1914 Beverages de luxe

IJurtun-on-Treiil lies in a basin ol' marl and fj^ypsum which strongly impregnate the water collected in the brewery wells. The water is, therefore, very "hard," and this, as we shall see, is of great benefit. Good water is indispensable to good brewing, but ab.solutely pure water (oxide of hydrogen) is never met with in nature. Its solvent properties are so great that it dissolves more or less of most substances with which it comes in contact. The smallest trace of organic matter renders it utterly unfit for brewing purposes; no matter how bright and sparkling it may appear to the eye, such water will not "keep," and therefore the Beer which migiit he l)rewed from it would not keep either. "Hard" water is suitable only for Ale, not for Stout. It is this simple fact, and not mere caprice, which has singled out Dublin as the more appropriate birthplace for Stout. "Soft" water extracts more from the malt than is desired by the brewers of Ale, while the hard Burton water has less attinity for the albuminous principles contained in the malt. Much in the same way when peas are boiled in soft water they are reduced to pulp, but if boiled in hard water their outside .skin is toughened, and they retain their individual shape. It is frequently supposed that the water u.sed for brewing at Burton is taken from the River Trent. This, of course, is a mistake — It is drawn from wells. The demands made by brew- ers upon these wells of late years have sometimes .severely taxed their resources, and the si)ring water is now used only for con- version into Ale. But we must not linger o\er the crystal water, fresh from its rock depths, for we have to \'isit the maltings. These great detached buildings stretch in a long and uniform line as far as. the eye can carry, and they are used exclusively for the purpose of converting the barley into malt, which must be done ere it is fit for brewing. The grain be.st suited to brewing Beer is barley, and much depends on the character of the -soil that grows it, as well as on the dryness or wetne.ss of the .sea.son. It is not every kind of barley that will make good malt, and great is the care and zeal exercised at Burton to obtain the very choicest and most suitable growths, no matter whether they be from the United Kingdom or abroad. The operation of malting is performed as follow\s: The barley is first placed in shallow ci.sterns, where it is .steeped in water, and afterwards spread out to the depth of a few inches on large drying floors. It (juickly gets warm of its own accord, and under the com- bined inOuence of warmth and moisture it .soon begins to .sprout.