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Episode 71

What is Malt? w/ Briess Malt & Ingredients Co

Ever wondered what malt really is? Its in shakes, beer, pizza crust, but what is it? Gary Arndt and Joel Hermansen take over the podcast and eat all the malted milk balls from Briess Malt & Ingrededient Co! They discuss the science and art of malting with technical maltster Jordon Guerts and marketing director Ron Schroder.Discover the intricate journey from barley to malt and how even mishaps can lead to new and exciting beers.

Get some malt: https://food.briess.com/

Get tickets to the Malt City Brewfest 2025, hosted by Briess Malt: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/malt-city-brewfest-2025-tickets-1226903995879

PATREON

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EMAIL

Got a question? Email us at respectingthebeer@gmail.com

--

TIMELINE

00:00 Welcome!

00:47 Introduction to Briess Malting Company

01:44 What is Malt?

03:18 The Malting Process Explained

04:59 Challenges in Malting and Technological Advances

13:41 Specialty Malts and Their Importance

19:36 Accidental Beer Creations

27:12 Support the show on Patreon!

--

CREDITS

Hosts:

Bobby Fleshman

Allison Fleshman

Joel Hermansen

Gary Ardnt

Music by Sarah Lynn Huss

Recorded & Produced by David Kalsow

Brought to you by McFleshman's Brewing Co

Transcript
Gary:

Hello everyone.

Gary:

Welcome to another episode of Respecting the Beer.

Gary:

My name is Gary Arndt and with me is The Man Who's Fresh Office 5 47 Day Bender, Mr.

Gary:

Joel Hermanson.

Joel:

That was quite a day.

Joel:

That was fun.

Joel:

It was,

Gary:

And I missed your speech.

Gary:

I'm sorry to hear that.

Gary:

I hope it was recording.

Gary:

It was a

Joel:

winner.

Joel:

It was really good, I think, but uh, I was told it was good.

Gary:

I wanted room to know we have, uh, declared a coup deta.

Gary:

Yes.

Gary:

We have taken over the podcast.

Gary:

Bobby and Allison are not here.

Gary:

We don't need them.

Gary:

Yep.

Gary:

They're done with, they're dead to us.

Gary:

I mean, taken over the whole brewery.

Gary:

I don't know anything about brewery, but, but you'll see a huge

Joel:

tonal shift on the podcast tonight.

Gary:

Yeah.

Gary:

More science, a lot different, more, more objectivity, more shenanigans.

Gary:

Uh, but we have a great show that we have had lined up for a while and we have the guys from the Briess Malting Company here.

Gary:

And the reason I wanted to talk to you guys is because I. Malt is something that everyone is familiar with.

Gary:

We've had malt, you know, you could have like a, a malted milkshake, you've had malted balls.

Gary:

Everyone kind of knows that malt is part of what makes beer.

Gary:

I don't think most people know what malt is.

Gary:

And so it's a mystery gr So, please introduce yourselves and kind of briefly explain what your role is with the company.

Ron:

My name is Ron Schroeder and I'm the director of marketing at Briess.

Ron:

I'm based in Chilton, Wisconsin, and I've been with the company for about six years.

Jordan:

I'm Jordan Gertz.

Jordan:

I've been with the company for almost 12 years now.

Jordan:

I'm the technical maltster.

Jordan:

I'm based in Manitowoc, Wisconsin at our malt plant.

Gary:

So, before we get into your company in particular, and your roles, can you tell us what MALT is?

Joel:

Can I preface this with?

Joel:

Sure.

Joel:

One thing really quickly so our listeners tune in for the history, the science.

Joel:

So get into the weeds with this.

Joel:

You know, I, we have some people who will really enjoy hearing the deep dive into this.

Jordan:

So, uh, malt is the the sole of beer.

Jordan:

It is the backbone that creates beer flavor.

Jordan:

Really where it comes from though, uh, is malted barley.

Jordan:

That's what malt is typically short for.

Jordan:

Other grains can be malted, but, and what is malting?

Jordan:

The malting process is the process of turning grain into malt through basically the natural process of growing it.

Jordan:

Right?

Jordan:

So steeping, germination, and then drying it out and killing it.

Jordan:

Okay.

Jordan:

But you said it turns grain into malt.

