Crisp Malt share insights into the Craft Malting and Distilling Process including the company introduction. Barley growing and malting process and the importance of non-glycosidic nitrile (GN) barley varieties in Distilling. Distillers requirements. Plain Pot Distilled Malt, Peated Malt and High Diastatic Malt. Scottish Whisky and American Whiskey (mixed grains) are explored. Other malts including highly kilned, roasted and heritage malts are explored alongside unmalted cereals - flaked and torrefied.
4. • Frederick Smith started malting in Gt
Ryburgh, Norfolk in 1870
• Malt exports started in 1888
• John Crisp joined the business in 1962
• Now owned by group of private investors
• 3 maltings in England, 2 in Scotland, 1 in
Germany and 1 in Poland
• Now producing 432 000 tonnes of malt
• Head Office at Gt Ryburgh, North Norfolk
• More than 85% of barley used is sourced
locally
• Still operating a traditional floor malting at
Gt Ryburgh
• Leading supplier to the global craft distilling
sector
Crisp Malt – introduction
7. Barley Facts
• Barley is a cereal crop
• Cereals are grains produced by grasses for food
• Other cereals are maize (corn), rice, wheat, rye, oats,
sorghum, millet & triticale
• Malting barley grows well on lighter, sandy land
• Well suited to the drier eastern regions of the UK
8. UK Barley Growing Regions
Why are these regions most
suitable?
• Drier, warmer climate better
suited to arable crop production
• Farm land particularly suits cereal
cropping
• Soil types suit barley production
• Malting plants predominantly
located in barley growing regions
11. Winter or Spring Sown
September / October
Plant Winter Malting Barley
February / March
Plant Spring Malting Barley
Late July
Harvest Winter Malting Barley
Mid August
Harvest Spring Malting Barley
12. Barley Growing
October April May June July July
HarvestPlanting
SeptemberWINTER
April May June July August AugustMarchSPRING
Ripening
13. Growing Malting Barley
• Alternative cropping options
• Barley – winter or spring, feed or malting
• High risk crop
• Quality specifications/premiums
• Chemical restrictions – BBPA list
• Fertilizer restrictions – yield/quality implications
• Harvesting/storage requirements
18. Maltsters Requirements
• Approved malting barley variety
• High viability (minimum 98% live grains)
• Appropriate protein/nitrogen content
• Low level of small grains
• No admixture with other grains
• No moulds or smells
• No skinned, split or damaged grains
20. What is Malting?
• Partial germination of cereals
Barley, wheat, rye, oats, sorghum etc
• Under controlled conditions
Moisture, temperature and time
• Raw material for further processing
Brewing, distilling and food uses
• Value added products
Provides extract, enzymes, colour and flavour
22. Why Malt Barley?
• Retains its husk
• High starch content
• Cell walls degradable
• Good enzyme production
23. The Barley Corn
Embryo
Living tissue
Source of new plant
Scutellum & Aleurone
Living tissues
Site of enzyme synthesis
Endosperm
Dead tissue
Embryo’s nutrient reserve
‘Modified’ during malting
Husk
Dead tissue
Protective covering
Scutellum
Aleurone layer
Husk
Embryo
Endosperm
24.
25. What Does it Require?
• Suitable barley variety
• Water
• Oxygen
• Temperature
• Time
27. Steeping
• Objective
• Hydrate the grain, increasing the moisture content
from around 12% to 44-46%
• Initiate uniform germination
This is achieved by successive wet and dry periods in
steeping vessel with careful control of water and air
temperature
28. Steeping process
0 4 8 12 16 20 24 28 32 36 40 44 48
Time (Hours)
Moisture Content (%)
12
16
20
24
28
32
36
40
44
48
Continuous steeping
Broken steeping
Water drained Water replaced
Water drained Water replaced
29. Germination
• Objective
• Synthesis and release of enzymes
• Degradation of endosperm cell walls
• Limited solubilisation of endosperm storage protein
This is achieved by effective control of grain temperature by
the application of attemperated, humidified air
38. Modification – key objectives
• Degradation of endosperm cell walls
• Solubilisation of appropriate amount of endosperm
storage protein
• Synthesis and release of starch-degrading enzymes
Supply distiller with package of accessible
starch and necessary enzymes to degrade to
fermentable sugars plus other desired attributes
39. Kilning
• Objective
• Halt germination
• Reduce moisture content to 3-6%
• Develop required colour and flavour characteristics
This is achieved by passing heated air (55°C-100°C)
through the grain bed. Malt type will dictate applied air
temperature used.
