IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PRE- PARATION AND APPLICATION OF THE MATERIALS FOR MAKING WORTS AND WASHES IN BREWING, DISTILLING, AND LIKE OPERATIONS, AND IN THE APPA- RATUS CONNECTED WITH THE SAME
Year: 1856

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Henry Dircks, of Moorgate Street, in the City of
London, Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PRE-
PARATION AND APPLICATION OF THE MATERIALS FOR MAKING WORTS AND
WASHES IN BREWING, DISTILLING, AND LIKE OPERATIONS, AND IN THE APPA-
RATUS CONNECTED WITH THE SAME,"
Sealed the 6th January 1857, and dated the 7th November 1856.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Henry Dircks at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
7th November 1856.
I, HENRY DIRCKS, of Moorgate Street, in the City of London, Engineer, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
PREPARATION AND APPLICATION OF THE MATERIALS FOR MAKING WORTS AND WASHES
IN BREWING, DISTILLING, AND LIKE OPERATIONS, AND IN THE APPARATUS CONNECTED
WITH THE SAME," to be as follows:-
My said improvements consist in producing from the farinaceous materials
one or more qualities of flour, and one or more qualities of pollard and bran
or husk, and in applying the flour and husk so produced in brewing, distilling,
and like operations, in the manner and by means of the apparatus herein-after
referred to. I employ milling apparatus for the production of the different
qualities of flour and husk, and treat the flour and busk separately in suitable
vessels, with strainers and mixing arms or stirrers, adapted for obtaining the
extract from the flour or husk. The hops may be treated in the usual manner,
or the obtaining of the extract therefrom may be facilitated by apparatus for

page_text: steaming and boiling, and may be aided by centrifugal action. The boiling
may take place in coppers heated by steam or hot water, with a refrigeratory
pipe for cooling the wort, and other arrangements may be employed for cooling
the worts, and for bringing the same to the state of concentrated extracts, and
colouring may be propared from such extracts or the husk. The processes
and arrangements herein-before referred to may be applied to amylaceous
matters generally, and to obtaining wort from common brewers' grist.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Henry Dircks in the Great Seal Patent Oflico on the
7th May 1857.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HENRY
DIBCKS, of Moorgate Street, in the City of London, Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS 1er most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Seventh day of November, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six, in the twentieth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Henry Dircks, Her special licence that I, the said Henry Dircks, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Henry
Dircks, iny executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agreo
with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during the
term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and
vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel
Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PREPARATION
AND APPLICATION OF THE MATERIALS FOR MAKING WORTS AND WASHES IN BREWING,
DISTILLING, AND LIKE OPERATIONS, AND IN THE APPARATUS CONNECTED WITH THE
SAME; upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Henry Dircks,
my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their,
or one of their hands and seals, should particularly describe and ascertain the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same was to be per-
formed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office
within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said
Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Henry Dircks, do hereby declare the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,
to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following state-
ment:-

