Salt & Co.’s brewery is bounded on the front by the High Street, while at the back flows the silvery Trent, the waters of which are not used in brewing, as many people suppose. Even in Burton, famous as it is for its waters, every well sunk does not produce the right sort of “liquor,” and Messrs. Salt & Co., after many fruitless borings on their own premises, were obliged to sink an artesian well a quarter of a mile distant before they could obtain the water most suitable for their purpose. The firm have several maltings in Burton, the most important of which is that situated on the Wallsitch. It consists of three huge blocks of buildings, each of which is seventy yards long, thirty wide, and four storeys high. As a malting has not yet been described in this book, some account of the interior of John Barleycorn’s Crematory, taking that last erected by Messrs. Salt & Co. as a sample, may be read with interest. On the ground floor is the cistern, into which the barley, after being cleansed (technically “screened”), is placed for the purpose of being steeped. At the end of about fifty hours the clear water is drained off, and the soaked barley is thrown into the couch frame, where it remains about twenty-five hours. The grain has now commenced to germinate. The next process is to distribute it over various floors (by means of baskets lowered and raised by steam windlasses), where it is spread on clean red tiles, in layers varying from two to four inches in thickness, according to the temperature of the weather. For four or five days the barley is left to grow. At the end of that time its vitality begins to flag {355} for lack of moisture, and more water is added, the skill of the maltster being taxed to the utmost in assigning such a proportion of water as will develop the grain into perfect malt. At the end of about ten days germination is complete. A great and wonderful transformation has now taken place, the hard stubborn corn having been reduced to tender friable malt. The next process is to dry the malt, and for this purpose it is placed in a kiln and subjected to a high temperature until the vital principle of germination is extinguished, and the desired colour has been acquired. Any dry rootlets which adhere to the grain are then separated by trampling, a second screening takes place, and the malt is measured into sacks, every precaution being taken to prevent exposure to the atmosphere, until it is finally placed in the big bins above the mash tub.