Jordan:

What is malt?

Ron:

And maybe let's talk about those steps in the process a little bit because I I, to get us there, I, I know what it is,

Gary:

but like, it's basically sprouting, right?

Jordan:

Yeah,

Gary:

yeah.

Gary:

Yep.

Gary:

So your germ, the it sprouts green stuff comes up, and then in that kind of dorm, I, I don won't wanna say dormant, but like that infant stage of the plant, that's malt, right?

Joel:

Yeah.

Joel:

So, yeah, walk us through how, what, what are you doing over there in Manitowoc Jordan?

Joel:

What's happening over there?

Jordan:

So when, when we're malting grain, we're going through the process of.

Jordan:

Steeping, which is getting would be introducing water to the grain.

Jordan:

Right?

Jordan:

We're starting the growing process, so sprouting it, right?

Jordan:

So the initial process of sprouting it is steeping the grain.

Jordan:

Then we go through germination, which is a short growth period depending on what we're making.

Jordan:

That'll be anywhere from two to five days and then kil it, which is drying it out to make it a useful product for well storage.

Jordan:

And then also creating all the unique colors and flavors.

Jordan:

So, we begin the growth process and then we stop the growth process and create the colors and flavors that you would then use for beer or spirits.

Joel:

So we actually have a history class at Mc Fleshman.

Joel:

Yeah.

Joel:

Okay.

Joel:

It's crazy.

Joel:

Twice a year we do a history of beer in the United States, and then in opposite years we do a history of beer.

Joel:

In world history.

Joel:

And as part of that, we talk about kind of the evolution of how human beings started down this path and how they got significantly better at doing it.

Joel:

Drying malt initially was not a very successful process, and you ended up with a lot of unevenness.

Joel:

You ended up with a lot of smoke you know, when they were trying to do it.

Joel:

How do you guys do it that you can keep off flavors out, that you can keep you know, an even product in there?

Joel:

Like, is is it a technological thing?

Joel:

Is it your technique?

Joel:

I'm interested.

Jordan:

So, uh, well, kiln specifically is one of the most challenging parts of the malting process.

Jordan:

Uh, you're using a lot of factors.

Jordan:

You know, grain, moisture protein content, the level of modification, which is a term that maltsters use readily for basically saying growth.

Jordan:

So the amount of growth that, uh, that the grain has gone through.

Jordan:

So we're targeting specific growth levels during the germination process to set us up for the proper, to have the proper precursors on the kiln.

Jordan:

And thankfully, technology has come a quite a ways, not as far as a lot of industries in terms of controls and application.

Jordan:

But, uh, you know, we, we can now monitor temperature much more closely.

Jordan:

We can now apply temperature very evenly to a grain bed.

Jordan:

And we can do that in a way that creates a much more even and uniform product knowing how that's being done and being able to control the.

Jordan:

Temperature time and moisture content are the critical factors that we use to create different products and different flavors as to when it's finished.

Jordan:

That comes down to operator's decisions, right?

Jordan:

So we have our operators on the, on the floor.

Jordan:

They go into the grain while it's in the kil process and take samples.

Jordan:

They'll smell, touch, taste the grain.

Jordan:

They'll, in some cases they'll run color analysis.

Jordan:

In some cases they'll run just a moisture analysis, and they'll do that to determine at what point the process is finished.

Jordan:

And so the ability to measure you know, the temperature applied, the air speed applied, uh, through fan speeds are the critical factors that we use to create recipes.

Jordan:

And then, you know, great inventions like VFDs allow us to have those applied evenly over a large grain mass.

Jordan:

And I'll,

Gary:

Bobby would be so into this.

Gary:

Yeah.

Gary:

Should have been here.

Gary:

Too bad,

Joel:

right?

Joel:

Yeah.

Joel:

I guess you snooze, you lose.

Joel:

Ron, you were saying, I'm sorry.

Joel:

Yeah,

Ron:

I'll, I'll build on what Jordan said because malting in the way he describes it and that it happens at our Manitowoc malt plant is a, a lot like brewing and that it lives at the intersection of art and science.

Ron:

And we're, we're in a, in a world where a lot of things happen pretty quickly, right?

