Edition 58: Friends of Warminster Maltings

by The Maltstar | May 6, 2025 | Malt-stars News

Our Maltings Celebration, June 11th.

The invitations are out, the RSVPs are starting to come in and it’s looking like we’re going to have a great turnout! If you haven’t come back to us yet but would like to join the party, please let us know as soon as you can – we have lots to sort and accurate numbers would be jolly helpful.

Behind the scenes, we’re working hard to bring everything together and make sure it’s an evening full of entertainment across the two marquees we’re putting up.

The official unveiling will be held in the Reception marquee (in the car park), and from 7.00pm the hog roast will be running all evening in the Garden marquee.

There will also be mini tours of the maltings process held between 7.00 and 8.00pm, with three knowledgeable guides taking small groups of 10–12 people around.

At the same time, guests will be welcome to explore our new Maltings Museum upstairs under the new and beautifully restored kiln roofs.

At 8.00pm, we’ll gather everyone back in the Reception marquee for our “Music and Words” presentation – a bid to tell the 170-year story of Warminster Maltings. Then from 9.00pm onwards, the Hog roast will still be going in the Garden marquee, while in the Reception marquee, local band “The Covertronics” will take to the stage to keep the party going!

That’s the plan, anyway – and we can’t wait!

“Night at the Museum”

We have always referred to our collection of malting artefacts as “our museum”, but of course, with a lack of space to exhibit them, only selected items have ever been on display, tucked into some corner without any real context. Until now!

The new ‘rooms’, which we have created under the restored roofs of kilns 3 and 4, give us the space we have always wanted. We can now display all the furniture, equipment and tools that we have accumulated over the years within easily accessed spaces. It is so gratifying, because a lot of our collection has been bequeathed to us, not just for safe keeping, but in the hopes we will be able to share it with the wider public. Now we can.

“We did not realise just how much stuff we had.”

Our display will aim to record the days when everybody knew of a working maltings close by. At one time, there were 36 of them in Warminster alone. Now, all that remains right across the country, apart from us, and two others, are the landmarks that hark back – “The Malt House”, “Malt Lane” or “The Maltings”, but with no other visible clue of the industry that prevailed there for centuries. Our museum will be part of our legacy, a record of a former thriving industry that once employed tens of thousands of maltsters, nationwide. All of them, once, contributed to the story of beer.

“Twist and Shout”

Our customers are constantly winning Awards for their beers, almost on a monthly basis, but I am afraid we do not have the time to scan all the websites and social media in order to keep up with them. But when they inform us of their triumphs we are only too pleased to publish them here.

So, when Andy Murray, founder of Twisted Brewery just down the road from us in Westbury, informed us of his two Golds, two Silvers, and Overall Third Place in the Cask Beer Category, at the annual MaltingsFest in Devon, in April, I promised him we would share this terrific achievement with our own readership. Well done Andy!

That Andy was also gracious enough to acknowledge Warminster Malt’s contribution to his success in his Press Release, was very much appreciated at Pound Street. We are always keen to share this news with our maltsters who made his malt, it gives them an added sense of pride. We now need to have one of Andy’s ‘Golds’ on offer on the night of June 11th.

Another Great Achievement

Leam Moulder, for the last 6 years my very capable “right hand man”, is now appointed a director of Warminster Maltings Ltd. Congratulations Leam!

Leam joined the company 20 years ago, and quickly made his mark by not taking a single day off work in his first 12 months, not even a holiday. We should not, of course, encourage that sort of thing. But he then worked his way right across the malting process so there was no procedure, no measurement, no machinery that he did not fully understand, before he moved into the office in 2012. When, back in 2019, I suddenly found myself taking over as day-to-day manager, I could not have contemplated that role without Leam’s help and support.

Since then, I have tried to pass on my business experience to him, and for his part, he set about and obtained his General Certificate in Malting (Merit) 2 years ago. So, together, with the enthusiastic support of the whole team, we have progressively made the business what it is today.

I am not getting any younger, so I am very happy to pass on more responsibility to Leam. I can assure you he is almost as passionate as me about Warminster Maltings, so all of us can regard him as a “very safe pair of hands”.

Robin Appel & Lisa Conduit

Edition 57: Friends of Warminster Maltings

by The Maltstar | Mar 5, 2025 | Malt-stars News

Press release

In mid-February we issued a new pamphlet showing off our maltings, photographed from the air by a drone mounted camera. This was both transmitted electronically and sent out as hard copies. We are attempting to address a very wide audience, drawing their attention to the completion of 24 years of very hard and highly skilled work, both repairing and restoring our malthouses.

