We do the malting here ourselves.
Malting is inseparable from brewing. Historically and in terms of the actual craft involved, breweries always had their own maltings and made their own brewer’s malt. At Privatbrauerei Schweiger, we are particularly committed to this tradition given that the art of brewing begins with the craft of malting.
In our own maltings, we create exactly the right malt to meet our stringent quality demands and whatever malt is needed for our beers. We are one of the few remaining breweries in Germany to make its own malt.
We also supply other breweries with high quality brewer’s malt. Naturally, we are particularly proud of the trust placed in us. It says a lot about the quality of our brewer’s malt.
The top quality brewer’s barley supplied by barley farmers in Upper Bavaria plays a key role in malting. Over many years of steadfast collaboration, our farmers have been supplying us with premium-quality barley year for year. This enables us to ensure that only indigenous brewer’s barley is used to produce our Schweiger beers as part of our handcrafted brewing tradition.
Malt production
The maltster carefully selects the grain that is suitable for malting. On arrival, the grain is washed and sorted in the barley cleaning room. Weak (small) grains and bits of grains and straw are removed After that, the grain has to rest until the period of dormancy is over, that is, the time during which the grain cannot germinate.
2. Germination
The steeped barley germinates in germination containers for 6 days. During the germination process, rootlets grow from the grain seedling and enzymes, that are needed later on for the beer brewing process, develop or are activated. The conversion of starch to malt sugar is initiated. At the end of the germination process, the maltster refers to green malt.
3. Kilning
The germinated green malt is gently dried in a kiln until it has a water content of only 4 % and the colour and flavours of the malt begin to develop. Depending on the type of malt, roasting takes place at a temperature of between 85 and 105° C. Now and again, a malty aromatic cloud moves over the brewery and you can smell the kilning process.
A number of different brewer’s malts can be made using different malting procedures, which in turn allow for the production of different types of beer.
Our malt types
Pilsner malt
This is the most used base malt worldwide and it is made exclusively from barley. In other countries it is often referred to as lager malt (for brewing lagers) or as pale malt. It is particularly pale and can be used as a base for all types of beer (dark beers are sometimes only coloured with colour malt). It is kilned at about 80 °C and has a colour of 2-3 EBC. It is essential for the production of Pilsner, Helles and other pale beers.
Munich Malt
This is a barley malt that has a stronger depth of colour than Pilsner and Vienna Malt and is kilned at about 100 °C. It is the main ingredient for malty, dark beers and is supplied in various colours (between 15 and 70 EBC). In addition to its dark colour, this malt usually has a distinctive aromatic malt aroma which is why it is used in brewing not only for colouring but also for flavour intensification.
