and when in the mash-tub it is called "goods/' and the extract "wort." A bushel of good malt will measure 1J bushel when ground: a quarter yields 9J to 10 bushels.