Full of Eastern Promise

Restoration Progress

Most Warminster people are very much aware of a tall and expansive plastic canopy that enshrouds one corner of our Maltings, but it is not easy to see from the road exactly what is going on underneath. After more than 6 months of this project, they might even ask if anything is going on at all!

Well, work is progressing, albeit slowly. Like so many other industry sectors, we are hampered by the lack of available raw materials, and a lack of skilled labour in the construction industry, most of whom are struggling with the huge backlog of work caused by 2 years of ‘lockdowns’.

However, by way of an update, I can advise you the Pound Street elevation has had most of its roof refurbished, that was completed first. The more complex work involves the dismantling, and now the reconstruction, of the two kilns. We are on the brick and stonework at the moment, much of the second-floor elevations requiring a complete rebuild.

We are advised the work will almost certainly stretch well into the winter, but hopefully before Christmas we will be uncovering the almost final if not completed works. But, for the time being, although it may not look like it, it is work in progress. We are grateful to our contractors, Chalke Valley Roofing, who ensure there are craftsmen on site every working day. I might describe it as gentle but steady progress!

New Staff

 We pride ourselves that we have a very low turnover of staff at the Maltings, three current members being part of the original team that was already here when I arrived in 2001. So, it is unusual for us to talk about new staff, let alone three new staff since my last Newsletter. However, two of them are additional members to the team.

Lisa Conduit

Complimentary to these new appointments, I have introduced an additional formal training programme for all our staff, which sets out to explain in greater detail the whole process of malting, from barley production on the farm, a much more detailed insight into the separate procedures in the malthouse and including an explanation of all the grades of malt we produce, and for whom they are intended.

My first two ‘students’ have been Nathan Ball and Nic Corper, both are established ‘hands on’ maltsters, but both keen to gain a better and wider understanding of the tasks they perform each day. My weekly tutorials have one more session to go, after which I will turn the procedure around, and invite Nathan and Nick to review and discuss each topic with me, to ensure they have gained something of a better grasp of the intricacies of malting practice. It is all about encouraging a shared ownership of everything we do at the Maltings, and a shared commitment to perfection. If this programme has proved successful, Jake, Brandon, and Lisa will be invited to follow suit.

Harvest

Meanwhile, harvest is fast approaching. The barleys all look good in the field, but can we safely gather them in? I will let you know next time.

New Website

At the beginning of April we launched our new website. This is little more than 2 years since we announced our last one. Are we overindulging ourselves?

Not at all! At the beginning of 2020, as a team, we had re-grouped, we had repositioned the company, and we had also re-branded. That website was a loud message that everything had changed, and in particular the business had a new manager – yours truly, of course!

Since then, as a team, despite the infliction of a pandemic, we have really established the business on it’s revised direction of travel. At the same time, I, myself, have learned a lot more about making malt, and a bit more about supplying brewers and distillers. I am still learning, of course, but by the end of last year we really felt we needed to change the emphasis on the message to our customers and potential customers. After all, we are making terrific quality malt, and we need to shout about that, first and foremost. Not only that, we need to explain we do know, and understand, how we can maintain this high standard.

So, working with Jasper Williams at Juice Factory Design, we have come up with a simpler, more succinct and logical layout. It is all about promoting and selling our malt. You see, our website really does work for us, attracting potential customers every week, not just from the U.K., but from all over the world. And our strike rate is good – 35%! Not bad for a small company like ours, but then we have always set out to punch above our weight, so to speak. The point is, Warminster Malt really is a performer, and it needs the best stage set we can give it.

Better See for Yourself!

To our customers, and potential customers, what we always say is: if the website excites you, why not come and visit us, and see for yourself what we get up to!

I am pleased to report that, over the last 4 months, we have had 9 such visits, both brewing teams, and distillers. What is more, as a result of each visit, I do believe both sides have been able to forge an even better understanding of each other’s compatibility.

Party from Corinium Ales, Cirencester, 23rd March 2022

MaltingsFest 2022

Following Easter, we all drove down to Newton Abbott in Devon to attend the biggest Beer Festival on the South-West Peninsular. It was the first opportunity for two years for the regions’ brewers to all come together to showcase their beers, and to compete with one another, face to face, at the beer judging which precedes the Festival.

There were more than 250 cask ales exhibited, along with keg beers, as well as local ciders and spirits.

As the main sponsor of the event, our name was very much to the fore – all over the programme, the wrist bands and the glassware, as well as x4 banners, two of which provided the backdrop to the presentations of the medals and trophies awarded to the winners of the beer judging competition.

