Almost nobody floor-malts any more. It is slow, it needs a person turning grain by hand every few hours, and a pneumatic drum does the same job in a third of the time for a fraction of the wage bill.

What the hand turning does

Grain germinating in a heap generates heat. Turned by hand, the maltster feels the temperature and the moisture and adjusts as it goes, so every corner of the floor modifies at roughly the same rate. A drum gets you consistency of a different kind: uniform, and a little flat.

What it costs us

About forty percent more per tonne than the commodity pilsner malt we could buy. On a 1,200 litre batch that is real money, and it is the single biggest line in our ingredient bill.

Why we keep paying it

Because the beer is mostly malt. Take the hops out of a pilsner and there is nowhere for a dull base to hide. The farm is ninety minutes inland, we have been buying from them since batch 001, and the person who turns the floor knows which of our beers the grain is going into.