Malt is sometimes referred to as the soul of beer. Malt refers to any cereal grain that has been malted. Malting is the process of changing the biological, physical and chemical properties of the raw grain to enable the brewer to make use of the starch within the grain. This starch is then converted to sugar in mashing during the brewing process. The sugar is what the yeast consumes during fermentation to create alcohol and make beer! Most of the malt in brewing comes from special malting barley, but wheat, rye, oats, millet, sorghum and any other seeds can also be used. The use of malt as our sugar source is what separates us brewers from the wine, cider and mead maker.
At Soul Barrel most of our malt comes from specialty maltsters in the UK and Germany. We also make a range of beers that feature South African malt and a variety of local grains. We also do occasional small batches from grain we malt ourselves in our cellar. This creates very distinct South African beers, since malt is the foundation of beer flavour.