The art of brewing : practical and theoretical / by Frank Faulkner.

  • Faulkner, Frank.
Date:
1876
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The art of brewing : practical and theoretical / by Frank Faulkner. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    necessary consequence, you find acidity in your worts from the mash tuns, and if you take the trouble to examine you will find your worts far more acid at first “ setting tap ” than they are nearer the end of your pro- cess, when the acidity, with a successful system, is nil; and thus you will understand that the normal acidity of beer refers to the acidity you unavoidably extract from your malt; and so it ought to be the aim of every maltster to reduce any excessive percentage of acidity by constant change of steep-liquor and a slow and gradual germination on the floors at a low tem- perature. This mere normal acidity of malt is of no disadvantage, so long as you do not overstep the limit of, safety; for it tends to give to your beer a peculiar and yet very pleasant taste, quite different to the real acidity which arises in the final processes, and due, of course, to acetic acid. Thus, as a result of malting, you modify the starchy constituents, and you generate a principle (diastase) capable of effecting further modifi- cation, under certain conditions of temperature and fluidity; you get rid of a great deal of nitrogenous matter, in the form of the rootlet, and you produce that lactic acid, against your will, perhaps, which becomes the normal acidity of the soundest beer. All I have to say about the practical part is, that with lengthy steep, low heats, gradual growth, not carried to excess, and slow drying, you effect modifications in a regular and com- plete manner, without allowing of excessive formation of acid. Do not let the fact escape your mind that very little sugar is found during malting; a good system means that you so modify the constituents of the grain that they are easy of conversion and extraction in your mash