All this work has been carried out to not only enhance the resilience of the fabric of the buildings, but to also incorporate, where necessary, modern infrastructure for making malt in the 21st century. However, throughout, the priority has always been to protect the integrity of the external architecture of our Grade 2* Listed malthouses. Today, they should look almost the same as the complex that William Morgan built back in 1855, with x3 (out of x4) of its original pyramid style kiln roofs dominating the western elevation.

So, after 24 years, you will not be surprised we want to celebrate this achievement, which we will probably do all year. Already, we are finalising the highlight, which will be a formal ‘unveiling ceremony’, on Wednesday evening, June 11th. This will be performed by Miles Jenner, MD of Harveys Brewery in Lewes, and President of the Brewery History Society. This evening party will include mini-tours of the malt floors, a chance to view our new museum, and, “for one night only” our attempt to portray the Warminster Maltings Story, our very own performance, in words and music, by a whole swathe of local artistes and musicians. A hog-roast will be served all evening, and, of course, there will be an extensive choice of beers.

This has to be an “Invitation Only” event (we are not selling tickets), first of all targeted at our customers, also our suppliers, and all those who have helped us along the way. Initially, invitations have to be limited on account of our limited space. They will go out in April, and if you receive one, and you would like to attend, you are asked to ‘RSVP’, and we recommend you reply sooner rather than later.

If you do not receive one, but you would like to come, you can apply to the office for an invitation, Email: lisa.conduit@warminster-malt.co.uk and we will try and accommodate you. We apologise we have to word it this way, because, at this stage, we have no idea of how many on our invitation list will respond. But we do have a very good idea of just how many people we can fit in.

June 11th is not just “any excuse for a party”, but very much all about maintaining a high profile for our business. The brewing industry currently faces serious headwinds, and even the distilling industry is not selling as much whisky today as it was 2 or 3 years ago. So there is absolutely no room for any complacency at Warminster Maltings – we have to be continually transmitting our message, and finding new ways to do it. After all, we always need new enquiries, it is key to ensuring we remain constantly busy.

A View on the Future

On the subject of ‘new enquiries’, we hope we will continue to attract them. According to Jeffrey M Pilcher, Professor of History and Food Studies at the University of Toronto, in his new book “Hopped Up”, the future of Craft Brewing “depends on maintaining a moral high ground through associations with desirable qualities such as local, artisanal, communal, sustainable and nostalgic beers”!

At Warminster Maltings, we would like to think we do provide some of this. And, we are always more than happy to share our contribution with our customers, in whatever form they request. In the last few weeks, we have entertained two separate customers with their film crews, compiling footage for websites and social media platforms. We are open to doing more. As my father used to say to me, when I was young:

He who whispers down a well,
of the goods he has to sell;
never makes as many dollars,
as he who climbs a tree, and hollas!

Vive La France!

A headline which caught my eye since the last newsletter: “French drinking more beer than wine!”

According to this report, between the years 2019 and 2023, beer consumption exceeded wine by 5%. It seems they are now knocking back 26 litres/household/annum, up from 24 litres.

There was no real analysis offered, but in a country where there are far less Craft Breweries per capita compared to the UK – at the most no more than a third – this is perhaps a remarkable turnaround. At Warminster we do not have any further insight on this, we lost most of our French customers on the back of Brexit. But a simple explanation could be that the French attitude to beer is not dissimilar to their attitude to food. They take pride in only producing the best. After all, they do have a long history of making beer. Archeologists have discovered the remains of Roman Breweries in Brittany, so wine making and brewing have almost certainly grown up side-by-side. That the more discerning palate of the French is shifting in favour of beer, is most encouraging.

MaltingsFest 2025!

Thursday 10th – Saturday 12th April

Next month marks the 31st annual MaltingsFest, held once again at Osborne Park, Newton Abbot, Devon – a celebration of the fantastic beers crafted across the South West.

It’s a brilliant opportunity for brewers, including many of our valued Warminster Maltings customers, to showcase their brews, and perhaps even take home an award or two!

Unfortunately, we’re unable to attend this year and have taken a step back from our usual role as lead sponsors (due to our own exciting celebrations on the horizon), but we highly recommend getting along to it if you can.

Whether you join for one session or soak up the atmosphere across the whole festival, we’re sure you’ll be in for a treat—great beers, great company, and a fantastic experience!

