The American Practical Brewer and Tanner | Page 7

most approved covering for malt kilns in
England (although not the most economical) is hair cloth, as it is
asserted, it dries the palest and sweetest malt. Many prefer tiles, as less
expensive and more lasting; others dry on boarded floors, and if this
construction be well managed, I take it to be as good as any, and much
cheaper than either tiles or hair cloth. (See description page 23.) The
dropping room for receiving the malt as it comes off the kiln may be
constructed different ways; but I take it that a ground floor covered
with a two inch plank well jointed, and properly laid, is preferable to a
loft for keeping malt, and in this situation might be heaped to any depth
without injury or danger of breaking down. Malt thus kept, if well dried
before coming off the kiln, is never in danger of heating or getting
slack. The common mode of keeping malt is in bins situated on upper
lofts, often injured by leaks from the roof, and at all times liable to the
depredations of rats, which in the other way can be effectually guarded
against, and is a highly important object of precaution to be taken by
the brewer. Should weevils at any time get into, or generate in your
malt, which is common when held over beyond twelve or eighteen
months, the simplest and easiest way of getting rid of them, is to place
four or five lobsters on your heap of malt, the smell of which will soon
compel the weevils to quit the malt, and take refuge on the walls, from
which they can be swept with a broom into a sheet or table cloth laid on
the malt, and so taken off. It is asserted, that by this simple contrivance
not one weevil will remain in the heap. Malt intended for brewing
should be always screened before grinding; and for this purpose it is a
good contrivance to screen it by means of the horse mill, as it runs from
the hopper to the rollers or stones to be ground, the expense of which
apparatus is comparatively nothing when compared to the advantages
arising from it.
[2] By some this construction of a steep may be thought too dear; in
that case, a rough wooden one may be substituted, which, instead of
placing outside the house, I would place on the upper floor of the malt
house, so as to afford the opportunity of getting down its contents to the

lower floor by means of a plug hole, which will save the labour of
shovelling; but in summer, when this steep is not employed, it should
be filled with lime water to prevent leaking, and to keep it sweet.

Wooden Kilns, how constructed.
The best form for these kilns is the circular. I will suppose the diameter
sixteen feet; you construct your fire-place suitably to the burning of
wood at about ten feet outside your kiln house, sufficiently elevated on
iron bars to secure the draft of the fire place, from which runs a
proportionate sized flue into the kiln, communicating with a circular
flue which is close covered at top, and rounds the kiln on the inside at
the distance of two feet from the wall; on both sides of this circular flue
holes are left, at the distance of twelve or sixteen inches apart, on both
sides, to let out the smoke and heat; the platform or floor of this kiln is
raised about four or five feet above the top of the flue, and is made of
three quarter inch boards, tongued and grooved, supported by joists two
inches broad, and nine inches deep, placed at proportioned distances, to
give solidity to the floor. The floor or platform of this kiln should be
carefully laid, and well nailed; in this floor should be placed a wooden
chimney, nine inches square, on the most convenient part of the inside
next the wall, with a wooden register at a convenient distance: this
chimney is intended to let off the great smoke that arises in the kiln at
first lighting fire, particularly if the wood be moist or green. When this
has gone off, and the fire burns clear, the register may be shut within a
few inches, in order to keep up a small draft. It would have been proper
to state that joists, intended to support the floor of this kiln, should be
levelled off to one inch, top and bottom, so as give the fire a better
chance to act upon the malt; these joists should be further paid as soon
as, or before, laying down, with a strong solution of alum water; as also
the bottom face of the boards laid on them, which should