Floor Malting - What does it mean?

(Ulrik explains the term 'Floor Malting' in this video, it is in danish)

Floor Malting - what does it mean?

In the old days, many distilleries used what is known as Floor Malting, where you take your wet malting barley and spread it out on the concrete floor where it is left to germinate. The workers would then turn the barley so that it wouldn't stick together when it started to germinate. It was hard work and many of the workers suffered shoulder injuries, with one shoulder hanging down further than the other - this became known as: Monkey Shoulder

And as the grain sprouted, it would be removed and run through a Porteus Mills, as it would typically be, which is a grinder that separates the grain so that you get flour, the kernel of the grain and the husks separated. And this is what you use to make the whisky.

Nowadays, distilleries get their malted barley from large malthouses. A handful produce part of their consumption using the old method. Here they are listed:

• Laphroaig, Islay.

• Bowmore, Islay.

• Kilchoman, Islay.

• Highland Park, Orkney Islands.

• Springbank, Campbeltown.

• The Balvenie, Speyside.

• Benriach, Elgin, Speyside.

 

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