From the Stillhouse to the Malthouse Craft distillers malting their own grains Written by Maggie Kimberl /// Photos provided by Hillrock Estate Distillery
M
alted barley is the workhorse of any whiskey’s mash bill. Most grains used for whiskey production — corn, rye, and wheat — have very low enzymatic potential. That means that in order to access their sugars
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for full fermentation they would either have to be fully malted themselves or access enzymes from another source. Barley has a very high enzymatic potential, so much so that even 10 percent malted barley in a mash bill has the potential to unlock all the sugars in all
the other grains. Even though this is a critical part of whiskey-making, very few whiskey makers malt their own grains. There may be around a dozen distillers in the United States malting their own grains, including Frey Ranch, Minden Mill, Hillrock Estate, Rogue, Leopold Bros., Copper Fox, Copper Works, and Whiskey Del Bac. There are also a handful of farms that began malting the grains they were growing and then went on to distill their own malted grains, including Rustic Brew Farms (Frey Ranch and Hillrock Estate may be counted in this camp depending on your vantage point). If malt is such a crucial part of the distilling process, why aren’t more people doing it? “Like any other creative/scientific endeavor, having a theoretical knowledge of something versus having practical knowledge of something are two very different things,” said Whiskey Del Bac head distiller and blender Mark Vierthaler. “You think you know how something is supposed to work, but at the end of the day we're just doing our best to wrangle natural processes. Like cooperage, malting is an entirely separate skillset from distilling and blending. And when you learn to do it yourself, it deepens your admiration and appreciation of those that do it full time.” Malting requires constant attention, without which there’s a risk of mold, over-germination, and clumping.
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