Malting barley seed

1054. The process of malting barley is exactly the same as that of germinating a seed. By moistening the barley it swells, the starch of the cotyledon is changed into sugar, and, being absorbed by the embryo, the radicle is protruded at one end of the grain or seed, and the plumule or commencement of the stem appears at the other. Here the process is stopped, as the object is to retain in the malt the sweet mucilage formed by the act of germination, and which would be dissipated by other chemical changes if the process of vegetation were allowed to proceed.