I am very pleased to report that Warminster Maltings customers featured very strongly in the prize giving. Particular congratulations go to one customer, Dawkins Ales from Bristol, who collected no less than 10 medals!

Football Crazy!

‘Brimming’ and ‘Bursting’!

As I write, I am pleased to report that business is beginning to pick up, but many of our brewing customers entered the month of January (“dry January”) with their brewing tanks still full of beer. Full of beer they had brewed for Christmas! Whether the new-found optimism of February will be sustained, well, all bets are off now!

We do continue to get new enquiries, and we have more than one brewery trialling our malt – at my suggestion – with the early reports very encouraging, for example from one: “it’s a lot better than what we have been using”!

“A lot better”? Well, our customers highlighted the difference when we spoke to them all in November (the annual Price Review). They repeatedly told us that our malts have more flavour, and, perhaps even more importantly, more extract (more pints of beer from a defined quantity of malt)! With regard to these two virtues, we know from our own observations and laboratory analysis that our malts are good, but only as we gain new customers do we really find out if we are better than anybody else.

So it is a source of much satisfaction that our malts are rated as some of the best. It is also the source of the inspiration for our new advertising campaign for 2022.

Our new adverts

Jasper Williams photographic skills have managed to portray the overriding message, that our malts are positively “Brimming with Extract” and “Bursting with Flavour”, and he has managed to capture this with both malt in the glass, as well as glasses full of beer.

We currently have more than 200 Craft brewing customers, and growing. What better recommendation could anyone want?

Terroir Matters!

At Warminster Maltings we have been talking about the ‘terroir’ of barley for quite a long time, and, if I am completely honest, mostly our words have fallen on deaf ears. But now “peer reviewed” research proves that the concept of ‘terroir’ is not unique to wine and cognac. A recently published study shows that it is just as applicable to barley and malt, and the flavours they impart!

Leading scientific journal Foods, examined two barley varieties grown in two separate areas of Southern Ireland, in 2017 and 2018, barleys which were distilled into whisky. According to the study, more than half of the 42 different flavour compounds identified in the range of whiskies produced, were directly influenced by the barley’s ‘terroir’! These flavours could, in part, be directly linked to the different mineral make-up of the soils.

I was delighted to read this, but I believe ‘terroir’ goes beyond just the soils. Proximity to the sea, and the influence of ‘sea frets’ (sea mist) has long been proclaimed as a contributory factor when it comes to the quality (mellow colour) of malting barley grown near to the coast. This would probably be less important to distillers than to brewers – brewers seek pale malts, and for some, the paler the better.

I am also bound to include the contribution I believe the 160-year-old fabric of our Maltings makes to the flavour of our malts. I am talking about the long-established yeasts that dwell in our buildings, and which interact with the green malt as it quietly germinates on our floors. We have always said this adds ‘character’ to our malts. The above study refers to this as “distinct flavours associated with the testing environments” (the environment of the distilleries engaged in the study).

I well remember, way back, when I first acquired Warminster Maltings, brewers were quite emphatic that all malts (all barleys) taste the same. Well, we have long ago proved that wrong. As for ‘terroir’, that was also decried, as it was pointed out there was no evidence to prove it exists. Well, there is now!

An Extraordinary Find

Of course, we immediately began to speculate on how it came to be there. Was it dropped back then, by a passing overseas traveller, who, as he entered the town, stopped by to observe the new malthouses under construction? Was it dropped later by a soldier returning home from the Great War? It was accepted currency until 1935. We could go on.

It reminded me of something I read about, probably in Country Life magazine, how coins had been set into the outer paving of a country house, each coin carrying a date of significance to the house in question. At the time I suggested we should do something like that in our garden. I now have a fresh impetus to follow this up.

Finally, Football

Warminster Town footballers continue to cover themselves in glory! The first team is still placed a strong second in the Western League, chasing new leaders Sherborne. The end of the season looks like being a thrilling climax to the present campaign.

The ladies team also acquitted themselves particularly well in the Wiltshire FA Women’s Cup Final, albeit they did not win. It was a terrific achievement for what you might consider is still a fledgling side.

So, I am very proud to announce that Warminster Maltings has agreed to continue our sponsorship across the 2022/23 season. The club chairman, David Parry, has, in return, agreed a modified livery which adds the words ‘Malt-Stars’ on the players backs.

All we now need is for the performance of our malt sales to match the performance of the footballers. There is every indication they might.

Robin Appel