Robin Appel & Lisa Conduit

Edition 56: Friends of Warminster Maltings

by The Maltstar | Jan 5, 2025 | Malt-stars News

Celebrations

2025 is set to be an extraordinary year at Warminster Maltings.

We celebrate 170 years in the malt making business!!

And that’s not all… after 24 years, we celebrate the completion of our repair and restoration work. A long project indeed but well worth it to bring this marvellous building back to its former glory, and to preserve the traditional craft of floor-malting.

It really is rather special, you know.

We will honour these milestones, but we do not wish to give away too much at this point. We’re plotting and planning a very special event, and do not want to jinx it but suffice to say, we will be throwing a party like no other!

Keep your eyes peeled for further updates but for now, save the date..

Floor-midable!

We have said it before, but when a third party goes into raptures about ‘floor malt’ delivering enhanced flavour, you will forgive us for repeating their proclamations. I am, this time, talking about a message from the whisky sector rather than the brewing one, but does that matter? ‘Floor malt’ has more flavour than ‘commercial malt’, so says a report in Whisky magazine (Issue 202), published last September. ‘Floor malt’ delivers “…added aromatic complexity and mouthfeel” and “can significantly increase the quality of single malt whiskies”.

This report does refer to distilleries in Scotland which have their own ‘floor maltings’, so you might conclude “they would say that, wouldn’t they?” Except, the huge investment that is made in distilling whisky is not one to be trifled with. Besides, the stories of the water, the wood, the peat, and the height above sea level can mostly be more than enough to distinguish one ‘single malt’ from another, without having to resort to the malt. So I think we should believe them!

At Warminster, we have always been convinced our malts have more flavour. We put it down to the more natural “modification’ of the barley into malt, the grain responding to the ambient temperatures which in turn reflect the time and seasons of the year – receding versus expanding day length. The barley grain is sensitive to all this, viz. dormancy! Added to this are the natural yeasts that inhabit our 170 year old malthouses. They too, I am reliably informed, will add yet another element of flavour.

So for all you brewers who prefer ‘malt forward’ beers, or distillers who are looking for something a little more complex in flavour, you need to look beyond ‘commercial malt’, it is ‘floor malt’ you should focus on. More than that, explore Heritage Varieties as well, and I include Maris Otter as well as our very own Plumage Archer. This year, Maris Otter barley (1965) celebrates 60 years of continuous production, at the same time as Plumage Archer barley (1905) celebrates its 120^th birthday. So, there you are, in 2025, you have even more stories to add to the magic of the brew!

Indie Beer!

We must welcome SIBA’s new marketing initiative for Craft Brewers, “Indie Beer” or “IB” as it will hopefully appear on pump clips, bottle tops and containers. The timing is probably particularly good, with the recent announcement of forthcoming closures of some of Britain’s most iconic breweries – Banks, Marstons et al – but retention of the labels, all coming out of the same pipe at a mega beer factory far away.

The global brands glaringly cynical approach to the production of beer should surely make us all even more wary. Scientists have already inflicted enormous damage to much of our diet consumed out of convenient and economic constraint, with the evidence of NHS statistics screaming “When is someone going to do something about this?”

So, if we cannot keep new technology away from our beer, let’s make sure that beer keeps well away from us!

A couple of years ago, we were involved in the recreation of a Tudor Beer by Trinity College, Dublin. We made the malt. Based on a recipe retrieved from Dublin Castle, the beer was one that, in the day, had been consumed at what might be seen as a prodigious rate. We are talking about individual consumption of up to 15 pints per day. But we are talking about a long day, consumption beginning early in the morning, and continuing until late in the evening. And, we are talking about a working day, a long working day. The point is the beer was seen as “liquid bread”!

At the outset of this experiment, it was thought the beer that Trinity College set out to recreate would be of a low alcohol content, no more than 2.0% ABV. In reality, it was in excess of 5.0% ABV! But there is no record of men becoming drunk, because consumption was spread over 14 to 16 hours, and the “liquid bread” was very quickly burned up.

I relay this story, because I think it serves to describe the true worth of a good, traditionally brewed, pint of beer. It is food, and drink, and vastly better for you than anything interfered with by scientists. So long live “Indie Beer”, and our Craft Brewers upon whom we can now almost only depend, for a decent pint to truly nourish us.

Happy New Year!

We close the first newsletter of 2025 by thanking you all for your support throughout the past year and wishing everyone all the very best for the year ahead.

We hope it is a happy, healthy and prosperous year for all.

Robin Appel & Lisa Conduit

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