Monday 22nd May 1989
Danny Howell writes ~
Some of the members of the Warminster History Society were shown around the Pound Street Maltings, Warminster, by Hugh Turner and Chris Garrett.
The Maltings were built in 1879, on the site of Dr. Bleeck’s former house, and were originally in the hands of the Morgan family, who were brewers in the town. Dr. Edwin Sloper Beaven married William Frank Morgan’s sister, and Dr. Beaven went on to take over all the malthouses in Warminster including the one in the Market Place (at Chinn’s Yard). He also had a malthouse at Montpelier in Bristol. He worked in close connection with the head brewer at Guinness’ in Dublin. Dr. Beaven, who found world-wide fame as a barley breeder, died in 1941, and the Trustees of his estate ran the Pound Street Maltings until 1947, when they sold to Guinness, who still run the operation today [1989].
The key to good malt is the quality of the barley used. That at the Pound Street Maltings comes from local farmers, although in seasons when good barley is in short supply it is also acquired from outside Wiltshire, from Devon, Cornwall and Hampshire. The further away it is makes it more expensive. The barley is brought via grain merchants, between July and September, and all is delivered in by bulk lorries. Barley in the field has a moisture content of about 16 per cent but it is dried to a figure nearer 12 per cent, making it safe to store. A large store at Pound Street holds 1,200 tons of barley for the year, and the Maltings has additional storage space at Codford on a site south of the A36.
The first part of the malting process is to steep the grain in water, which raises the moisture level to 44 per cent and prompts the grain to start germination. The barley is dropped into the steep tank from the store, in batches of 10 tons each day. The amount is measured by the rise in the water level. Two-thirds of the water required for steeping is taken from a well, the remainder coming from the local supply. The amount of well water alleviates any problems with regards chlorine or other additives. Although the Maltings find it cheaper to use their own water, they are charged for all the water they dispose of via the local sewer.
It is not possible to leave the grain submerged in the water for more than 12 hours, otherwise it becomes smothered and dies. The problem is resolved by wetting the grain for three separate periods over 72 hours. Air can be blown through the water, and the use of spray bars also helps to ensure even germination. The optimum water temperature is 54 to 55 degrees fahrenheit.
After steeping, the grain is emptied from the tank via an auger but 80 per cent of the removal has to be assisted manually – by a man with a shovel. Ten tons of barley with a 44 per cent moisture content makes for 14 tons weight, and a fit worker is required to aid the transfer. The germinating barley is then spread, about six inches deep on the first two of the germination floors (five tons on each floor), where it continues to germinate. The optimum temperature for the floors is again 54 to 55 degrees fahrenheit and this is regulated by heating in the winter and by opening or closing the windows in the summer. Hot summer days, similar to the one chosen for our visit, make conditions too hot and difficult. That’s why the old traditional maltsters stopped production at the end of May. The colder months of November to February, when the temperature can be controlled with additional heating, are more suited for malting.
The barley spends four days on the four germination floors, and because it is hot there is a tendency for the sprouting roots to become tangled. To prevent this, the grain is raked by a man pulling a kind of three-pronged hoe with a flat blade. This is known at the Warminster Maltings as “dragging” but at malthouses in other districts, particularly Norfolk, it is referred to as “ploughing.” It turns the grain over and gets air into it and if done sufficiently stops the material matting together. This can be done up to four times a day and varies according to the temperature conditions. The men often have to come back after normal working hours, in the evening, on overtime, to repeat this process. The method is traditional, and in the early days the grain was moved about by men using wooden forks and shovels. Today’s shovels are made of aluminium, which makes them lighter to handle. Dust can be a problem, particularly with the original barley, but face-masks are worn by the men.
Another device used for moving the grain on the germination floor, preventing matting and getting the air in, is an electric machine called a Robinson Turner. It resembles a lawnmower and is towed backwards by a man through the material, the rotating blades throwing the grain up in the air before it falls back on to the floor. This is an additional job done each day and the number of times again depends on the temperature. During the last stage, on the fourth and final floor, the barley becomes red hot (too hot at the time of our visit).
The germination process tricks the grain into thinking it has started life in the field, and the germination converts the starch in the grains into simple sugars – exactly what the brewer wants. The maltster likes to see five curly rootlets on each germinated grain. This really depends on the barley brought in, and it is tested on arrival for quality. Unsuitable barley is rejected.
After the allotted time on the floors, the germination has to be terminated by kilning the grain to get the water out. Heating in the kiln reduces the moisture content to four per cent. The buildings at Pound Street contain four old brick kilns but only two are used at the present time for drying the barley. These were once coal-fired but an oil burner, cast by Carson & Toone at Carson’s Yard in Warminster, and patented by Dr. Beaven, is still in use today. The names of Carson and Toone could be plainly seen on the iron doors of the kiln. Alternatively to oil, gas can be used. The kiln is in use 20 hours out of every 24, which leaves only a few hours to load and unload it, which is done manually (a hot and uncomfortable job). Because of the constant process it is important the kiln does not break down. It reaches an incredible 175 degrees fahrenheit and costs £3,000 a month to run.
After kilning, the rootlets (known as malt culns) are removed from the grains. The rootlets and very tiny grains are extracted through a screen which came from Bailey’s Maltings in Frome and was installed in 1890 at the Pound Street Maltings, where it has been used daily ever since. The rootlets are used to make cattle feed; some are sold direct to Corsley farmer Bob Jones, and the rest are sold to a commercial feed manufacturer. The Guinness maltings in Norfolk have their own machinery for converting the rootlets into cattle feed pellets.
The malt grain which is left looks remarkably similar to the original barley. The only difference is the fact that the starch within has changed to sugars, which make the grain very dry and brittle. If you bite the grain it tastes of Horlicks. The final stage is the transfer of the malt grain into a bin where it is discharged into a bulk lorry outside for the journey to the brewer. All the malt from the Pound Street Maltings goes to Guinness’ Park Royal Brewery in London. Park Royal do not take deliveries of malt after 10 a.m., so if a lorry of malt leaves Warminster in the afternoon, it has to wait on the outskirts of London overnight before going into the Brewery first thing in the morning.
Six men are employed on a permanent basis at the Pound Street Maltings, taking care of the seven day process, but they do get time off. Before the War the labour was seasonal, with the men finding casual work during harvest time. The Pound Street Maltings are one of only two traditional floor malthouses still operating in the South West; the other being Tucker’s at Crediton in Devon. Most of today’s malthouses are in East Anglia.
Guinness own two malthouses in Norfolk, at Diss and Great Yarmouth, but both are bigger than the Pound Street Maltings. The Norfolk ones produce 13,000 tons of malt per year, compared to 2,500 tons at Warminster. All three malthouses use the same haulage firm, from Diss; the drivers constantly draying malt from Norfolk and Warminster to the Park Royal Brewery. Warminster is used as the administrative base for the three malthouses with offices at East Street.
Dr. Beaven’s malthouse at Chinn’s Yard was a one-man seven-days-a-week operation. It closed in 1968 when the man retired and no one was fool enough to take it on single-handed every day of the week. Within a year of the Chinn’s Yard malthouse closing, production at Pound Street was ironically increased and the extra output easily outstripped that of the Market Place operation.
As well as brewing, malt is also used in the production of beverages and breakfast cereals.
