Base Malt

Eastern malt and malted rye are analyzed at the Center for Craft Food and Beverage du Hartwick College. It is an independent laboratory recognized in Eastern North America for its expertise in micro-malting.

You can see a sample of a complete listing here.. All data can be sent to our customers upon request. By default, this is the data that appears on our basic malt bags:

Pale malt

• Colour in °L/SRM (ASBC)
• moisture content in %
• Dry extract in %
• Friability (%)
• Diastasic power (°Lintner)

Rye Malt

• Colour en °L/SRM (ASBC)
• Moisture content in %
• Dry extract in %
• Diastasic power (°Lintner)

Malting Barley

Barley is analyzed before malting by an independent laboratory in order to ensure its malting quality. High quality barley should have five important characteristics:

1. Germination rate > 95%

Malting begins with the sprouting of a seed. The seeds that do not germinate do not change and the sugars in the unprocessed barley seeds are not fermentable. And without fermentation, no beer!

2. Deoxynivalenol < 0.5 ppm

Barley becomes unsuitable for brewing if the rate of deoxynivalenol (DON) a vomitoxin is above a 0.5 ppm. The development of this fungus is caused by the Fusarium Head Blight (FHB) disease. To learn how to reduce risks, visit: Growing Malting Barley..

Note that the acceptable deoxynivalenol (DON) level in brewing is 0.5 ppm, whereas in other food sectors up to 2 ppm is usually accepted.

Deoxynivalenol (DON) is one of the causes of over-carbonation (gushing) during brewing. The conscientious maltster does not put contaminated malt on the market. There may also be other causes for over-carbonation.

3. Protein

To achieve a protein content less than13%, it is important to control the amount of nitrogen in the fertilization of our fields. Too much nitrogen causes the protein level in the grain to rise.

4. Grain size

To have a good size grain, we simply screen to remove grains that are too small or too light. Our barley is first screened after the harvest to remove as much unwanted residue as possible, such as weeds or small rocks. It is screened again before malting, this time to separate the large grains from the small ones.

5. Moisture

Finally, moisture must be monitored. High moisture content makes storage in silos difficult unless equipment to dry the grain is available which can be very costly considering the amount of time it will take to do so. On the other hand, the longer you wait for the moisture content to drop before harvesting, the more likely you are to do it too late and the grain will germinate on the ear. So we need to find the right balance.