Ron:

I mean, car assembly or building computers at Dell, you can order a computer and have it delivered in 24 hours.

Ron:

And the process he described takes about a week to get it all the way through the malt plant with about a day and a half on the front end in steeping, and then usually about four days in germination and then kiln.

Ron:

And if it's roasted, that takes a couple days.

Ron:

And there, there's all those elements that go into it.

Ron:

That's one of the things I think is really cool about the malting process is that process of crafting it.

Ron:

And he talked about the malt being checked at various points, and it is in steeping, in germination, in, in kiln and roasting.

Ron:

And that's what makes all 50 plus of the products in our line unique is, is getting those adjustments just right and, and getting a consistent product that the brewer can brew with every time.

Joel:

For those listeners who recognized the quote that Ron just gave to us, we love to use that, that same terminology about the intersection between art and science.

Joel:

So thank you for for using that, that that was, that was a home run.

Joel:

How much of this gets done?

Joel:

Like what, what, what's, what's the volume like in, in Manitowoc?

Jordan:

So, uh, volume wise, it really depends on which process we're talking about.

Jordan:

So the, uh, like what

Joel:

comes,

Jordan:

let, let, let's start with this.

Joel:

What comes in?

Joel:

You're taking in two row, I would imagine more often than not.

Joel:

Like, how much is coming in in like a, let's say a week?

Jordan:

I'd have to, I'd have to bust out the pen and paper to figure out the exact number, but it's a

Joel:

big, it's a big number.

Joel:

It's a, it's a

Jordan:

big number.

Jordan:

Okay.

Jordan:

You know, the, the Malthouse capacity is, is fairly large.

Jordan:

You know, at, its, at its peak it was could produce over a million pounds a day.

Joel:

I'm sorry, could you say that again?

Jordan:

At it, at its peak usage rate, the Manitowoc Malthouse could produce over a million pounds a day.

Jordan:

Wow.

Gary:

That's a lot of beer that, oh, I want, I want to go back just a bit.

Gary:

So you, you're, you're taking a seed, you germinate it.

Gary:

What is special that happens that makes malt malt and the reason why it's a desirable thing for people to have as opposed to just using a seed?

Gary:

What's happening in that process that is where the magic occurs and makes it desirable?

Jordan:

Sure.

Jordan:

So the, the difference well there's a lot of differences in, in Rob Arley and Finn Vault.

Jordan:

Sure.

Jordan:

Some of the biggest differences well not even, hold on, lemme think this through for a second.

Jordan:

All right.

Jordan:

So the, the biggest, I wish we had a

Joel:

whiteboard on our podcast.

Jordan:

Oh, no.

Jordan:

Yeah.

Jordan:

I can't have a whiteboard.

Jordan:

I will draw pictures.

Jordan:

It's how I, I really wish we had a whiteboard on the, the podcast.

Jordan:

That's how is, if I draw pictures, I, it's, I, you have Keep the markers away from me.

Jordan:

Play beer Pictionary.

Jordan:

I like to have different colors so I can color coordinate things.

Jordan:

It's okay.

Jordan:

It becomes a thing.

Jordan:

Meetings go very long because I've got a whiteboard.

Jordan:

But so, in, in raw barley, a lot of the things that you need for the beer are not available, right?

Jordan:

They're bound and they're tied up by cell walls and you know, protein that's gonna hold all that stuff, right?

Jordan:

So the stuff that makes beer, the, what we call the extract, right?

Jordan:

What's sugar that's extracted during the brewing process is stored as starch in barley.

Jordan:

In raw barley.

Jordan:

It's just not accessible.

Jordan:

So the malting process liberates all that starch so that it's available during the mashing process, uh, and then can be separated easily during the laddering process.

Jordan:

If you have malt that's not produced to a high quality, even if it's somewhat available it will be difficult to extract during the brewing process because compounds that will basically.

Jordan:

Prevent laddering won't be modified to the right level.

Jordan:

They won't be degraded, and they'll create a high viscosity condition or compounds that will plug the louder bed and prevent it from easily separating.

Jordan:

Right?

Jordan:

So, the malting process needs to be uniform.

Jordan:

It needs to be controlled so that the process goes evenly and you end up with the right or the, the correct level of modification at the end.

