Creating the perfect pint of Copper Dragon beer starts at our maltsters, Thomas Fawcett & Sons Ltd. They take the finest barley and using skills perfected over 100's of years, treat and transform it into the brewers key ingredient, malt...
1. Malt Delivery, Screening & Storage
Barley in the storage area and being tested in the laboratory
Hand selected barley is delivered to the maltings where it’s checked and if required, dried to a moisture level of less than 12% ensuring safe storage until it is required for the start of the malting process.
Before the barley can be used, it is necessary to undertake a process called screening. This is where the un-treated grain is passed through a variety of sieves producing an even size corn. This process also has the benefit of removing any dust and other potential impurities.
2. Steeping
Early stages during the steeping process
Once the grain has been screened, it then undergoes a process called steeping. This is where water is added to the grain bringing its moisture level up to the optimum for malting purposes. This encourages it to germinate, produce enzymes and develop a maximum level of brewers extract
As barley isn’t an aquatic plant, steeping is split between periods of water on followed by air rest. Normal steeping regimes are between 48 and 72 hours and are equally split between wet and dry steeping.
Aeration is carried out during the wet steep and during the dry steep C02 extraction is carried out. Both processes ensure that the already active grain receives sufficient oxygen.
This simple stage is where the Maltster’s skill comes into play as the correct combinations of water/air/water etc must be controlled to raise the moisture content of the grain to the required level of around 46% without drowning it!
At around this figure of 46% moisture, the embryo within each kernel of barley starts to geminate and the grain is moved onto the next stage, germination.
3. Germination
A traditional malting floor (top) and state of the art computer controlled germination
During germination, the chitted (germinated) grain is allowed to grow and develop enzymes that degrade starch, proteins, and cell wall materials, providing a convenient form of enzymes and freely available starch which will be converted into extract later on in the brewer’s mash tuns.
Floor Maltings
This is where the grain is laid out on the maltings floor to a depth of approximately 20cm. The growing grain develops heat which is manually controlled by turning it with wooden shovels. This keeps the temperature below 16-degrees C during which time the grain develops a root and modification of the starch takes place.
Saladin Maltings
Unlike the Floor Maltings, steeped grain is put into large Saladin Vessels up to a depth of 1.5 metres. Mechanical turners constantly agitate to prevent heat build-up and keeping the germinating grain loose. At this point the grain is called ‘Green Malt’.
Automated Germinating Kiln Vessel (GKV)
This is state of the art technology which combines germination and kiln drying into one computer controlled process. Like the Saladin maltings, the steeped grain is transferred into the GKV where an enormous computerised arm agitates the grain during the germination process. Once this is complete, the GKV then becomes a kiln; drying and stopping the germination process after a specified period.
4. Kilning
Kilned malted barley is hand checked for quality
As the name suggest, Kilning takes place in a heated kiln! Kilning uses variable combinations of air-flow and heat under very tight control firstly drying the grain (between 50-70 degrees C) and then curing it at higher temperatures (up to 100 degrees C) stopping any further changes within the grain.
The temperature/air flow profile varies depending on the malt being made. During the process, sugar and amino acid products react to form melanoidins and other compounds which contribute to the final colour of the wort and beer.
5. Deculming, Screening & Storage
The finished malted barley is bagged, stored and then shipped to the brewery
Malt from the kiln is put through a machine known as a deculmer. This removes the ‘culm’ or small rootlets that have emerged from each kernel during germination. Malt culm is a bi-product for the maltster and is often sold as an animal feed as it has a higher protein content by weight than the original barley.
The finished malt is then put into store for a specified period before being screened and then sent to the Copper Dragon Brewery in 25kg sacks ready for milling...