The Green Green Malt

There is a lot of love around for the Hop at the moment, one brewery has recently announced their 'Top of the Hops' and lots of beer bloggers are confirmed 'hop heads', but the hop is nothing without the balance that Malt gives it. So lets hear it for Malt, the undervalued backbone of your beer.

There are only 4 traditional Maltings left in the country and fairly spread out they are too. We are very lucky therefore to have Warminster Maltings just a few miles down the road, keeping our 'Beer Miles' down and supplying us with the king of malt, Maris Otter. All of our beers at the BBF use Maris Otter in the recipe.

Warminster Maltings began life in 1855, it's construction from re-cycled parts of other maltings dotted across the town has endured for over 150 years, as has the process that is largely unaltered in all that time. The fields around Warminster are full of Maris Otter barley that once harvested makes its way to Warminster Maltings where it is steeped in water from their own well. The 'green' malt is then spread on the traditional floors, and the correct temperature is reached to enforce germination. The 'green malt' is kiln dried and milled ready for us to brew No.7, Red or anything else that takes our fancy. It really is a very 'green' process.

The huge increase in the number of small breweries have helped the traditional Maltings to fight back after they became a very endangered species during the 60's. The ability to produce specialist malts with great flavour has helped the improvement in beer quality and experimentation that you are now seeing from brewers all over the world. Against the backdrop of falling beer sales across the country, small independant breweries have fought back and are growing their market share year on year. The partnership with the likes of Warminster Maltings continues to make this possible.