Jordan:

So that, that, all that good stuff inside the raw barley kernel is now easily accessible and extracted during the brewing process.

Gary:

How, how much, how much are you threading the needle?

Gary:

Because it seems to me like you don't let it germinate enough.

Gary:

No.

Gary:

Good.

Gary:

You let it germinate too much.

Gary:

No.

Gary:

Good.

Gary:

I mean, you got this dialed in now where you know, like exactly how long it has to sit and sprout before you put it in the kiln.

Jordan:

Yeah, so there's, there's definitely some level of you know, it's.

Jordan:

Not a, you know, it's not a, a tiny window, but it's a, a like a day maybe.

Jordan:

I'd say less than that.

Jordan:

But, uh, you know, we've got, we do a lot of work on the front end with different barley varieties and different, as we receive different crop years, we're doing small scale testing before we bring it into the, the full, full-size malthouse.

Jordan:

And we do that to ensure that we know that the process we're going to use will give us the right level of modification that we need to create whatever specific product we're trying to make.

Jordan:

Um, some barley varieties are better used for different products.

Jordan:

So, uh, when you look at what a, a regular two row base malt is, like a brewer's malt we'll use a different variety for that than we will for something like a bond land or Munich malt.

Jordan:

They have different requirements.

Jordan:

Uh, they have very different specifications, uh, in terms of color and flavor, right.

Jordan:

So we need to have those the raw material that's best suited to make that finished product.

Joel:

Because every malt has its own function.

Joel:

Yes, absolutely.

Joel:

You know, in a, in a particular home brew recipe, you're gonna have, you know, 85, 90% of it's gonna be the two row.

Joel:

Yep.

Joel:

And you're gonna have caramel malts.

Joel:

You might have some Vienna malt, some Munich malt, you know, manipulating color car pills, for example, is really good for head retention.

Joel:

Correct.

Joel:

And, and things like that.

Joel:

So, Ron, a while ago you mentioned 50 products.

Gary:

Mm-hmm.

Joel:

Like that, that, that feels like a, a a a lot happening.

Joel:

Can can you talk about that a little bit?

Ron:

Sure.

Ron:

Uh, it, it's, uh, just building on what you mentioned, um, there are so many different malts that brewers need to use to get the beer they're brewing.

Ron:

And we can think of beers all the way from pilsner's to stouts.

Ron:

In terms of what a brewer might need.

Ron:

And IPAs kind of sit in the middle in terms of, of the ball.

Joel:

Like above in the middle though, right?

Joel:

Like on a, on a pedestal.

Joel:

Some people would say that, but I'd argue they're not nuts, you know?

Joel:

But

Gary:

yeah.

Gary:

Okay.

Gary:

It's a good thing Alison isn't here.

Gary:

Yes, it is.

Gary:

She, she loves multi beers.

Gary:

Yeah.

Gary:

And I'm, I'm drinking a porter here.

Gary:

Okay.

Gary:

It's

Joel:

very good.

Joel:

And we're, we're gonna get each of you a 5 47.

Joel:

That'll be your next

Ron:

Yeah.

Ron:

That, that's great.

Ron:

But for instance, one, one of the, one of the product lines I think of, for instance, is caramel malts.

Ron:

And we are the leader in caramel malts in the US and we have everything from a caramel 10 on the light end to a caramel 20, caramel 40 caramel, 60 caramel, 80 caramel one 20, and then a caramel 200 that we call crystal red.

Ron:

And depending on what.

Ron:

Beer, a Brewer's brewing, he may want to use one or two of those in a brew along with some other malts.

Gary:

How do you determine what, what is caramelization a measurement of?

Gary:

Is it just color, taste, sugar content?

Jordan:

So, caramel malts or crystal malts as you, they'd be called in Europe.

Jordan:

You know, the US is great in that we don't always follow the rules.

Jordan:

So we call our, our caramel malts, specifically caramel, whatever the SRM would be then, right?

Jordan:

So it's a caramel tank.

Jordan:

SRM is that

Joel:

color unit.

Joel:

The color,

Jordan:

right?

Jordan:

So it's specified by color but it really gives a different intensity of, uh, roasting, right?

Jordan:

Caramel malts that we make are in Europe would be called a crystal malt because they're made in a roaster and they go through a true crystallization.

