Why Would We Floor Malt?
Through the development of AMSAT Character Malts, many people advised us against floor malting. It’s labour intensive, challenging to scale, and has largely been phased out of modern malting. So, why would we continue down this route? Are we going to trade in our lower backs for something worthwhile?
Flavour
It’s not about marketing hype and romance here.
Floor malting is undertaken without the artificial ventilation that takes place in more modern malthouses. This results in the malt having a higher exposure to CO2 – a blanket of CO2 if you will - and therefore a slower and more gentle germination. Not ideal for industrial maltsters, but the payoff is that it gives malt a richer and more aromatic flavour profile.
Distilleries such as Springbank, Balvenie, Laphroaig, Highland Park, Bowmore, to name a few, still use a proportion of floor malt. Despite the increased cost of the raw ingredient keeping the accountants up at night, these celebrated distilleries continue to use floor malt.
Crisp Malthouse in the UK choose to malt their most precious barley varieties exclusively through floor malting. Maris Otter, Chevallier, and Plumage Archer get this special treatment on the floor.
Point of difference
Yes, floor malting offers us a point of different in the malt world. But more importantly, there are few breweries or distilleries who use floor malt to create their own point of difference.
As the craft brewing and distilling industries become increasingly crowded, differentiation is critical. You can use hops, yeast and mash bills in the brewery to differentiate your beers. And in the distillery, casks are one of the key differentiating tools used.
However, malt is the backbone to all beers and whiskies. Most breweries and distilleries are using the same (or very similar) base malts in their products. Sometimes these are the very same malts being used in commercial breweries and distilleries. We believe craft beer and whisky deserve craft malt.
Attention to detail
The nature of floor malting means that the maltster is intimately connected to the grain. More than in any other form of malting. This relationship comes from the shallower grain bed depth, the slower germinating time, and the need to turn the malt by hand. This lends itself to malt that is made with the utmost of care and craft.
What next?
We’ll be releasing our 2022 Adelaide Hills floor-malted barley in early 2023. The announcement for this will be coming out shortly. Stay tuned and follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook or Instagram, for your chance to reserve an allocation of this unique malt.