FUN FACTS HISTORY OF MALTING SERIES PART THREE: THE KILN
March 16, 2022
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FUN FACTS HISTORY OF MALTING SERIES PART THREE: THE KILN
Beer and malting date back centuries ago, long before recorded history. And barley could very well have been the king of malts that entire time. Today, it’s the preferred grain to make our beloved beer. But barley all on its own can’t create alcohol. It needs to change its identity from barley to malt like a superhero in disguise. Clark Kent is just barley. Superman is malted barley!
This is the third and final chapter in a series of fun facts highlighting the history of malting. Click here to read the second, The Malthouse and Germination. Click here to read the first, The Ancient Malting Process.
Kilning, long ago, was done solely with Mother Nature in mind. If you recall, the all-natural process took time. Grains were more than likely laid out on rocks or flat hard ground to soak up the sun’s rays. And if it was a cloudy day? Well, the already long drawn out process was drawn out even more.
Fast forward a few years or so when malthouses became something of significance. Kilning became a bit more sophisticated, yet still quite simple. Within the malthouse, there was a room with a tile floor crafted above primitive furnaces, usually using wood, charcoal, or straw. The germinated malt was laid out on the tile floor, and the furnaces did their job of drying at a faster pace than Mother Nature ever could. To keep the drying process even, manual laborers were brought in to shovel the malts on a timely basis.
But then there was the issue of the smoke gathering in a closed space. That problem was solved at first with chimneys built into high, dome-shaped ceilings allowing the hot air to be released outside of the room. As maltsters became more aware of how to control the kilning process, the tile floors were later perforated, allowing the gases to pass through both the grains and the floor. While there was an element of control that was never had before, Mother Nature still had a hold on malting because ventilation was still controlled by natural wind drafts.
Yes, there were flaws in the malting process, but it was at this time in malting history that maltsters had the most control. It was almost as if the maltsters had a sixth sense about the properties of each malt they were kilning. There were no COAs, and because of this, if there were ever any true malting superheroes, these early maltsters were them. They seemed to have an uncanny knowledge when it came to knowing exactly what to do with the malts, how to do it, and when. It’s as if they knew they were giving life to Superman.
But they still did not have the control over Mother Nature and her atmospheric temperatures, so the entire malting process was limited to the cooler months. This meant that malthouses were only open about four to five months out of the year. There were many limitations with the precursory kilning processes and the malthouse in general, but these systems endured for centuries until the mid-1700s when the invention of the steam engine brought about the Industrial Revolution. From then, malting catapulted into the future, full steam ahead (pun intended).
Malted barley and the maltsters themselves may be the Supermen behind the Clark Kents of the world, aka barley, but Mother Nature remains the true superhero throughout the MMC Fun Fact History of Malting Series. Barley, after all, is non-existent, without her.
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