Jordan:

So you're taking green malt straight from germination, and you're then bringing it over to a roaster, holding that grain with.

Jordan:

The moisture in the, in the grain itself.

Jordan:

So we actually retain the moisture in the drum of the roaster and we elevate the temperature to brewing temperatures, right?

Jordan:

So the same temperatures that brewers are using to extract or convert and extract sugar, we're using that inside the roaster to actually convert the starch inside of the barley kernels into sugar.

Jordan:

So, once that starch is converted to sugar, we go through the, we then dry out, dry it out, and then increase the temperature of the product so that it forces the mayard reaction.

Jordan:

It forces a variety of different reactions that ultimately change the intensity of the color and the flavor.

Jordan:

You're gonna go through a process that, uh, you know, you can actually, while while we're in the roasting process, we can actually taste.

Jordan:

See the flavor change, right?

Jordan:

So you can see the color change, you can watch that, but then you can taste it and you can actually under get a better understanding of how the flavor evolves through the process.

Jordan:

Because a caramel 10 and a caramel 20 shares some overlapping flavors, but a caramel 10 and a caramel 80 share very little flavor, right?

Jordan:

They have some caramel flavor, but a caramel 80 has a much more intense uh, set of flavors that really make it distinct in that you wouldn't be able to use just 1% of a caramel 80 or a one 20 to replace a caramel 10 because the flavors are just not the same.

Jordan:

Um, and that that's because of that intense roasting process, uh, that creates those unique flavors.

Jordan:

Uh, so

Joel:

you've mentioned the mayard reaction.

Joel:

Allison taught we do a, a science of beer class as well, and she described the mayard reaction.

Joel:

And now I'm just gonna prove to her that I was paying attention as kind of a toast.

Joel:

You know, when you're, when you're making toast at your house, some people like their toast.

Joel:

Very light.

Joel:

Yep.

Joel:

And some people, you know, like it So the light colored toast, people would have to scrape all that, that that's the mired reaction.

Jordan:

Correct.

Jordan:

Yeah.

Jordan:

And actually I do the same, uh, when we're talking sensory with, with customers or teaching a class or anything like that, I usually describe flavors in terms of the intensity on my toaster.

Joel:

Right.

Joel:

So yeah, the little dial, yeah.

Joel:

Is is the mired reaction.

Joel:

Yep.

Joel:

So, Ron, you're drinking a porter and that's probably gonna have crystal 80 in there.

Joel:

Are we?

Joel:

Probably

Ron:

some Crystal 80.

Ron:

But certainly either chocolate or dark chocolate malt, maybe a little bit of black barley or roasted barley.

Ron:

For color and some of those really strong roasted notes.

Ron:

And then depending on, on the brewer probably some other things.

Ron:

Mm-hmm.

Ron:

But one of the things to, to come back to even for something like a Porter that's a really dark beer with a lot of strong character to it, is that a lot of the listeners probably know that beer is normally about 15 to 20% specialty malt and about 80% base malt where Briess is really focused is on specialty malt.

Ron:

We offer base malts, but that's a smaller part of our business and where we're the leader in the industry is in specialty malts going back decades.

Ron:

And, and we'll talk about the history at some point.

Ron:

But that's, that's where our primary focus is, and that's why the product line is so large.

Ron:

Because it meets the needs of all those different beers.

Ron:

A lot of the recipes that I see from brewers have anywhere from four to seven or eight malts in them.

Gary:

Wow.

Gary:

I was gonna say, one of the beers here was what was created by accident.

Joel:

Oh yeah.

Joel:

That's on my notes.

Joel:

Don't go to that yet.

Joel:

'cause we gotta, we gotta touch on that.

Joel:

I want to come back to chocolate, not the chocolate malted milk balls.

Joel:

That's an entirely separate conversation, but chocolate malts in brewing.

Joel:

How, how does a malt become chocolate?

Joel:

It,

Jordan:

uh, so chocolate malts are made in a roaster, much like crystal malts, but they go through a very different process.

Jordan:

So tho those malts are dark roasted malts are they start out as, base malt.

Jordan:

Right?

Jordan:

So, so like

Joel:

two row or six row?

Joel:

Yeah.

