Chapter 4

This species of grain well managed, and made into malt, will be found alike useful to the brewer and distiller, but it is peculiarly adapted to the brewing of porter; further, it is known to possess more saccharine matter than any other grain used in either brewing or distilling, joined to the advantage of not interfering with the season for malting barley, as this should commence when the former ceases. The summer months are the fittest for malting this kind of grain, and can be only very defectively made at any other season, as it requires a high temperature to force germination, and cause it to give out all its sweet. The following process, it is expected, will be found to answer every purpose wished for: suppose your steep to contain sixty bushels, after you have levelled it off, let on your water as directed in malting barley; you should give fresh water to your steep at the end of twenty-four hours. If it is southern corn you are malting, it will require to remain in steep seventy-two hours in the whole; if it be northern corn, it will require ninety-six hours, there being a considerable difference in the density of these two kinds of grain; the hardest, of course, requires the most water; and, in all cases, the fresher Indian corn is from the cob the better it will malt. When you have accomplished the necessary time in your steep, you let off your water; and, when sufficiently drained, let it down in your couch frame, where it will require turning once in twelve hours, in order to keep it of equal temperature; the depth of the grain should be about two feet and a half in the frame; as it begins to germinate and grow, open your frame, and thin it down at every turning, until you reduce its thickness to six or seven inches; thus extending it on your lower floor, turning it more frequently, as the growth is rapid. The vegetation of the grain, together with the turning, will by this time make the watering pot necessary; the criterion by which you will judge of its fitness for the water, is as soon as you perceive the root or acrospire begins to wither. Two thirds of your water is to be distributed over the surface of your couch for the first watering, which will require thirty-two gallons, and when turned back again, sixteen gallons for the second watering, making in the whole forty-eight gallons of water to sixty bushels of corn. This water should be put on with a gardener's watering pot, as equally as possible. Supposing this pot to contain four gallons, it will make eight pots for the first watering, and four for the second. In this stage of the operation the turnings on the floor should be very frequent, in order to keep the grain cool, as the heat of the weather, at this season, will be sufficient to promote and perfect the vegetation. The second day after the first watering, if the blade is not sufficiently grown, water again, but in less quantity, say one half. It will be now four or five days more before the couch is ready for the kiln, which will be ascertained by the blade becoming the full length of the corn. After this it should be thrown on the upper floor, and suffered to wither for a couple of days, turning it frequently; by this time the blade will have a yellow appearance, the grain will become tender, and, if tasted, be found uncommonly sweet; in this state it may be committed to the kiln, and dried in the usual way.

N. B. It will generally take ten days after it is out of the steep to perfect the malting of southern corn, and twelve days for northern.

_Fermentation._

Notwithstanding that progress of improvement in the doctrine of fermentation has, in the last twenty years, far surpassed any thing in the same period that preceded it, we have still much to learn. Fermentation is the instrument or means which nature employs in the decomposition of vegetable and animal bodies, or reduction of them to their original elements, or first principles. Fermentation is, therefore, a spontaneous separation of the component parts of these bodies, and is one of those processes that is conducted by nature for their resolution, and the combination and fermentation of other bodies out of them; therefore, it is one of these operations in which nature is continually present, and going on before our eyes; this may be one reason that a very critical observance of it has escaped our attention. Fermentation brings us acquainted with this unerring axiom; that nothing in nature is lost; or that matter, of which all things are composed, is indestructible. For instance, the vinous process of fermentation, succeeded by distillation, produces ardent spirits, or alcohol, the elements of which are here described. If we pass this alcohol, or spirits of wine, through a glass, porcelain, or metallic tube, heated right hot, provided with a suitable condenser and apparatus to separate and contain the parts or products, it will be decomposed and resolved into its primitive elements, carbonic acid gas, or fixed air, and hydrogen gas, or inflammable air; the oxygen being decomposed and united with the oxygen, or vital air, into carbonic acid gas; the water of the spirit of wine being also decomposed, or resolved into its first principles as herein is stated, forms a part of the produce before mentioned.

Hence spontaneous fermentation, vinous, acetous, and putrefactive, is the natural decomposition of animal and vegetable matters, to which a certain degree of fluidity is necessary; for where vegetable and animal substances are dry, as sugar and glue for instance, and are kept so, no fermentation of any kind succeeds.

There can be no doubt that spontaneous fermentation first taught mankind the means of procuring wine and other agreeable beverage; observation and industry the means of making spirit and vinegar, the first of which is evidently the produce of art, combined with the operations of nature.

