As craft distilling and craft brewing become increasingly localized, producers are likewise looking for local materials – grain, hops, fruit, spices and other ingredients. Floor malting offers the small brewer or distiller an opportunity to source barley from farmers in their area and turn it into malt, the backbone of beer and malt whiskey. While floor malting was largely supplanted by industrial-scale drum malting in the 20th century, the older methods offer a hands-on opportunity to produce unique malt with less equipment. Craft Floor Malting: A Practical Guide offers an examination of the key stages of the floor-malting process, and a look at how craft floor maltsters approach the day-to-day necessities of malting at a small scale.
