Page:A Practical Treatise on Brewing (4th ed.).djvu/42

26 ﬁnest malt from such barley will weigh about 43 or 44 lbs. per bushel; and if it be really all malt, its value may be determined by its weight, the heavier malt always yielding the greater produce. Still the final criterion must be the specific gravity of the worts as determined by the hydrometer or saccharometer. There are fewer husks proportionally in heavy than in light malt; and according to the weight and paucity of husks will be the extract in the mash-tun.

Malt of 40 lbs. weight per bushel should yield from 80 to 84 lbs. gravity per quarter by Long’s instrument, or from 220 to 233 specific gravity by Allen’s or Bates’s saccharometer. Good malt, however, if above that weight, will be found to produce more than the other, in proportion to the difference in weight, and is of course of greater or less value accordingly. In Ireland, all malt is sold by weight, 168 lbs. being allowed for a barrel, and it would perhaps be as well for the buyer, if the same method were adopted in this country.

Whether malt gives the best extract when ground with stones, or crushed with rollers, is undecided. We have seen this point put to the test. From the same bulk of malt, equal quantities were taken, and the one ground with stones, the other crushed with rollers: these were mashed in separate tuns