Sunday 18 September 2022

Beanes’ Patent Grist (part three)

Back with Beanes’ Patent Grist again. This time, how to use it.

Because, unlike flaked grains, you  more than one way method of employment. Obviously, you could mix it up with the malt in the mash tun. Then there was another way.

We'll get to that later. First we'll learn a little more about its properties.

"Unlike flaked maize or rice, we have upon the market a material styled Beanes’ Patent Grist, which is a special preparation of rice made upon advantageous lines, and which, when it reaches the brewer, is a retorrefied product having all the starch in a condition ready to be acted upon by the diastase of the malt directly it is mixed with the same in the mash-tun. It yields an extract of from 100 to 115 lbs. per quarter of 3 cwts., and when boiled for some hours with naked steam, and then used as part of the mash liquor, it will yield even a larger extract. For all practical purposes, so far as extract is concerned, compared to barley malt, 2 cwt. of this Beanes’ Patent Grist equals one quarter of malt—that is, equals 3 cwts. of barley malt as regards extract yield."
"A Treatise of Practical Brewing and Malting" by Frank Thatcher, The Country Brewers' Gazette, 1905, pages 291 - 292.

That's a very high extract. The same as sugar of which 2 cwt was also equal to 2 cwt of malt. 

It also didn't leave a funny taste like nasty old maize:

"The process of manufacture is a guarantee of freedom from any deleterious substances, and, being manufactured from the finest selected rice, thoroughly kiln-dried, free from mould and unsound germs, containing a minimum amount of oil unlike maize (which often possesses a large amount), it does not impart to beers after storage that peculiar characteristic flavour which is so often noticeable in beers produced with a percentage of maize containing much oil. Then again, beers produced with this grist, even in cold weather, improve by storage, which is not so with those produced from maize."
"A Treatise of Practical Brewing and Malting" by Frank Thatcher, The Country Brewers' Gazette, 1905, page 292.

The high dextrin content was useful in preventing a beer drying out too much.

"When this grist is employed and boiled as already mentioned above, an improvement is generally noticeable in outcrops of pure yeast during fermentation owing to an alteration taking place in the albuminoids. Moreover, the method of manufacture of this grist is carried out in such a way that it contains a large proportion of dextrin; consequently, the beers do not run down in cask, the final attenuations being more permanent, and the condition remains more persistent, while owing to the finished beers possessing less unstable albuminous matter, they take the finings more rapidly and sick frets are less usual."
"A Treatise of Practical Brewing and Malting" by Frank Thatcher, The Country Brewers' Gazette, 1905, page 292.

Finally, here's the other way of using Beanes’ Patent Grist

It is employed in the usual way by being carefully mixed with the malt as it enters the grist hopper; perfect admixture is absolutely necessary for success, or it may be boiled two hours before use in a decoction vessel, then allowed to cool and be used as ordinary mashing liquor, since it entirely dissolves when treated in this way. Some employ it thus by boiling it (overnight) in a vessel with naked steam for several hours, employing three-and-a-half barrels of liquor per each 3 cwts. of grist. This decoction vessel or copper is connected to the Steel’s masher or the liquor pipe entering the masher, so that part liquor and part grist solution enters the masher conjointly, but those who wish to avoid this trouble may obtain excellent results by using it in the same way as barley malt, provided it is most efficiently mixed with the grist before it enters the mash-tun; otherwise the diastase is unable to convert the material into saccharine matter efficiently. For the production of all classes of beers, it is a material which has been known to brewers for very many years, and has been successfully used in some of our very largest breweries for a great number of years."
"A Treatise of Practical Brewing and Malting" by Frank Thatcher, The Country Brewers' Gazette, 1905, pages 292 - 293. 

I'm a bit confused as to how it could completely dissolve. Surely there would still be stuff in the which wasn't soluble. Was it really pretty much all dextrin?

2 comments:

Rob Sterowski said...

I suppose they mean the resulting mixture is smooth with no lumps or bits in it. I’ve brewed with cornflakes and they pretty disintegrate entirely.

A Brew Rat said...

Seems kind of amazing that this wonderful product completely disappeared.