With nature for our guide, and our own ingenuity, fermentation has been made subservient to the various products we now obtain from saccharine and fermentable matters, such as sugar, molasses, grain, with which we have made wine, spirits, bread, beer, malt, &c.; which last has much facilitated our practice in fermentation, but proved the tide-ending, or point of stagnation to its further improvement. Relying too much on malted grain in the operation of fermentation, we are presented with some of the most pleasing and instructive phenomena of nature; the resolutions and combinations that are formed during the process of the vinous and acetous stages of fermentation, are interesting, beyond comparison, to the brewer, malt and molasses distillers, vintager, cider and vinegar maker, &c. The elastic fluids and volatile principles that are extricated and escape, formerly so little attended to, are now better understood. The method of commodiously saving, and advantageously applying them, and other volatile products, to the improvement of the fermenting and other fluids, will, I hope, not only form a new era in the progress of fermenting, brewing, distilling, &c. but a new source of profit, that may, in time, lead to a recomposition of those elements from which they were produced, or, at least, the fermentation of vinous fluids, vinegar, spirit, &c. by resorting to an inexhaustible source supplied by nature, of these important materials, and their application to the uses that may be made of that abundance so easily procurable, and at present so unprofitably wasted. But to continue our views to the business immediately before us, let us begin with the several products, by stating that carbonic acid gas, or fixed air, is copiously extracted from fluids in a state of vinous fermentation, and sundry mineral and vegetable substances, easily procurable, for which we have the testimony of our own senses; the same may be said of hydrogen gas, oxygen gas, &c. Presuming these positions granted, let us make a short inquiry into the composition of vinous fluids, &c. Apprehending there are but few people to whom these observations will be useful, but what will allow that all vinous fluids, whether intended for beer, wine, cider, &c. are the produce of saccharine matter, or fermentable matter obtained from the sugar cane, grain, fruit, &c. and the part which art at present takes in this beautiful process of nature, is to facilitate her operations in proportion to observation and experience, in conformity to the object in view, in making wine, beer, cider, spirit, &c.; or, subsequent to the vinous, to forward the progress of the acetous fermentation for the production of vinegar. The saccharine or fermentable matter of vegetables, consists in what is chemically called hydrogen gas, or inflammable air; carbonic acid gas, or fixed air; oxygen gas, or vital air; which last forms nearly one third part of the whole atmosphere, circumvolving our globe in which we breathe; or, more exactly, thirty-seven parts of oxygen, and seventy-three of azotic gas, are the component parts of our atmosphere, except the small proportion of undecomposed carbonic acid gas there may be found in it.

Beer, wine, cider, malt and molasses wash, and other product by distillation; spirit consists of these three elastic fluids or airs, in composition with various proportions of water. Water itself is a compound of vital and inflammable air; a proof of this, and of the indestructibility of matter, these two elastic fluids burned together, in certain proportions, and in a proper apparatus, reproduce water. By another chemical process, this very water is reducible to these two substances, vital and inflammable air; hence, we see, that all saccharine and fermentable matter, and their products, by fermentation, are composed of the same materials, and resolvable into the same elements.

It is scarcely necessary to give any definition of spontaneous fermentation, after what has been said on the subject; if it was, I would say it is that tendency which all fermentable matter has to decomposition, attended with intestine motion or ebullition, when sufficiently diluted with water, under a certain temperature of the atmosphere, the rapidity of which motion is always accompanied by an increase of temperature, or the change to a greater degree of heat generated within the body of the fermenting fluid, in proportion to the rapidity or augmentation of motion or ebullition excited. Fermentation produced by the addition of yest, or any other suitable ferment, in a fluid duly prepared, is governed by the same laws, and under the same influence of temperature, except when it is accelerated or protracted by the management of the operator, or by the changes induced by the influence of the atmosphere, rendered more or less subservient to his purposes, and produces a similar kind of spirit by distillation, possessing in common the properties of vinous spirit, or is converted to vinegar by the subsequent process of acetous fermentation, but much more productive in quantity and quality, so as to answer commercial purposes. In both spontaneous and excited fermentation, there is a similar escape of a large quantity of elastic fluid, or carbonic acid gas, with a considerable proportion of spirit, and some of the water of the fermented fluid. This gas is known to form a considerable part of mucilaginous substances, as sugar, molasses, honey, malt, and other saccharine and fermentable matter.

Although the doctrine of fermentation, as a science, does not enable us to alter the spontaneous course of nature; yet if, by the assistance of the instruments, and means recommended, we are enabled to foresee and provide for the changes induced by the alterations of the atmosphere, we can guard against the inconveniences in some cases, and make them subservient to our purpose in others; so as more securely to conduct the process in each to advantage; and that with unusual facility; complex as it at present appears: it will not only be a great improvement in the present mode of fermentation; but facilitate our progress to still greater improvements in the doctrine of fermentation. Therefore, the rule of our conduct, in these pursuits, should be to watch the operations of nature with the closest attention, and assist her when languid, and control her when too violent; that is, by spurring in one instance, and bridling in the other, and accurately and undeviatingly apply the means proposed in the manner recommended, until experience enables us to improve it; otherwise, we shall only admire, without improving or profiting by her choicest phenomena.

