Malting, Belgian barley, local beer: our articles.
The Malterie du Château stops on 31 December, ten months after Gembloux. From 1 January there will be one maltings left in Wallonia — ours, starting in November. What a region loses, and what a five-tonne drum can and cannot replace.
In the mash tun the brewer wakes up enzymes the maltster prepared. Germination, kilning and diastatic power, explained from the malthouse floor.
More than 1,300 participants paraded for hops in Poperinge. Meanwhile malt — a hundred times heavier in the glass — stays anonymous. Time to give it a name.
In mid-October, five tonnes of organic Belgian barley enter the malthouse drum. The story of one week of steeping, germination and fossil-free kilning.
Between the July harvest and the first malting in October, malting barley rests. Dormancy, storage and grain tests: what happens during those waiting weeks.
Same barley, two very different malts: colour and aroma are decided in a few hours on the kiln. From gentle drying to the cure, from pils to munich.
Three breweries turned away from the Libramont fair over local barley. Behind the row, a Walloon supply chain coming back to life — and one link still missing: malting.