Malt 1850 - 1880

Brewers were still obliged by law to use malt as their source of fermentable material. Faulkner reckoned that, if this restriction hadn't applied, a great quantity of raw grain would have been used. (Source: "The Art of Brewing" by Frank Faulkner, 1876, page 9.) As we'll see in the next chapter, the use of unmalted grain was adopted by many, though not to the extent that Faulkner had feared.

The great variety of malting systems employed meant that finished malt also varied greatly. Brewers didn't always take this into account. "it is not difficult to understand why the beers at a single brewery vary so, when different malts are experimented with; for, of course, a different mashing temperature, time of standing, &C, are necessary, according to whether the malt in use happens to be well or badly made, friable or steely; and yet how seldom do we see this in practice; on the contrary, the same system of mash appears to be considered equally suitable for all sorts and kinds of malt." (Source: "The Art of Brewing" by Frank Faulkner, 1876, page 10.)

Grain for malting was piled into stacks and left to "sweat" for a minimum of 2 to 3 months. The first stage of the process was "steeping", where the grains were soaked in plenty of water for two to three days. After the water had been drained off, the grains were put into a frame called a "couch". After 26 hours heat was generated as germination began. The grain was spread thinly on the floor to stop it overheating and to allow germination to progress. After six days, the grain was sprinkled with water to further encourage germination. The grains began to sprout and after about 14 days, to prevent further growth of the plant, they were dried in a kiln to produce finished malt.

These were the types of malt available:

Pale malt: Slow drying in the kiln over four days gave this malt its pale colour and boosted the sugar content. Good pale malt gave a yield of 76 to 84 pounds of extract per quarter. (Source: "The Brewer" by William Loftus, 1856, page 37.)

Porter, black or patent malt. Roasted in a cylinder in a similar way to coffee at a temperature of 370º to 450º. Its main use was to colour Porter and Stout. The quality and colour of this malt were very variable. Some maltsters used low-quality barley in its preparation, resulting in almost charred grains with poor solubility, flavour and colour. Good quality black malt was made from the best malt and had a chocolate brown colour.

Brown malt. This was prepared in a similar way to pale malt, up until the end of the kilning process. The grain was spread in a thickness of 2 inches (50mm), sprinkled with water and the heat quickly raised by adding beech or birch wood to the fire. Brown malt yields was 15 to 20% less fermentable material than pale malt. The average extract from brown malt was 62 pounds per quarter. (Source {just the last sentence}: "The Brewer" by William Loftus, 1856, page 63.)

Blown malt. This was a variation of brown malt. Moist grain was spread about half an inch thick on a wire kiln. They were heated at a very high temperature whilst being constantly turned, until the grains suddenly increased in size. The fuel used was fern, straw or wood.  The yield from blown malt was 18 to 25% less than from pale malt.
(Source: "The Brewer" by William Loftus, 1856, pages 15-20.)