The motions of the planets, perplexed and intricate as they must have appeared in the infancy of astronomy, are now calculated and known with ease and precision.

Attenuation is a term not unaptly applied to fermentation, the property of attenuation being to divide, then dilute, and rarify thick, gross, viscid, and dense substances, in which some degree of fluidity is pre-supposed; it is, therefore, that kind of dilution or fluidity which is promoted by agitation, and very aptly applied to mark the progress of fermentation, which is itself the process of nature, for decomposing vegetable and animal substances under a convenient degree of fluidity; it exists in intestine motion, either spontaneous or excited, accompanied with heat, which, under certain limits, is proportioned to the vigour of the fermentation, which ends in the decomposition of one class of bodies, and the composition of another; and which may be instanced in the resolving saccharine substances into hydrogen, oxygen, and carbon, and the combining them into inflammable spirits, or alcohol, and inflammable acids or vinegar; to which may be added, the lower you attenuate, the lighter and more spiritous the fermenting fluid becomes; and that attenuation, which is the offspring of fermentation, like the parent process, has its bounds, and can only be conducted with certainty and advantage by the use of the hydrometer, thermometer, &c. In this only lies the difference between the old word fermentation, and the new word attenuation, every thing used as a ferment, or to promote fermentation, is attenuant. The tendency of the vinous process of fermentation is to evolve or disentangle the hydrogen of the fermenting fluid, and unite it, with the carbon and oxygen of the same fluid, into ardent spirit, wine, beer, or alcohol, which last is well known to be inflammable. The tendency of the acetous process of fermentation, is to involve or entangle the hydrogen and carbon of the fermented fluid, with a greater proportion of oxygen, into vinegar, which is uninflammable. The fixed air, or carbonic acid gas, so abundantly extricated during the vinous process of fermentation, which every one concerned in the process is presumed to be acquainted with, is either composed of hydrogen and oxygen, or is a composition of carbon and oxygen, on which philosophers are divided in opinion. As the result is the same with respect to the formation of wine, beer, and spirit, I shall enter into no controversial reasoning on this head, instead of which, I shall endeavour to point out the most effectual mode of saving and profitably applying it, and the other elements, in the composition of wine, beer, spirit, and acid.

As in fermentation, spontaneous or excited, there is a sensible escape of carbonic acid gas, or fixed air, it may not be improper to note, that fermentable, or saccharine matter, consists of about twenty-eight pounds of carbon, eight pounds of hydrogen, and sixty-four pounds of oxygen, reducible into fixed, inflammable, and vital air, weighing one hundred subtile pounds in toto, or that every one hundred subtile pounds of saccharine matter consists of such proportions of these airs and gasses.

Attenuation is the result of a due resolution of the fermentable matter produced by excited fermentation, which divides mucilages, resolves viscidities, breaks down cohesions, generates heat and motion, extricates the imprisoned gasses, and, by frequent commixture, promotes the action and re-action of the component particles on each other, and by continually exposing a fresh surface and opposition of matter, brings them within the sphere of each other's attraction.

As their original attraction is weakened by heat and motion, their expansion is increased by repulsion; and as they revolve, and recede from each other in this way, they are fitted, by the change in their modification, to involve each other, and from new attractions combining with each other into new substances, according to affinity, under changes induced in their nature conducive to this end, which not being exactly known, cannot at present be fully defined. In every brewing, or preparation of saccharine fluid for fermentation, the following phenomena occur: first, _heat_ is either disengaged or fixed: secondly, an _elastic fluid_ is either formed or absorbed in a nascent state: these two indisputable facts form the uniform and invariable phenomena of fermentation, and may be admitted as an established _axiom_, that the proportions, extrication, and action of heat, with the fermentation and fixation of elastic fluids, during the process, are the foundation of the vinous products of the fermenting fluid. In conformity to so rational a theory, I have for many years regulated my practice, the result of which is the object of these papers. These, therefore, are the three great objects which should engage our attention; not only in fermentation, but in every similar process in chemistry, and are the fundamental principles of our doctrine. FERMENTATION being not only a decomposition of the fermentable matter, but of the water of the fluid also; and the fixed air formed during the process being composed of the hydrogen and oxygen of the fermentable matter, and the water of the fluid also, there is a perpetual decomposition and recomposition of that water, which gives fluidity to the whole mass, taking place during the continuance of the process, part of the hydrogen and oxygen of which escapes under the form of fixed air, for want of a proper substance being presented of affinity enough to absorb and combine with it into wine, beer, or spirit, or some other necessary assistance in heat, light, motion, oxygen, hydrogen, carbon, &c. or an intermedium to facilitate the formation of wine, beer, or spirit, in preference to fixed air. Fixed air, or carbonic acid gas, consists of about twenty-five parts of oxygen, and nine of carbon, devested of the mucilage and yest that rises with it. It should be recollected, that the decomposition of pyrites, the formation of nitre, respiration, fermentation, &c. are low degrees of combustion, and though it is the property of combustion to form fixed and phlogisticated airs, both the modes of doing it, and the quantity of the products, depend on the manner of oxygenating them in the changes brought about by the different modes of combustion, or fermentation in the vinous, acetous, and putrid process, which show the affinity between them.

