Malt Extracts.
By ALBERT E. EBERT.
[The author states that two classes of preparations are known under this title, one analogous to lager beer having a three per cent. alcohol strength, of which the preparations of Hoff and Koch are examples; whilst the other kind is saccharine and gummy in their nature, and usually bear the name of Liebig. The author considers the first class to be good beer at an exhorbitant price, and criticises severely those professional men who have given it their endorsement.
The second class of Malt Extracts, of which Ed. Loeflund and Dr. H. E. Linck, both of Stuttgard, are makers, are put up in patent medicine style, and though claimed as original, this point is questionable, as Malt Extract has long been known in Great Britain and Belgium as well as in Germany.]
Prof. Liebig does not lay any claim to the discovery or introduction of this preparation; we have heard him, during his lectures, denounce this attachment of his name to these extracts, it having been done in opposition to his wishes by parties who hoped to increase their sales by this seeming endorsement of their articles. We have lately made the malt extract, at the urgent request of physicians, and give herewith the process, so that pharmacists may prepare it themselves, instead of relying upon the specialist to supply it at exorbitant prices.
| Take of | Barley Malt, kiln dried, | 10 lbs., av. |
| Water, | a sufficient quantity. |
The malt can be obtained at the malt-houses or breweries, by the bushel; reduce it by means of the drug mill so that it will pass through a No. 20 sieve, and add to the meal a sufficient quantity of cold water to form with it a soft dough; then add about two gallons of hot water, and apply heat so as to raise the temperature of the mixture to 150°, or not to exceed 158°. Maintain this temperature, with occasional stirring, for several hours, or until the whole of the starch is converted (by means of the diastase of the malt) into dextrine and glucose. The absence of starch can be ascertained by the application of Tr. Iodine to a small quantity of the liquor, when, if the starch has been wholly converted, no blue coloration will be evident. Then express the liquor rapidly, and pass it through a strainer. This is the most difficult part of the process, as it speedily clogs the strainer; this can be averted to some extent, by making a pulp by means of water, from common unsized paper, or filtering paper, and mixing this pulp with the expressed liquid, previous to straining. The perfectly clear fluid is finally to be evaporated, by means of a water bath, to the consistence of a thick syrup, having the sp. gr. 1.500, or approximately one pint, weighing 1 ½ lbs., av.
This extract has an agreeably, syrupy, taste, and contains, besides the sugar of the malt, dextrine, albumen, and the phosphates of the grain. In very hot summer weather it is liable to go into fermentation, but this can be prevented by the addition of a small quantity of glycerin.—The Pharmacist, Chicago, Nov., 1870.
