Annual excise license costs, 1840s
Landlord of a common inn or alehouse, premises rated under £20, £1.2s.0½. Rated at £20 upwards £3.6s. 1¾.
License to sell beer not drunk on premises, £1.2s 0½
Drunk on premises £3.6s 1¾ (license taken out (expires) on 10th Oct annually.
Brewers of beer.
Under 20 barrels 10s 6d. 50 barrels £1.10s. 100 barrels £1.11.6. 1000 barrels £22. 0. 2000 £3.3. 0
5000 £7.17.6. 7,500 £11.16.3. 10000 £15.15.0. 20000 £31.10.0. 30000 £47.5. 0. 40000 £63.00
40000 upwards £78.15.0
Every other brewer, or common brewer £5.0.3.
EXCISE DUTY FOR HOPS, per pound plus 5%, additional 2d. Malt per bushel 4s.0d.
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A FLOOR OF MALT
1840s
According to the act of parliament, barley must lie under water in the cistern, fourty (forty) hours; in which time it is supposed to swell or increase to one-fourth more, so that four bushels in twenty are allowed in this increase.
From the cistern the barley is removed to the couch; and after having lain there twenty-four hours, it is deemed a floor.
The same allowance is made in the couch as in the cistern; but when the corn has been thrown out of the couch into the floor, and there grown according to the usual custom, it is supposed to increase one half; consequently an allowance is made of ten bushels in every twenty.
If cistern or couch bushels be multiplied by .8 (point eight) the product will be neat bushels; but floor-bushels must be multiplied by .5 (point five), in order to reduce them to neat bushels.
The duty is always charged upon the best gauge of the cistern, couch or floor.
Every maltster to take out a license annually. 0.7s 10½

Raking barley as it begins to sprout.
Later, by increasing the heat, germination is stopped.
Notice the malt shovel hanging on the wall in the background.
A floor of malt
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A floor of malt