MESSRS C. R. HOWDEN AND CO.’S DISTILLERY.

Evening Star, Volume VII, Issue 2019, 25 October 1869, Page 2

MESSRS C. R. HOWDEN AND CO.’S DISTILLERY.

Colonial history will be read with much curiosity in after ages ; for generations to come will wonder how their forefathers have thriven in face of the impediments to industry placed in their way by ignorant legislation. It is in fact marvellous that people who left a land in drag up n industry imposed by Customs and Excise regulations had been felt an intolerable burden, should place upon themselves yokes still more unbearable. Time was when in the manufacture of many articles of everyday consumption, even the process to be followed was marked out by law. In soap making, so much tallow, so much resin, must make a given quantity of soap. If more resulted, duty was charged on the extra quantity, if less, duty was charged on what ought to have been the product. All this was bad enough ; yet in spite of absurd restrictions, the manufactures were not forbidden. Revenue was the plea under which these duties were levied. In New Zealand, on the same plea of revenue, the manufacture of spirits was forbidden. Year before last, the folly of placing such a barrier upon industry forced itself upon the legislature, but they could not afford to dispense with revenue. An act was passed in 1867, permitting distillation and rectifying of spirits in the Colony, on payment of a duty on passing into consumption, of eight shillings a gallon. This was subsequently reduced to six shillings, and the lirsfc fruit of that relaxation is seen in the large distillery of Messrs C. R. HowdenandCo., in Cumberland street. Few at a distance will be prepared to see so large and handsome a pile of buildings. Perhaps not many in the Colony have bad opportunity of seeing any manufactures excepting breweries on so large a scale, and would hardly credit it that in order to produce spirit at a remunerative price, such an outlay of capital and such morale and perfect arrangements are needed. It seems to a person acquainted with the practice of distillation on a small scale a simple thing to place material in a retort, and to condense the vapor in a receiver. Every part of the process then comes und r observation at one view, and the mind can readily follow each part of the operation. But it is very different where each specific process is carried on at a distance from the other. Onr readers must bear in mind, then, that the various operations begin at one end of a range of buildings extending nearly the length or two sides of a piece of ground two hundred feet long by one hundred and thirty-two feet wide. The buildings are of brick, neatly and substantially put together. For a person to go from room to room without a distinct notion of what was to he done, all would seem strange and bewildering : when the object of the different processes is known, the contrivance and arrangements commend themselves as admirable. It must be bortic in mind, then, that the purpose of this machinery and plant is to convert grain into spirit—to manufacture malt whiskey and geneva, in fact. In order to do this four processes arc necessary—lst. The conversion of a large portion of the grain into malt ; 2nd. Extracting the sweet wort from the matt and other grain ; drd. The vinions fermentation of the wort; 4th. Distillation of the alcohol.

