THE EXPLOSION of the craft brewing industry over the past decade is well documented, but what is far less developed is the craft malt sector.
While craft brewers may be lovingly making their products, up until relatively recently there was a good chance the malt that formed the critical component of the beer that eventually hit the market came from a large-scale corporate maltster.
The malt is technically sound but failed to provide the artisan individuality craved by the brewers looking for their point of difference.
That, however, is changing, with a small band of small-batch maltsters looking to team with the craft brewing sector to produce malts that can better reflect a particular trait the brewer is seeking.
One of those is Drew Graham, of fledgling maltster House of Malt, located at Delacombe in Ballarat's industrial estates.
Mr Graham's start-up business makes tiny parcels of malt, the 500kg batch size dwarfed by the major maltsters.
He said the aim was not to compete with the major maltsters but rather to fill a gap in the market for those looking for a different type of product.
"We want to provide brewers unique malt products that they in turn can take to make their own different beers and spirits," Mr Graham said during a tour of House of Malt as part of last week's Innovation Generation (IG) conference.
In terms of the logistics of the facility he said it was a mix of the old and the new.
The beginning of the malt process is steeping, where the grain is immersed off and on in water for several days to begin the germination process.
In this part, Mr Graham said he used modern technology, however for the next part of the process the grain is floor malted, which is an age-old process.
This step sees the grain put in an even level on the malt room floor and constantly turned while it is germinating.
"It's important to keep constantly turning the product, if you left it too long at this stage the grain would all matt together and would not be usable," Mr Graham said.
From there, the germinated grains, beginning to take the characteristic sweetness of malt and known as green malt, are then placed in the kiln and roasted to the appropriate stage.
The kilning process is a delicate stage, where all the seed must be roasted equally to avoid burning and the temperature regulated appropriately.
"It is probably fairly similar to coffee roasting in a way," Mr Graham said.
House of Malt has a range of products from a base malt, through to darker amber malts and he is even starting to produce smoked malts, used in German rauch-style beer.
"The smoking process can be difficult to get an even smoke flavour throughout the malt, but we reckon we're getting it right," he said.
A strong do it yourself ethos has helped Mr Graham overcome obstacles.
When the malted grain is processed there are often short tailings from the germination process attached to the seed.
Ingenuity saw him, with the aid of a drill, plastic bucket and other household equipment create a detailing machine.
"It cost less than $80 all up for materials but it is doing the job well."
Stuart Whytcross, Voyager Malt, Whitton, NSW, is a comparatively old hand in the specialty malt industry, having set up his business in 2012.
He said there was interest from the craft brewing sector for small scale batches of malt that were not of a viable size for the major maltsters to look at.
"At Voyager we source a lot of our barley from the local region and give it some identity as a product, rather than a commodity," Mr Whytcross said.
He said brewers were interested in concepts such as single origin or single variety batches of malt in line with how wine is marketed.
However, he said the brewing industry had more power in its hands in the production process than the wine sector.
"In wine, it is basically fermented then you have your wine.
"With beer, before you make the beer you've got to malt the barley and that allows the maltster and brewing another step to influence the flavour, whether it is a dark or light malt or whatever and then through the brewing process.
"This means that the varietal characteristics of a barley's taste are one factor but there is also a larger influence from what the maltster has done in producing the malt."