Lesson 2 - Malt Intake, Handling, and Storage

Malt intake spans from the lorry arriving at the brewery to the unloading of the grain. The activities of malt intake vary with the size of the brewing operation. They range from removing a sack from a pallet, to unloading a ship docked next to the brewery using conveyors and elevators. The level of inspection and evaluation of the malt at arrival also varies greatly.

The malt may have come from down the road or from another continent; the longer it is in the supply chain, the greater the risk that the malt is not in the same condition as when it left the malt supplier. During extended transport, malt can pick up moisture, foreign bodies, or become infested with mould, insects, or vermin. It may have also been subjected to extremes of temperature. Large breweries will specify the means of transport used and the procedures that must be followed in the supply chain. For example, trucks transporting malt will be specified to be:

• Cleanable

• Cleaned before filling

• Inspected before filling

• Dedicated to the transport of food materials

• Designed to prevent water and pest ingress

This helps prevent nasty surprises, like finding malt grain-sized pebbles from a previous load in the malt when it has been unloaded.

Large loads of grain will be accompanied by a bill of lading while small consignments arrive with delivery notes. For large loads in trucks, the storage compartment may be fitted on load cells so that the weight of the load can be measured. Alternatively, the truck can be weighed whilst full and empty on a weighbridge. The amount unloaded rather than that amount on the bill of lading is entered into the brewery’s stock system.

Before dispatch, samples of the malt are taken from the vehicle or sacks and analysed by the malt supplier. A duplicate sample in a bag may arrive with the delivery. The results of the various tests undertaken by the supplier are used to produce a certificate of analysis (CoA) that will accompany the load. For many breweries, the analytical facilities at the malt plant will be a great deal more sophisticated than their own. These breweries will use the results on the CoA in order to adjust recipes and processing. Larger brewers will provide the malt plant with a specification for the malt and a list of the analyses that must be completed for the CoA. They will analyse representative samples of the load for the same parameters.  

Any discrepancies in load size or quality will be discussed with the supplier. In extreme cases, the load may be returned.

Now that we have an overview of how malt is transported and its accompanying documentation, we can move on to cover the checks undertaken by the brewery.