Page:A Practical Treatise on Brewing (4th ed.).djvu/189

Rh that one portion of diastase will convert 2000 of starch into saccharine matter: be this as it may, we know that distillers cannot succeed in making an extract, without a certain portion of malt in the admixture of the different corns they employ in their manufacture, or the grists, as they are technically called.

Although, however, much lower temperatures must be used in the distillery in the first instance, to avoid setting or coagulation, still the temperature must be gradually raised, until the point of saccharification is arrived at; and the temperature of the taps will consequently be found to be nearly the same.

In the following processes, it must always be remembered, that the great desideratum is, in the first place, to avoid all unnecessary delay in any part of the operation; in the second place, never to let any part of the same tap or wort remain in the underback or elsewhere, while the other part of it is being boiled; and lastly, to make as good an extract as circumstances will permit to be made with safety.

It will be seen, that although we invariably commence with as stiff a mash as possible, the quantity is generally made up during the mashing, to three barrels per quarter. The gradual increase of temperature insures the certainty of arriving at the proper point of saccharification without any risk of