For the more it be dried (yet must it be
done with soft fire) the sweeter and better the malt is, and the
longer it will continue, whereas, if it be not dried down (as they
call it), but slackly handled, it will breed a kind of worm called a
weevil, which groweth in the flour of the corn, and in process of time
will so eat out itself that nothing shall remain of the grain but even
the very rind or husk.
The best malt is tried by the hardness and colour; for, if it look
fresh with a yellow hue, and thereto will write like a piece of chalk,
after you have bitten a kernel in sunder in the midst, then you may
assure yourself that it is dried down. In some places it is dried at
leisure with wood alone or straw alone, in others with wood and straw
together; but, of all, the straw dried is the most excellent. For the
wood-dried malt when it is brewed, beside that the drink is higher of
colour, it doth hurt and annoy the head of him that is not used
thereto, because of the smoke. Such also as use both indifferently do
bark, cleave, and dry their wood in an oven, thereby to remove all
moisture that should procure the fume; and this malt is in the second
place, and, with the same likewise, that which is made with dried
furze, broom, etc.
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