Page:A Practical Treatise on Brewing (4th ed.).djvu/164

148 The author, in the former part of this work, has endeavoured to put brewers on their guard against the consequences of the evil he now alludes to, and to this he will now more particularly advert.

During the last year, owing to the rather unusual quantity of rain, the atmosphere was in general much more humid than in most seasons; the malt also, as before stated, was inferior in quality to that of other years, and consequently had a tendency to imbibe more moisture than it would otherwise have done, and nothing but great care in keeping it would prevent its doing so.

It is now well known that, when malt, from exposure to the atmosphere gets in the least damp (or slack as it is called), any beer brewed from it will not keep, but on the contrary will very soon get acid or stale; it is more than probable, therefore, that last year’s malt having got slack from bad keeping and the dampness of the air, was the principal cause of the beer made from it going off in the course of the season. The author had many applications respecting this, and invariably recommended the re-drying of the malt before using it, and when that was thoroughly done, it was generally found to be a considerable improvement. How often do we find brewers anxious for a little new malt before it can be brought to market? The same beneficial effects will be produced by redrying the malt, as this, if properly done, will answer