AN IMPROVED MASHING PROCESS AND APPARATUS USED THERE- FOR
Year: 1878

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Alexander Melville Clark at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 16th November 1878. A communi-
cation from abroad by Alfred Emanuel Feroe, of Tivoli, and John Bennett, of
Poughkeepsie, both in the County of Dutchess, State of New York, United
States of America.
ALEXANDER MELVILLE CLARK, of Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex,
Patent Agent.
"AN IMPROVED MASHING PROCESS AND APPARATUS USED THERE-
FOR." [A communication from abroad by Alfred Emanuel Feroe, of Tivoli, and
John Bennett, of Poughkeepsie, both in the County of Dutchess, State of New York,
United States of America.]
This Invention relates to an improvement in the mashing process used by
brewers for dissolving the diastase from the grain, and converting the starch to
dextrine or sugar as desired, and to apparatus employed therefor.
It has been heretofore usual to commence the mashing process with water heated
to at least 160° F., rendering the mash when stirred from 145° to 150°.
That temperature is many degress too high to dissolve the diastase thoroughly;
it is partially coagulated by such heat, and only a portion is available for converting
the starch of the malt into dextrine and sugar.
The wort from the first mash is run off to the boiling tub, where the temperature
is below that required for converting the starch; the diastase runs off with the
wort and is not only wasted but the diastase and starch in the wort are detrimental
to the cleaning and keeping qualities of the beer.
A second mashing process is required at a high temperature to convert the starch,
but there is a heavy loss in the yield of the grain, as there is not a sufficient
quantity of diastase left to convert the starch.
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According to this improved process a mash is first made in a mash tub in the
usual way, with water at a temperature sufficient to dissolve the diastase without
coagulation; this is allowed to stand about half an hour, when the diastase will be
thoroughly dissolved. A pump whose induction pipe is connected to the bottom
of the mash tub and its discharge pipe to a covered heating tub smaller and placed
at a higher level than the mash tub is then put in operation, and steam is admitted
T

page_text: to a steam coil in the heating tub; the liquor is drawn by the pump from the mash
tub to the heating tub, and from thence runs by gravity back to the mash tub, the
temperature being gradually raised to from 158° to 167° F. according as to whether
it is desired to convert the starch to sugar or dextrine.
The liquor is discharged over the whole area of the mash tub through a grid of
perforated pipes hung by chains near the top of the mash tub just below the surface
of the water so as to be removable. The return pipe from the heating tub connects
at the centre of the grid, and the liquor fills the pipes of the grid and discharges
through the perforations into the water, so as to secure uniformity in the tem-
perature.
This operation is continued until all the starch is converted and then the wort is
run to the boiling tub or kettle.
In place of heating the wort in the heating tub by a steam coil as described, the
tub may be filled with water heated by steam injected into it, and the wort passed
through the coil in heating tub; the temperature of the water will be gradually
raised, which will have a corresponding effect upon the wort until the desired
temperature is reached, when the wort is to be run to the boiling tub or kettle.
A thermometer will be placed in the side of the heating tub, and one in the pipe
from the said tub to the mash tub, and a third one in the pipe from the mash tub
to the pump, so that the temperature of the wort will be indicated at those
separate points, and the admission of steam to heating tub regulated accordingly.
The practical result of this process is that the diastase is first dissolved at a
proper temperature, and then all used for converting the starch, and the starch is
all converted, consequently the wort is comparatively free from starch, when drawn
off from the mash tub; the malt will act during the circulation in the manner of a
filter to free the wort from impurities.
As there is but one mash made, all the water that would be used for the second
mash by the process now in use is saved to sparge with, thus enabling the brewer
or distiller to make his wort of any desired gravity, and yet thoroughly exhaust
the grains of all useful inatter, as the last sparging can be pumped on and drained
through the malt several times till there is nothing soluble fcft in it.