ALCOHOL.— Grinding.

Grinding. —The granary is a large building ofbrick or stone, having three spacious stories on■which the malt or raw grain is hoarded. One ofthe granary floors is appropriated to the kiln-driedbarley, which lies spread in a stratum 5 feet thick,ready to be conveyed to the mill. When it is to beground into meal, the grain is taken to a room im-mediately over the mill-chamber, and dischargedthrough trap-doors into cloth sleeves, which conductit to the hoppers leading into the mill-room. Fig. 3shows the nature of the operations. These stonesgrind all the raw grain; while the malt is passedthrough a crushing-mill, consisting of two rollersplaced nearly in contact. In the lower room is themechanism by which the millstones are rotated inthe room above, and also the pipes for conducting

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the meal from the grinders into sacks. Thp meal,as it issues from these pipes, is heated to about100° Falir. (37° - 8 C.) by the mechanical friction ofthe stones.

Mashing. —The mash tun is made of cast-ironplates, firmly bolted together and circular in shape.Fig. 4 represents the mash tun at a large Scotchdistillery: a a is the mash tun, 28 feet in diameterand 8 feet deep. It is furnished with a false bot-tom, pierced with holes like a strainer. From themiddle of the tun rises a vertical shaft, m, setin motion by machinery, and thus revolving themechanism, dec. This apparatus, by rotatinghorizontally and vertically, effectually agitates thewhole of the liquor in the tun : d is a rod extendingfrom the pillar, m, to the edge of the tun, round

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which its outer extremity is carried on a toothedwheel, gearing into the teeth round the tun; it isdriven by the bevel wheels, n. Connected withthis rod, d , are two parallel rods, c c, which itcarries round with it: to these rods are fixed bentcross bars, which also revolve in consequence of thedouble motion of the rods, c c, rotating on theiraxis at the same time that they turn round theshaft in the centre of the tun. In their mashingand churning action they much resemble the paddlesof a steamer. The one rod is exactly over theother; the paddles attached to the lowest passwithin 2 inches of the bottom. The platform, /.:, isso arranged that the men may have easy access tothe tun; f is a door leading to the mill, where thegrain is ground into grist; b b, two channels orsluices, for conducting the grist from the granary

into the mash tun; e e, wash-backs, resting onrafters, &c., which project from the wall. Thewash-backs are used for containing the weak wortsdrawn from the last two sparges , or mashings of thegrist, after the principal extracts have been drawnoff; they are pumped up into e a, and kept tomacerate fresh grist in the next operation. Severallarge copper vessels, besides the tuns, are in use,for the purpose of heating the water for mashingthe grist; they hold several thousand gallons, andare heated by a furnace.

It has already been stated that the grist may bebarley meal, oats, or malt, in variable proportions,according to circumstances. Large quantities ofoats, on being mixed with the grist, confer a pecu-liar flavour, which is easily recognized by those whohave experience in the taste of spirit. When barley