page_text: My said improvements, in so far as they relate to the process of preparing
the farinaceous materials, consist in the application of corn or flour mills,
driven by steam or other power, for grinding the malt or the unmalted grain,
combined with the employment of bolting machines, or wire or other dressing
machines, for dressing the malt, meal, or other meal produced thereby,
delivering one or more qualities of flour and one or more qualities of pollard
and bran or husk.
In carrying out my improved process of making worts and washes from the
materials thus prepared, I first treat the flour, by mixing it intimately with
moderately heated water, and keep the mixture at a regulated and maintained
temperature in suitable pans, tanks, or other vessels until the diastase of the
malt has sufficiently saccharised the malt starch and any added starch. I
next operate on the bran or husk by itself, or mixed with the pollard, using
hot water therewith in a mash tun or other distinct vessel and leave the mash
covered up for some time to sacebarify the small adhering portion of starch,
and to obtain the colouring and flavouring principles of the husk.
The flour and water may either be mixed by the aid of one or more large
mixing apparatus answering the purpose of a mash tun, or may bo passed in
successive portions through lesser apparatus, and be thereby brought to a thin
batter or pasty consistence, and allowed to flow to the pans or other vessels
for saccharification. The mixing apparatus may be variously constructed,
having within each a rotating shaft carrying arms or stirrers, the flour falling
on suitable sieves and thence into the water simultaneously agitated beneath;
or a boss may slide freely on the centre shaft, carrying two, four, or more
horizontal arms or brushes, which being raised to the top of the shaft and
temporarily retained there, the flour may be discharged into the mash tun
above a finely perforated false bottom until filled up one half or more. The
flour being then gently pressed and levelled, the two or more brushes may be
slid down the shaft and the shaft gently rotated to cause the brushes to level
the top surface of the flour. Water at a moderate temperature being next
admitted, the rotation of the shaft will carry the brushes gently over the
surface of the flour, and gradually and regularly combine it with the water.
The descent of the brushes may be regulated by a screw through a bracket
on the shaft, or other like means. Tho brushes should be set inclined, and
they may be made of bristles, wire, and various known materials.
The saccharifying vessels may be made of metal or wood, or a combination
thereof, and be of various dimensions, forms, and construction. They may bo
heated by furnaces, or by steam or hot water jackets, pipes, or similar means
as customarily applied for heating pans, tanks, and like vessels. They may

page_text: also have in each a centro rotating shaft carrying arms and stirrers, and
contain a strainer made of suitable woven fabric, a diaphragm, false bottom,
or other filtering medium placed either stationary or made moveable to detain
insoluble matter, and if required assist its discharge from the vessels when
emptying them; and the worts may likewise, when needful, be filtered
through layers of the bran or husk, charcoal, sand, or other independent
strainers or filters.
•
Figure 1 of the Drawings hereunto annexed is a sectional elevation of one
form of saccharifying pan constructed according to my said Invention.
A, A, A, is a copper pan, connected by flanges a, a, with a hot water or
steam jacket B, B; the top edge of the pan at b, b, is turned up to admit the
outer edge of the lid or cover C, C; and c, c, is a ring of gasket or other
packing; and d, d, a metal ring to equalise the pressure of a number of
clamps set round the edge to make a steam-tight joint. The cover has at D
an aperture, which may be connected with a jointed pipe from a steam boiler,
to blow in steam when required. E is an opening for a thermometer; F, a
centre packed collar to receive a stirrer or insert. G, H, a turned metal rod,
fitting steam-tight, connected at e with the bottom of I, I, I, a canvas or
other strainer or filter, which rod, when raised until H is at e', e, will then
cause the strainer also to rise and take the situation marked by the dotted
lines f,f,ff; a solid or tubular metal hoop J, J, rests on small brackets
within the top edge of the pan, and serves to clip and distend the strainer I,
the top edge of which may have a cord g secured to it all round to prevent
its slipping down between the pan and the hoop. The jacket, if of cast iron,
may have a perforated boss h, h, cast in the bottom to receive the draw-off
cock K; tho jacket should also have an inlet at L and outlet at L' for the
circulation of hot water supplied from a proper boiler, and similar inlets and
outlets M, M', for connection with a suitable steam boiler, as usual in heating
by means of steam or hot water, the same being admitted to the space i, i,
between the pan A and the jacket or casing B. I would here observe that
when the first liquid products are drawn off from the saccharising vessels, the
remaining extract retained by soakage may be recovered by steaming or
boiling in the same or like constructed vessels, but the husk readily yielding
its extract retains little or nothing of value in soakage. The principle on
which my saccharising vessels are constructed may be variously applied in
converting brewers' iron and wool tanks, cisterns, backs, mash tuns, and like
vessels to serve the same purpose. Perforated steam pipes may be inserted
within the layers of insoluble matter when too thickly spread to convey steam
to the interior, and filtration may be facilitated by a vacuum or by steam

