where the grist is deposited in various channels, of which we shall have to speak presently. The stages or layers of these 'Jacob's ladders,' or, rather, the ascending and descending ladder, are each enclosed in an iron trunk or case extending the whole length; the ascending ladder having the buckets full, while those of the descending ladder are empty. The subjoined cut shows the appearance of two of the buckets

seen through an open door in the iron case. The buckets and the endless leather band to which they are attached are set in motion by machinery connected with one or both of the rollers at the ends of the ladder; and when we state that these buckets raise up, on an average of the whole year, more than two thousand two hundred quarters of malt per week (for this is the quantity required for the brewery), it will be allowed that this 'Jacob's ladder' is a most industrious porter.

Of the great brewhouse itself, to which we have now arrived, it is no easy task to give a description. The first effect on the mind of a stranger is a state of bewilderment, which is not removed till matters are viewed a little more in detail. The dimensions of the room are so vast, the brewing utensils reach to such a height, and the pumps, pipes, rods, and other apparatus are so thickly arranged on every side,

that unless we follow the actual brewing processes in their regular order, the whole assemblage, to the mind of a visitor, becomes a mass of confusion.

In the first place the reader must imagine a room nearly equalling Westminster Hall in magnitude, built entirely of iron and brick, and uninterrupted by distinct floors or partitions, so as to be open from the ground to the roof, except where stages and platforms occur in various parts and at various heights. The room is lighted by eight lofty windows on the east side; and all round the walls just below the roof are openings for the exit of steam. The principal part of the room is occupied by ten enormous piles of brewing vessels, reaching from the ground to a great height. Without troubling ourselves with detailed measurements, it will be sufficient to state the average diameters of all these vessels at about twenty feet; and the arrangement of them is as follows:-The piles of vessels are ranged in two rows of five each, occupying the greater part of the length of the room, parallel with the windows. Those nearest to the windows consist of a square iron vessel called an 'under-back' (i. e. lower cistern), near the ground; above this a circular vessel called the 'mash-tun;' above this again a square wooden box called a 'malt-case;' and, highest of all, a pipe to convey malt into this case. Each one of the set farthest removed from the windows consists, near the bottom, of a large furnace; above this, a copper-boiler enclosed in brick-work, and capable of holding nearly twelve thousand gallons; above this again, a vessel called a 'copperpan;' and at the top a copper-back,' for receiving the wort previous to its being boiled with the hops. These ten piles of vessels, as before stated, occupy the chief part of the brewhouse; but there is also, near each end, a very capacious square vessel, called a 'hop-back,' or 'jackback.' The pumps, pipes, iron platforms, iron flights of stairs, &c. are very numerous, and distributed in various parts of the building; but they are altogether subsidiary to the large piles of vessels just alluded to.

Let us now see how far it may be practicable to explain, in a brief manner, the purposes to which these huge vessels are applied. To aid the description, we give a sectional representation of the principal vessels and working apparatus. The reader is supposed to be looking southward, with the windows on the left hand, and to have before him a vertical section of all the vessels in one of each of the five pairs alluded to above, together with the long 'Jacob's ladder,' and the malt

Most of the vessels and apparatus have the names attached, whereby crushing apparatus in the building to the right of the great brewhouse.

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10

SCALE OF FEET 20

30

40

Fig. 5.

the reader, by occasional reference to the cut, can follow the routine

of processes.

To begin at the beginning, let us suppose the furnace-fires to be lighted. The door of each furnace is opposite the western wall of the building; and a passage leads along the sides of the furnaces, with the furnace-doors on the one hand, and large cellars or receptacles for coals on the other, one in front of each of the five furnaces. These cellars are supplied with coals in a very ingenious manner. The coals, when brought to the brewery, are placed in a coal-yard or court, and from thence are conveyed to another receptacle within the brewhouse. Here a box, capable of holding about two sacks, is filled with coals, drawn up by means of tackle, placed upon a very ingenious railway situated between the wall and the furnaces, parallel to both, and wheeled along till it comes over any one of the five coal-cellars, where it is emptied. The coals required for the brewery, about twenty tons per day, are thus conveyed opposite to the doors of all the furnaces with great ease. The form of each furnace, and the details of its arrangement, do not require particular notice; but it is worthy of remark, that the smoke from all the furnaces enters one large subterraneous flue, which conducts it to a chimney situated in the open court, detached from every other building. This chimney is a fine specimen of brickwork, rising to a height of a hundred and twenty feet, and being, from its bulky area, a conspicuous object from the bridge.

The coppers, which are immediately over the furnaces, are employed in the first place to heat water for extracting the saccharine matter from the malt, and afterwards to boil the malt-extract thus obtained. The water is brought from the large reservoirs in the open court, through pipes, to the copper-pan' and also to the copper; and at certain times and in certain quantity is allowed to flow into the copper, where it gradually acquires the temperature proper for the process of mashing,' or that by which the extract is obtained from the malt.

All kinds of malt liquor may be shortly characterised as being extracts of malt, boiled with or without hops, and then fermented; so that the main processes are those of extracting, or mashing,' boiling, and fermenting. The water in the copper is for the first of these processes; and while it is gradually heating, the malt is being conveyed to the 'mash-tun.' We have before stated, that the crushed malt, or grist,' is conveyed,

by a long' Jacob's ladder,' nearly to the top of the brewhouse. Here the buckets deposit their contents into a small vessel, from which five pipes ramify, each pipe leading to one of the 'malt-cases.' The top of each pipe has a kind of sliding door or portcullis drawn across it, by the management of which the grist may be made to descend whichever of the pipes may be desired. The malt-case is merely a receptacle to hold sufficient malt for one mashing, until such time as that process is to be conducted; and when this time arrives, four valves are opened in the bottom of the malt-case, whereby the malt speedily falls into the mashtun.' This last-named vessel is circular, and is provided with a double bottom, the upper one of which is pierced with very small holes: the space between the two bottoms is placed in communication with the copper by means of a pipe, and a few large holes, closed with plugs or taps, occur in the lower or true bottom.

This being the arrangement, and the mash-tun being supplied with malt, a proper quantity of water is allowed to flow from the copper to the space between the two bottoms of the tun; and, percolating upwards through the small holes, it mixes with the malt. The malt and the water are then stirred about by means of a mashing-machine set in rotation by the steam-engine; and after this has continued for a certain length of time, the water, which now contains a large proportion of malt-extract, is allowed to flow from the tun into the square 'underback,' the taps in the bottom being turned on for this purpose, and the holes in the false bottom being too small to allow any of the malt to pass. The liquor thus produced is called 'wort.'

A pump is next brought into requisition, to pump the wort from the 'under-back' into the copper. Here, for the first time, our attention is directed to the hops. Most persons are aware that it is the flower of the hop-plant which goes by the general name of 'hops,' and that this imparts a peculiar bitter, without which beer would not be recognised as such. The hop-flowers are pressed into large canvas bags, and in that state are conveyed to the brewery, where they are ranged in large warehouses near the brewhouse till wanted. The bags are hauled up into the brewhouse, conveyed to the upper part of the copper, and the hops thrown in at a door in the copper called the manhole' (this being the hole at which the men go in to clean the copper after each brewing). The wort and the hops are then boiled together, until the flavour of the latter is sufficiently imparted to the former, the hops being constantly stirred by a rotating machine called a 'rouser.'

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