Joel:

So something that's

Jordan:

been steep, germinated and kilned.

Jordan:

And then we take that grain and we bring it over to the roaster and we'll go through you know, a typical recipe and we will in, as we increase in temperature product temperature, you can actually, it's really interesting.

Jordan:

You can stand outside the building and smell the what's coming out of the roaster, right?

Jordan:

You can smell the exhaust, basically.

Jordan:

I wouldn't recommend sticking your head too far in.

Jordan:

It's very hot.

Joel:

Is that why Bobby's usually hanging around outside sniffing the air?

Jordan:

See, it's, it's a great way to, 'cause if it's not in the grain, if it's coming out the exhaust, it's no longer in the grain, right?

Jordan:

So if it's, if you're, if you're smelling something that's coming out of the product, it can't be in the, in the product anymore, right?

Jordan:

So, so when you, when you go through the process, it goes through this series of, of changes in aroma, right?

Jordan:

So the exhaust goes through this, a similar change.

Jordan:

You know, there's a, a section in the middle of the roasting process that smells a lot like burnt popcorn, and I don't imagine if we had a burnt popcorn malt it would do very well, but almost right after that is when the chocolate notes start to hit and it's this just delightful, uh, shift from an accurate flavor to a nice, pleasant, mellow flavor.

Jordan:

And that's because a lot of those accurate flavors are being removed during the roasting process.

Jordan:

So as you're increasing in temperature, you're izing certain compounds, those accurate compounds are coming out in the exhaust, leaving you with a much more mellow product at a certain range of temperature.

Jordan:

So as you're applying temperature, you're not just creating flavor, you're removing other flavors that are either, well, they could be beneficial, or in this case, they're, uh, detrimental to the finished product.

Jordan:

So you want to make sure you're through that step before you're approaching your finished chocolate flavor.

Joel:

So I'm getting Willy Wonka vibes right now.

Joel:

Like if I go to Manitowoc, is there like a chocolate malt wing and is there like a crystal 10 to 60 wing?

Joel:

Like do you, their entire

Gary:

workforce is loompas.

Gary:

I mean,

Jordan:

maybe we've got one or two, right?

Jordan:

Do

Joel:

you have like, can like, I mean, for example, we have a sour on tap and if the sour kicks, you obviously can't put another beer on that line.

Joel:

Sure.

Joel:

Is that how roasting works?

Joel:

Is there enough happening in a specific drum roaster that you can't use it for chocolate and then, you know, cara pills or, or whatever the case is?

Jordan:

Sure.

Jordan:

So roasted, roasted products depending on what they are, you wouldn't want to go back and forth between the same product.

Jordan:

You'd have to go through a changeover because it's a solid and not a liquid.

Jordan:

We don't have the same concerns.

Jordan:

That brewers have with sour beer and a standard beer.

Jordan:

But so we have to go through changeover processes to make sure we're not contaminating one product with the other.

Jordan:

But in large part, all of our roasters can make the same product with the appropriate changeovers.

Jordan:

So we would make the same on the same roaster.

Jordan:

We would potentially make a caramel malt one day, a dry roasted malt the next day.

Joel:

Wow.

Joel:

So now is the time for what you were talking about earlier.

Gary:

Oh, go for it.

Gary:

You know what I was gonna say?

Gary:

Yeah.

Joel:

So we have a beer called 5 47, which I talk about quite a lot.

Joel:

On, on here.

Joel:

We had an order, and I don't, I, I think, I think we get all of our specialty malts from, from you guys, but the funny story was something ended up.

Joel:

Mislabeled, or there was a, some, something happened somewhere and we ended up getting more of a red based malt than one of the crystals.

Joel:

And as they were brewing this double IPA, they noticed that it was red.

Joel:

And as Bobby likes to describe it, it was a wonderful event because it literally led to the genesis of an entirely new beer, a beer that you would love because it's maltier than a typical IPA.

Joel:

It sounds great, right?

Joel:

And it's, it's the most gorgeous red color.

Joel:

So what started as some miscommunication somewhere?

Joel:

I don't remember where the, the, the issue was we ended up producing a completely new beer that is like, it's like a keystone beer around here.

Joel:

We release it every Christmas.