41. Traditional Floor Malting
Advantages
• Flexibility
• Low capital cost
• Heritage
Disadvantages
• Labour intensive
• High energy
• Low output
• Process control
50. Distilling malts
• Plain pot still
• Peated pot still
• High diastatic
Common to all is the use of non-glycosidic nitrile
(GN) barley varieties in their manufacture
51. Non-GN barley varieties
• Glycosidic nitrile issue arises from hydrolysis of
epiheterodendrin to produce isobutyraldehyde
cyanohydrin and ultimately ethyl carbamate
• Distillery sensitivity varies by still design
• Only non-GN producing varieties now selected for
approval
• Optic last of GN-producing varieties and older varieties
all GN-producers
52. Distillers requirements
• Plain pot still
Easily processable malt that produces highly fermentable wort
that leads to expected spirit yield after distillation of wash
• Peated pot still
As plain pot still with the additional attribute of providing
desired phenolic character to distilled spirit
• High diastatic
Provision of sufficient starch degrading enzymes and
processing potential to convert up to 90% unmalted starch
source for grain spirit production
53. Plain pot still
• Typically produced from low nitrogen spring barley
• Concerto, Laureate and Diablo
• Gentle kilning to preserve enzymes and maximise
fermentability of finished malt
Parameter Typical Analysis
Moisture (%) Maximum 4.5
Extract (% soluble, as is) Minimum 78
Colour (EBC) 2.5 – 3.5
Total nitrogen (%) 1.30 – 1.55
Soluble nitrogen ratio 35 - 42
Predicted spirit yield (LAA/t) 410
54. 0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018*
%oftotalspringbarleycrop
Crop year
KWS Sassy
Laureate
RGT Planet
Moonshine
Chronicle
Odyssey
Concerto
Propino
NFC Tipple
Quench
Oxbridge
Belgravia
Westminster
Decanter
Optic
Golden Promise
*estimated from certified seed production from harvest 2017
Spring Malting Varieties
As % of total Scotland spring barley crop
55. The Malting Barley Committee
Approved List harvest 2019
Brewing Use Malt Distilling Use Grain Distilling Use
Winter Varieties
Full Approval
Flagon, Venture, Craft
Winter Varieties
Full Approval
None Approved for distilling use
Winter Varieties
Full Approval
None Approved for distilling use
Spring Varieties
Full Approval
Concerto, Propino,
RGT Planet, Laureate
Spring Varieties
Full Approval
Concerto, Laureate,
KWS Sassy, Sienna
Spring Varieties
Full Approval
Fairing, Olympus
Winter Varieties
Provisional Approval 2
Spring Varieties
Provisional Approval 2
Chanson
Spring Varieties
Provisional Approval 2
Spring Varieties
Provisional Approval 2
Winter Varieties
Provisional Approval 1
Electrum
Spring Varieties
Provisional Approval 1
LG Diablo, RGT Asteroid
Spring Varieties
Provisional Approval 1
LG Diablo, RGT Asteroid
Spring Varieties
Provisional Approval 1
RGT Asteroid
56. Determination of Predicted Spirit Yield
1. Standard IoB mash and collect wort
2. Determine original gravity of wort - soluble extract
3. Ferment wort with standard yeast for 44 hrs at 33C
4. Determine final gravity of wash - fermentability
5. Calculate fermentable extract
6. Calculate PSY = fermentable extract x 6.06
Distillery efficiency often based on achievement of actual yield
relative to lab PSY value, i.e.
PSY = 410 laa/t, distillery yield 405 laa/t
Efficiency = (405/410) x 100 = 98.8%
57. Peated pot still
• Green malt directed to peating kiln and peat smoke
ducted into kiln during pre-break drying
• Aiming to ‘smoulder’ peat to generate highly phenolic
smoke
• Peat sources; Islay, St Cyrus (Aberdeenshire)
58. Peated pot still
• Crisp lab determines total phenol
content using colorimetric method
after steam distillation of malt
• Heavily peated malt deliveries at
45-55 mg/kg (ppm)
• Higher levels are possible!
• Fermentability can be suppressed,
but not in all distilleries
59. High Diastatic Malt
• Enzyme source for conversion of unmalted cereals (usually
maize or wheat) for grain spirit production
• Specialist high nitrogen non-GN barley varieties
• Olympus
• Fairing
• Asteroid
• Specification typically:-
• minimum 60 Dextrinising Units (DU, dry)
• minimum 160 Diastatic Power (DP, dry)
• TSN/FAN levels also important
62. Coloured malts
There are three categories of coloured malts:
• Those produced from green malt on normal kiln
• Those produced from green malt in roasting facility
• Those produced from kilned malt in roasting facility
63. Coloured malts
Products from green malt on normal kiln
• Kilning conditions promote formation of colour
precursors leading to increased final colour and
flavours
• Vienna malt 6-10 EBC
• Munich malt 25-60 EBC
• Provide richer ‘malty’ flavour
64. Coloured malts
Products from green malt in roasting facility
• First phase of process ‘stews’ grain leading to liquifaction
of endosperm
• Second stage of roasting dries and forms colour & flavour
compounds
• Crystal malt 160-480 °EBC
• Crystal malts provide sweet, caramel flavours
66. Coloured malts
Products from kilned malt in roasting facility
• Dry raw material introduced into drum
• Product temperature close to combustion temperature for
black malt and roast barley
• Amber 60-80 EBC
• Brown 120-150 EBC
• Chocolate malt 900-1100 EBC
• Black malt 1300-1400 EBC
• (Roast barley) 1300-1400 EBC
67. Malt roasting drum
1. Raw material inlet
2. Product outlet
3. Weighing hopper
4. Roasting drum
5. Burner
6. Exhaust air fan
7. Cooling fan
8. Cooler
9. Utilities
70. • Chevallier - first selected in 1820’s
• Plumage Archer – first commercial hybrid barley (1905)
• Maris Otter – continuous production since 1965
• Coming soon!
• Long Eared Nottingham
• Hanna
Heritage varieties
74. Non-malted cereals
• Range of Torrefied cereals available
• Produced by processing through a Cabot cooker or
microniser
• Cooking results in starch gelatinisation
• Flaked products can be added directly to the mash
• Provide opportunity for product differentiation