Fermentation is a subsequent _low combustion_ of the vegetable oxydes or grain, that has undergone a previous, but partial combustion, something like the slightly charring, or oxydating of wood or pit-coal, by which the oxygenation is incomplete in both, and rendered more complete in the former. An ultimate combustion of the fermentable matter employed, is found only in the putrid process of fermentation, which is a final or total decomposition of vegetable and animal substances, in the actual combustion or burning of wood, charcoal, or bones.

In the vinous process we have seen the escape of carbonic acid gas; in the acetous process there is a great escape of azotic gas, or phlogisticated air, from the decomposition of the air of the atmosphere consumed in this process, which consists of about two-thirds of azotic gas, and one third of oxygen gas,[3] the oxygenous part being absorbed in the acetous process, and azotic set free with more or less hydrogen and acetic gas, proportioned to the existing heat. If the heat is beyond a certain degree, a portion of the ethereal part of the new-formed acid escapes also.

[3] Twenty-seven parts of oxygen gas, and seventy-three of azotic gas.

In the putrid process, the hydrogen escapes under the acriform shape of inflammable air and azotic gas, and nothing more remains than mere earth or water, or both, as the case may be, which is exactly similar to other combustions, of which nothing remains, (if we except phosphorus) but earth or ashes, with what small portion of alkaline or other salts they may contain. This alkaline matter being present during the formation of carbonic and azotic gas, absorbs, to saturation, a due proportion of them, and generates _tartar_.

Experience has taught us the truth or justness of this definition, and though it has brought us acquainted with the results of those three stages of fermentation, combustion, or decomposition, we have certainly overlooked the means of applying them with all the advantage they admit of in the business which is the subject of these papers, and which a little time and close observation must convince us of; and how much has been hitherto lost, with the means of saving it in future, shall be presently explained, and particularly pointed out.

In the prosecution of this design, where I may not be able to give an unexceptionable demonstration, I hope always to be provided with a practical proof, which may prove equally beneficial.

Let us now see what passes in a state of low combustion, such as may be the result of fermentation in vegetables, arising from heat, moisture, and motion, when impacted together. The most obvious occurrence of this nature is found in new hay, which, under these circumstances, for want of care and attention, often spontaneously takes fire, particularly in wet seasons.

Fermentation, being one of the lowest degrees of combustion, is here the spontaneous effect of the moist hay being impacted together, and not properly made, that is, without the superfluous juices being dried out of it, by which it retains a sufficient degree of fluidity or moisture to begin a fermentation, in which heat and motion are generated, and light, in a nascent state, extricated; these appearances accumulated and accelerated by incumbent pressure, the redundant moisture being soon exhausted, and the heat and motion increasing, the actual combustion of the mass takes place, which is much facilitated by a decomposition of the water of this moisture, and the air of the atmosphere, unavoidably insinuated between the interstices formed by the fibres of the hay, as they are impacted together into cocks, or stacks, breaks out into actual flame, or _light visible_. These are no novel appearances, but such as fall within the observation of every one; and the candid maltster will acknowledge, that from the same cause, though differently produced, similar effects may, and sometimes do, happen in the malt house, in the preparation of that modern article of luxury, by which we are enabled to make malt wine; and these instances are sufficient to prove fermentation to be a low degree of combustion, and to both simplify and explain the justness of this doctrine. The malting of corn is the first stage of vegetation, low combustion, and fermentation.

From observation and reasoning on what passes before our eyes, we discover the low species of fermentation, in which the malting of corn consists, to be a low degree of combustion, which, for want of due attention, may break out into actual flame. We were always acquainted with the _effect_: now reasoning on the subject brings us to a knowledge of the cause.