Bearing these four main processes in mind,

our readers will bo interested in a description of the means adopted for the purpose. But first we must notice the magnificent warehouse for the reception and storing of grain in its raw state. This is called the grain-loft. It is a splendid room, 100 feet long by 40 wide, with massive beams and heavily timbered roof, conveniently situated for unloading drays, at one end, and so arranged as to communicate immediately with the steeping cistern at the other. Long rows of bags of grain stand on this floor, the barley separate from the wheat, in perfect order. The samples we examined were principally of the growth of Otago—fine, well filled out and heavy. The first step in manufacture is taken in this room, for, before the grain is put into the steep, it has to pass through a screening machine of the best construction, to free it from dust and foreign substances, and to separate the grain according to quality. Every mechanical help is afforded by a very simple arrangement ; for amongst other labor saving plans is a lift worked by a strap and dium. It looked like magic to sec this set in motion by no visible agency at the will of a man who held in his hand a piece of rope that seemed to have no connection whatever with the mechanics of the drum. But this rope was the medium by which the agent was set in motion, for it communicated at a distance of half the building, after passing through different rooms, with an ingenious lever, which when raised by pulling upon it, tightened a strap by depressing the other end; at this end a pulley is fixed, over which the strap revolves and gives motion to the shaft, that seemed in the grain loft to be turned by some mysterious power. This beautifully simple but effective arrangement w-as designed by Mr Charlton of Melbourne, and executed under his superintendence. The winnowing, cleansing, and selecting processes completed, the grain is transmitted to the steeping cistern. The cistern, or steep, as it is called, is built of brick, and is about 25ft in length, sft wide, and 4ft deep, coated inside with Portland cement. The object of steeping the grain is to prepare it for the malting floor, on which it is laid after lying in steep until it has absorbed sufficient water to cause it to swell. The malting floor, which is immediately contiguous to the steeping vat, is 100 ft long by 40ft wide. “ The process of malting is that incipient growth called germination, in which, by the disengagement of a portion of the car? bon of the starch in the form of carbonio acid, the ultimate vegetable elements become combined in such a proportion as to become a species of sugar. Malting is the most effectual* method of converting starch into sugar. On the floor were three steepiugs of grain in different stages of growth. The level surface of the different layers showed the care that was taken to equalise - the germinating heat throughout the mass. After the conversion into malt is effected, the grain has to be dried preparatory to being crushed. In order to do this economically, the malt has to be raised by the hoist before spoken of to the dryingroom, over the kiln. To allow the heat to ri-e freely, the floor of this room is made of gauze wire, the meshes being too fine for the grain to pass through. The kiln is worthy of notice on account of the means adopted to diffuse the heat as it rises through a flue. Were it allowed to pass immediately to the floor, its action would be partial and unequal ; but by placing a large canopy above the flue, the heat impinges upon it and spreads on all sides, so that the temperature is equalised when it rises through the gauze wire. Another advantage is to protect anything passing through from falling into tl e fire and tainting the flavor of the malt. The drying process occupies about a day and a half for about two-hundred bushels. When completed, the grain is crisp and hard, so that the coating can be readily broken by the action of the crushing-mill. After drying it is again screened to rid it of the malt coomings, and cooled by a patent process introduced by Messrs Robinson Bros., of Melbourne. From this height it descends through a Hopper to the crushing mill, where" it receives its final preparation by conversion of the sugar into wort. The ob ; ject of crushing is to facilitate this process, for were the grain placed in the mash tun with the coating unbroken, great loss of time and material would result. When the crushing is finished, the gram has reached the lower floor, whence it requires lifting to save labor in the subsequent processes. This is done by elevators worked by the steamengine. Before proceeding to the mash tun we were shown the hot liquor backs, large vats, two of which will contain each two thousand four hundred gal ons of water. These are heated by steam from the large boiler, which supplies not only the steamengine, but every part of the distillery with hot water or steam where needed. The steam is forced through perforated pipes. The heat can be regulated to the temperature required, for if the water were made too hot, the malt, instead of supplying sweet wort, would become a mass of paste from which no fermentable liquor could be obtained. The hot water from these is mixed with the crushed grain, and admitted into the mashing tun through an ingeniously contrived short tube some ten or twelve inches in diameter, revolving within which is a brewer’s masher, so contrived as to mix the crushed grain with the necessary quantity of water. This masher, is movedby pressure of the water flowing in from the hot liquor hack's. To prevent the grain from setting while in the mash tuu, the whole mass is kept in motion by rakes fixed at right angles to an upright shaft, which is kept constantly revolving horizontally at the rate of 17 revolutions per minute, by gear connected with the steam engine below. These rakes have a double action, each revolving on its axis as it traverses the tun. When all the sugar has been extracted from the grain, the liquor is called “ wort. ” From the mash tun the liquor is drained and passes into the cooling room below. The coqling apparatus is most ingenious. The object i*S to present as great a surface as possible to the air, and to gain this, a number of copper tubes, about eleven feet long, each about two inches in diameter, are ranged horizontally one dbove another, to the height of about five feet, at the distance,of abont half an inch from each other. Over these the liquor is allowed to flow in a thin eheet. In order to insure its passing completely round each tube, there is a series of points protruding from the lower side of each tube, exactly over the centre line. These act as guides, and by this means the liquor has to travel over a very much more extended space than would have been the case had it only passed over a plane surface, and comes in contact with constantly changing air and cold metal, so that it flows cooled into the receiver. These pipes are kept con-

* Penny Cyclopedia.