Joel:

It flies out out of the tap room at a and it was all created by, not a contamination mind you, but a mistake.

Jordan:

Sure.

Joel:

Which is awesome.

Jordan:

Yeah.

Jordan:

And the, the, the malting process is you know, a lot like the brewing process in that, you know, things happen during the process.

Jordan:

It's a very you know, there's a lot of machinery involved.

Jordan:

There's a lot of you know, there's a lot of things that can go wrong in the process.

Jordan:

Right.

Jordan:

And, you know, obviously we wanna do our, the best we can to prevent those things.

Joel:

Well, in this case, we were delighted that something happened somewhere.

Joel:

Yeah.

Joel:

It's,

Gary:

it's stepchild for those who are Right.

Gary:

Thank redheaded stepchild.

Gary:

Thank you.

Gary:

'cause it turned out red.

Jordan:

Yeah.

Jordan:

And when and when those, when things occur, that's often, how can we, what can we do with this now to either try something new?

Jordan:

Or you've got some condition that's out of your standard process that, you know, you can't turn it into what you wanted to in the first place.

Jordan:

So how do you adapt and quickly make a decision to say, what can we do about it?

Jordan:

Yeah.

Jordan:

And that's, you know, on the small scale that's really interesting.

Jordan:

On the big scale, it's a little daunting, but it can result in some you know, some unique differences.

Jordan:

Right.

Joel:

It's like Bob Ross.

Joel:

Yeah.

Joel:

Where he makes a little mistake and then it becomes a beautiful tree, or whatever the case is.

Jordan:

Yeah.

Jordan:

Unfortunately, you know, in a lot of cases you don't have anywhere to go with that as a, as a product.

Jordan:

Right.

Jordan:

But it, it can become the, the genesis for a new product.

Jordan:

Right.

Jordan:

It can be,

Joel:

yeah.

Jordan:

You know, well, this turned out interesting because of X, Y, and Z. What happened and how do we reproduce it if we, we find that trait desirable?

Joel:

So because as Ron said, malting and brewing, and I'll let you finish it.

Ron:

Is it the intersection of art and science.

Joel:

Oh, that was

Gary:

good.

Gary:

I think Steve Jobs used that for, to explain the iPhone originally.

Joel:

Yeah.

Joel:

I'm gonna give Ron credit.

Joel:

I think it was Ron.

Joel:

Yeah,

Gary:

right

Ron:

here, right

Gary:

now.

Joel:

Right here today.

Jordan:

It's definitely not on his office wall.

Ron:

It should be.

Ron:

No.

Joel:

So you're in Chilton?

Ron:

Yes.

Joel:

And Jordan's in Manitowoc.

Joel:

What's, what's the difference between the two campuses?

Ron:

Yeah.

Ron:

Chilton is where we have our global headquarters and uh, we've got our office there and then we have the old malt plant, the Chilton Malting Company, that until a couple years ago was the oldest operating malt house in the country, built in 1901.

Ron:

And so we're not operating that anymore because we acquired the Manitowoc Facility in 2014.

Ron:

So we've got the office in Chilton, and then a half hour to east on the shores of Lake Michigan.

Ron:

We've got the Manitowoc malt plant.

Gary:

This seems like a good opportunity then to get into the fact that this is a pretty old company.

Gary:

I mean, you guys have been around a while.

Ron:

It is, yeah.

Ron:

Starting, uh, as early as 1876 in Eastern Europe uh, the Movia region of the Czech Republic,

David:

And that's gonna wrap up this episode of Respecting the Beer.

David:

Be sure to come back next week as we get the full history of Briess Malt and Ingredients Company If you're interested in a beer festival instead of Mile of Music, maybe getting away from the massive crowds, you can head on over to Manitowoc for the Malt City Brew Fest 2025.

David:

Ron will tell you about it in next week's episode, but this week I thought I'd share with you as well.

David:

Respecting the beer is produced by me, David Kalsow.

David:

Head on over to the Facebook group to get updates between the episodes and support the show over on Patreon where you can get episodes a week ahead of time,

David:

content you don't hear in the main feed and a special beer just for the Patreon fans.

David:

Links to both are in the show notes.

David:

And until next time, please remember to respect the beer.

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Respecting the Beer
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