The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1878-01-26 00:00:00

BOARD OF GUARDIANS.

The weekly meeting of this board was held
yesterday, Mr. Grainger in the chair. There
were also present Messrs. H. Billinghain,
Raybould, Giles, Guest, Kelley, Baker, Hall,
Thompson, Griffiths, Wood, Lavender, Haskew,
Smith, Fiddian, Hale, and Mills. Admitted
into the house during week 20 ; discharged 28 ;
born 0 ; dead 0; remaining 457 ; against 383 last
year. Oat-door relief, KingswiLfarcl district,
:£24 14s. 61 ; Stourbridge district, .217 15,,
Old., Halesoweu dis,riet £l5 143. 01 ; non-resi-
dent 9s 4d., total £5B 12s 10i-d, against £5O
36 Bth last year.

A VISIT TO THE STOURBRIDGE BREWERY.

As promised to our readers a few weeks ago we
now give a detailed account of the Stourbridge
Brewery. The building, which is erected in
DukeiStreet, Stourbridge, was erected by the late
Mr. John Wall in the year 1840, and the first brew-
ing took place in December the same year. Since
that time the business has so materially increased
as to necessitate an enlargement of the works,
and a short time ago the old brewery together
with the stables was pulled down. The erection
of the new building was entrusted to Mr. Arthur
Kinder, architect, Mansion House Chambers, Queen
Victoria Street, London, and the builder wae Mr.
John Guest, of Brettell Lane. The new building
may be divided into two parts ; the tower, which
is devoted to actual brewing, and the other the
cooling and fermenting portion. Having passed
the offices we come to the boiler house, in which
we see the Cornish boiler, made by Wood and Co.,
Brettell Lane. By its side we notice a,donkey
pump, by Frank Pearn and Co., of Manchester,
which forces the water into the boiler for the sup-
ply. We could not but admire the action of this
minature engine doing so great an amount of
work. This, with the fire-hole of the wort copper,
forms the basement of the lower part of the
brewery. Next we pass through the different parts
of the works till we come to the top portion of the
building. Taking the tower first, the malt is
hoisted by steam sack tackle to the top floor and
there crushed between a pair of steel rolls into a
hopper immediately beneath. Level with the top
of the hopper is a 45-gallon liquor back where
the liquor known to most people (except brewers)
as water. is boiled to the requisite heat. At the
bottom of this vessel is a copper coil where the
steam, passing from the boiler, heats the water,
and it is surprising that just with the turn of a
tan we see forty barrels of cold water heated
to boiling point in three-quarters of an hour.
The sack tackle astonished us by the simplicity and
small amount of strength it took to fetch from
the basement of the building the sacks of malt re-
quired for brewing, which. when wound up, goes
into the whole grist hopper and then . passes
through the crushing rolls, worked by a vertical
si-horse-power engine, by Seekins and Ellery, of
Gloucester. Having passed the rolls it is re-
ceived into the large hopper underneath, capable
of holding a hundred bushels. The grist
being ready in the hopper and the liquor at its
proper heat the engine, "Steel's patent machine"
is set in motion and the grist and liquor passing
through are thoroughly mixed and fall into the
mash tun. The time taken in mashing is one
quarter of malt (8 bushels) per minute. The grist
and water is entirely under the control of the head
brewer as he stands by the side of the mash tun
with his indicator. Next we proceed below to the
mash tun room with its immense tub and steam
appliances for mashing. We had the pleasure
of seeing the process of mashing when
we noticed the water coming from the tank above
into the Mashing machine which is constructed
with a rake inside, turned at great speed by the
large steam engine, and the malt coming into the
machine from the large hopper and m.eeting with '
the water are both whirled round inside the machine
and fL ll beautifully mashed into the tun. We
also saw the sparger in the tun and it is a simple
but useful and splendid piece of mechanism. It
is composed of a large pipe connected in the centre
of the tun where two arms are fixed. These arms
are perforated with holes and the water entering
into them turns them round and sends a stream
of water over every part of the goods. Next we
notice the wort, having lain some time in the tun,
runs into the immense copper which is capable of
boiling 50 barrels of ale (36 gallons to the barrel).
The 60-barrel copper is strong and well made and
was manufactured by James Dale, Upper Thames
Street, London. The fire under it is, by a peculiar
arrangement of the furnace and finds, entirely un-
der control. The pulleys and other contrivances
and instruments in this part are splendidly got up
regardless of expenee. The wort passes to the
hopback, a large iron yes el with perforated bottom
to keep backthe hop. This is in the lower partof the
cleansing, cooling, and other rooms in the next
part of the building. By the side of the hopbackis
another of Pearn and Co's., steam pumps, which
throws the wort from the hopback onto the coolers
at the top pert of this building at a distance of 32
feet. The wort then remains on the large cooler a
short time and then goes into a refrigerator manu-
factured by Robert Morton, of Burton. This is a
wonderful piece of mechanism, cooling 36 barrels
of wort from 190 degrees to 45 degrees in an hour.
The wort then passes to the guile tun or square
room where the first part of the cleansing com-
mences. Having stayed some time it then goes in-
to the union or cleansing casks. This is arranged
on the Burton system, which is the best appliance
in existence for cleansing the ale. Having finished
here it passes below irco the cellars to a settling
square or back where it stops a short time before
it is racked into the trade casks, which finishes the
process of brewing. We must not omit to mention
the cellars which are some of the best in England.
They are 45 feet deep and hewn out of the solid '
rock and the temperature
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making the whole of the malt they consume in
the malthouses adjoining the Brewery and in their
outlying malthouses. We are pleased to record
the courtesy shown to us by the head brewer, Mr.
Brown, late assistant brewer at the Westbromwieh
Brewery Company (Limited), under whose
chaperonage we were conducted through the
estaViehment, and whose superior judgment upon
the qualities of the ales enabled us to taste the
best of his own productions.