He was my great-grandmother's first cousin and the pair of them were two of the grandchildren of Samuel Gray senior, a maltster of the town.
Malting is the task of maltsters, and its technology is now far advanced.
Could you please explain what a maltster did in the beer making process, presumably at village pubs, back in early Victorian times in England?
The one-act play, set in a provincial brewery in the 1960s, depicts a socially inadequate maltster trying to gather information about a part-time worker, Vanek, to pass on to the authorities.
One measure the authorities took was to try to restrict the activities of the maltsters, who were thought to be wasting what little grain there was in the production of beer rather than bread.
The maltster, after having lain down in his clothes for a few hours, was now sitting beside a three-legged table.
The process must be controlled by the maltster, otherwise the enzymic conversion will continue, and the soluble starch will be further converted to sugars, to feed the growing barley plant.
Kenneth, a former maltster at John Smith's brewery in Tadcaster, said: ‘Ernest had asked me if it was time to change the numbers, as we hadn't had much luck with them.’
Then the maltster usually continues the drying process past the point necessary for arrested growth of the embryo with a process called kilning.
It's a little puzzling at first sight how five maltsters could exist in a town in which there was only one brewer.
However, 10 years ago, WA's barley breeding program was reviewed after locally grown varieties began to slip in the view of some international maltsters.
The brewers who made the beer and bought in the malt ultimately had power over the maltsters who depended on them for their trade.
Dr Robertson said the new line had been tested by the maltsters and had received positive feedback.
Both Goodliffs are maltsters at Varick Street and Nail Creek.
I should imagine that it belonged to some vintner or maltster in the Middle Ages.
However, it has tightened up this process and provided specific guidelines for maltsters to follow.