page_text: pressure. As saccharisation is complete in three hours, or thereabouts, a second
class of vessels may be used in which to conduct the filtering and steaming;
they may be of any convenient form, but the shallower the better, divided with
a horizontal diaphragm or filter, and boing placed near the saccharising vessels
would serve to receive the saccharised charge every three hours, or there-
abouts, by which arrangement one sett of vessels might be employed to
saccharise repeated charges, and the second vessels be engaged entirely in
steaming the saccharised materials to exhaust the soluble portion. Steam
may be obtained when requisite from a separate steam boiler, and the steam
blown in either over or under the saccharised materials to be so exhausted for
obtained worts or washes. Worts may thus be obtained that will require
little or no concentration by boiling. The hops may be boiled in the worts
as generally practised for brewing; or, by my improved process an extract may
be obtained from the hops suitable for adding to worts, for which purposo
I either use the hops in their natural state, or sifted, or rubbed with sugar,
and subject them to boiling and steaming.
Figure 2 is a sectional elevation of one arrangement of my improved
apparatus for obtaining hop extract. A', A', is the external body of a vessel
of which B' is the bottom, with a central steam pipe C, C', fixed to it, and is
open at both ends; D' is a cover, with a funnel E', and also has a rim round
its outer edge, dipping into a channel F¹ to afford a water-joint; G' is a
perforated false bottom; and II' is a perforated plate, merely to press on the
hops placed within the space a', a'. The liquid extract percolates into b', ',
and is withdrawn at 1'; a flange c', c', runs round the lower edge of the
vessel, so that when fitted to a pan or copper of the requisite diameter the
flanges of both may be clamped together, with gasket or other packing or
luting between, obliging the steam to escape up C¹ and steam the hops in a¹;
or steam may be introduced in various known ways. Or, the apparatus may
consist of a cylinder or concentric cylinders, having a hollow perforated shaft
or like means for admitting steam, the extract being displaced by centrifugal
action; and all such apparatus are also applicable for exhausting brewers'
ordinary spent hops.
The boiling of worts made according to my said improved process may take
place in coppers heated by steam or hot water, and may have a refrigeratory
pipe for wholly or partially cooling the worts therein, and other arrangements
may be employed for cooling the worts and bringing the same to the state of
concentrated extract, and colouring may be prepared from such extracts, or
from the husk roasted in rotatory cylinders. The processes and arrangements
herein-before referred to may be applied to amylaceous matters generally, and

page_text: to obtaining worts from common brewers' grist. Worts from the flour of malt
alone, or combined with other flour or starch, are desirable for wine and vinegar
making; or worts so obtained may be hopped to produce palo and mild or
bitter beers; and washes made in like manner, not hopped, will be suitable
for distillatory purposes.
Having thus fully described my said Invention, I would here remark that
I prefer employing the application of hot water for heating during the sac-
charifying process, after which the higher temperatures may be obtained by
using steam. But I desire it to be understood that as the several methods
employed throughout my processes may be considerably modified, I do not
limit myself to the precise modes berein described for conducting the same, so
long as the results are substantially in accordance with the principle of my
said Invention, neither do I confine myself to any particular form, dimensions,
or materials in the construction of my apparatus; and I do declare that what
I claim as my improvements are, namely:-
First, the peculiar preparation of malt and unmalted grain, by grinding
and dressing, combined with the modes of treatment, for making worts or
washes.
Second, the apparatus for mixing flour and water.
Third, the application of brushes in apparatus for mixing flour and
water.
Fourth, the construction and application of saccharifying pans or vessels for
making worts and washes.
Fifth, the construction and application of vessels for steaming and filtering
the saccharised materials.
Sixth, the preparing of concentrated extracts, either viscid or solid, freed
from the colouring and bitter of the separated husk.
Seventh, the application of such pale extracts or worts deprived of husk
flavour in brewing either mild or bitter pale alc.
And, eighth, the method of making hop extract for brewers' worts,-as
In witness whereof, I, the said Henry Dircks, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Sixth day of May, in the year of our Lord 1857.
HENRY DIRCKS. (L.S.)
HENRY DIRCKS. (L.S.)