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A Visit to Brauerei Spezial
[Note: Some pictures were provided by Tom Rierson. If they look good they are probably his. If they are blurry, they are probably mine. FJW]
Malting
Just about the first thing Herr Merz told us at the start of the tour was they he buys only organic barley from local farmers. That did not sink in right away -- wait a minute brewers don't get barley from a farmer, they get it from a maltster. Not only is Spezial a brauerei it is a malzerei as well! In the days before mass transportation this was common. All breweries malted their own grains. It is only with the advent of railroads and modern distributions systems that allowed these operations to be "outsourced."
The first step is the grain is placed in the steeping tank and mixed with water. The water is replaced a number of times over the day or so it remains in the tank.
Next the wet grain is transferred are large contraption that I am sure has a very long name in German but I have not idea what it is called in English. It is basically a vertical germination box. There are large augers that rotate around the inside to keep the germinating barley moving and to keep the rootlets from getting matted.
I don't have a picture of it, but there looked to be a sort of half basement beneath the floor. When asked about it Herr Merz said it was there old box maltings. It required too much space so it was replaced (many years ago) with the current vertical system.
When the malt has reached the desired level of modification it is transferred to the kiln for drying. The smokiness in Bamberger Rauchbier comes from being kilned directly over a beachwood fire (rather than hot air warmed indirectly by a gas or oil fired burner)
The wood is also locally grown.
Below is the inside of the kiln. It is kind of hard to make out as everything is very black.
When the malt has been kilned it is transferred to a bin to await use. A few weeks worth of malt will be made at one time. (He does not do a malting before every brew)
A couple of days later we happened to see them bringing wood in for the kiln.
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