After a quick phone call and an email i had placed an order for some Low Colour Maris Otter, Maris Otter and some Munich malt totaling 300kg, basically base malt for the next few months.
On the 6th May 2014 I hopped into the car and headed off to pick up the grain and on arrival i got introduced to all of the office staff and the Head Maltster Chris and then headed of for a quick tour of the maltings. The first thing that I noticed was how fantastic the whole place looked.
The second was how much care and love went into the production of the malt.
The grain is stored by the farmer and brought to the maltings by lorry as required and stored on sight until required. The first step in the malting process was to grade the grain and to remove any debris, the grain is then moved into a steeping vessel for 3 days and undergoes a program of steeping and air brakes.
After the steep the grain is moved on to on of the floors for the germination to continue.
The grain is turned regularly to insure all the grain is germinated equally thus equally modified.
The grain is then moved to the kilns and is then kilned for varying times and at various temperatures depending on the type of malt.
The grain is then stored in grain silo’s until its bagged for customers be it crushed or whole, their mill is shown below.