Laphriaog Distillery Malting house

Last crawled date: 2 years, 12 months ago

This building is where the raw Barley is “malted”. “Malting” is the process of starting the raw grain to grow (germinating), which releases enzymes that will convert the starch in the barley grain into sugars the barley plant will use as it starts to grow. These same enzymes will be put to work for the distiller when the grains are “mashed” is a later step in the process. The objective of malting is to achieve the optimum enzyme production. The dry barley grains are moistened, then spread out on the floors of the building to germinate. Spreading the barley out is important because it allows the temperature of the germinating barley to be controlled. Germinating barley released heat and if not controlled, this heat could damage the barley. At Laphroaig, the temperature of the malting barley is regulated by the depth of the grain on the malting floor and by opening the windows of the malting house to allow the excess heat to escape. Link to the Laphroaig website on-line tour description of malting: http://www.laphroaig.com/distillery/distillery-tour/malting-floors.aspx #Distillery #Laphroaig #malting_house