Champions Series: Michael Watson

From barley to malt

A passion for barley and the desire to do something different was the beginning of Gladfield Malt – which now provides malt across New Zealand and the world.

Doug and Gabriella Michael are the owners of Gladfield Malt in Dunsandel, Canterbury. Mr Michael is a fifth-generation farmer at ‘Gladfield’, traditionally a sheep and cropping farm.

Mr Michael always aspired to do something different and started developing the business soon after he left school and when returning home after a shearing stint, bought some of the property himself.

“I didn’t want to be a dairy farmer, it’s a great career, but it wasn’t for me … I had always enjoyed barley and knew we could grow it well and saw the craft beer market as an opportunity.”

Mr Michael met his wife Gabriella when she was visiting New Zealand from Brazil, and the pair have worked together since.

After growing their own barley for many years Mr and Mrs Michael decided to create their own craft malting plant and when a bare paddock was turned into one in 2004, Gladfield Malt was born. The operation is now a 170-hectare irrigated property which was not only home to the malting plant but also grew barley.

“I wanted to go to the next level and produce a product to sell directly … we’re in some of the world’s best barley growing areas, having a maritime climate, good soils and water for irrigation.”

Mr Michael was primarily focused on the operations of the grain and malting plant while Mrs Michael looked after the sales and marketing.

The craft beer market was hard to break into Mr Michael said, as New Zealand brewers previously tended to import their malt.

“We slowly developed the market and originally just malted our own barley (which we still do) before we started buying it in, we slowly developed the market day by day, year by year … Gladfield Malt owners, Gabriella and Doug Michael, stand in a paddock of young barley right in front of the processing plant in Dunsandel.

Doug looks over the controls of the germination process. Although there is a lot of technology involved it still takes a lot of judgement from an expert to make sure the process is done correctly.

Doug checks on the grain during the germination process. Germination.

growing our own barley used to be everything however now it’s a small part of our business.”

Not only did Gladfield Malt get made into beer in New Zealand but it was also exported to Australia, which was their biggest market and Asia, the second biggest market, as well as other destinations. They also provided malt for the baking and distilling industries.

Mr Michael said irrigation was crucial to what they did.

“Our main goal is to provide good malt to our customers and without good barley we couldn’t do that and do it consistently … it’s so important to have irrigation.”

He said not only were the growing conditions and soil important but, to have full grain it needed to be watered appropriately.

“We are so lucky to have passionate farmers who supply us. We’re precision farming in New Zealand now, high quality malting barley is a result of good soils, a unique climate and water, and people to consistently grow a good product.”

“If we didn’t have irrigation, we might have a good year every now and again, we wouldn’t have access to the top-quality barley like we do.”

Mr Michael said like any business the whole thing had been a challenge, but that was the best part.

THE MALTING PROCESS

Malt is a germinated cereal grain that has been dried in a process known as malting. Malt is one of the four essential ingredients in producing craft beer. The process of malting involves three main steps – soaking (known as steeping), next is germinating and finally heating or kilning the grain produces its final colour and flavour.

1. Cleaning

When the barley first arrives, it is graded and cleaned.

2. Steeping

This is where the grain is cleaned and brought to life with water and oxygen. This is done by steeping or immersing the grain in water, followed by a rest period that allows the water to be fully absorbed. The absorbed water promotes the growth of the new enzymes and activates existing ones. This generally takes 24–48 hours.

3. Germination

The barley is then cast into germination boxes where it stays for five days. Here growth and modification of the grain occurs. Modification is the breakdown of protein and carbohydrates and results in opening the starch reserves, turning starch into sugar. Moisture levels and temperature are controlled via airflow and water spray.

4. Kilning

The grain is then dried to prevent further germination and flavour is added.

5. Roasting

The malt is then roasted to further create different flavours and ultimately different beers.

6. Cleaning and bagging

The malt is then cleaned and bagged into one tonne or 25 kilogram bags or sold in bulk. The last job before the malt goes out the door – bagging.

“There’s some sort of challenge every day.”

As well as competition, making sure their malt was top standard for a constantly evolving craft beer industry was trying, although only three varieties of barley came through the door, 34 types of malt went out it.

“Every brewer is different in what they want. The biggest challenge is making sure we achieve their expectations, having happy customers was a real measure of success, I get a lot of job satisfaction from happy customers and ultimately people enjoying the beer.”

Mr Michael said the business had gotten much bigger than they had originally planned.

‘’ There’s no secret to growing a business, the harder you work the luckier you get, having good people around you and staff is so important.”

“Always have faith in yourself, ask questions and learn but ultimately you have to make your own decisions.”

Going forward Mr Michael said they planned to continue looking ahead and working on producing the best product possible, and both Mr and Mrs Michael enjoyed seeing their children Isabel (13), Fred (11), and Trev (9) learn and experience being part of the business.

“Maybe when I retire, I can go back sheep farming.”

LEARN ABOUT THE PART IRRIGATION PLAYS IN GROWING HOPS

Hops is also an integral ingredient in beer. See our previous feature on Tasman hops growers in the Winter 2019 issue of IrrigationNZ News. Visit our website to view this story: www.irrigationnz.co.nz