Malt House 2.0: (Almost) Operational

Although we’re waiting on a few more pieces of the expansion project to arrive (thanks to January’s awful weather), the basic framework of our new system is in place and we’re making more malt more efficiently than ever before. Here are a few of the components that have helped us increase our capacity.

 

Bucket Elevator

One of our three bucket elevators is in place and it is rocking! We’re able to load two tons of grain into a steep tank in less than an hour.  Here’s Brian rigging it up:

Bigger Steep Tanks

The new steep tanks each hold about 4000 pounds of dry grain. In addition to the capacity increase, we have improved the design to allow for increased air exchange during the dry phase of each steep cycle. Thanks to ProSteel for custom-building these bad boys for us!

Bigger Germination Room

The increased square footage of the new germination floor will allow us to make up to 8,000 pounds of malt per batch. For scale, here’s Brian and Craig with our first two-ton run of barley on the floor – a 4,000 pound batch! Just wait ‘til we fill up the rest of the room!

Kiln

The “crown jewel” of the expansion, our new kiln features several improvements over the old design. Not only is it bigger, but the heating elements bring us up to temperature in minutes instead of hours. Our custom-designed control system allows us to manage fan speeds, temperatures, and air circulation with the touch of a button, whether at the malt house or on the road. Here’s Brent and Brian loading the kiln with barley!

So what’s next?

We haven’t retired our buckets and shovels just yet. We are waiting on a conveyor system to load the kiln more efficiently. The additional bucket elevators will also be installed to connect the debearder to the larger seed cleaner and packaging line.  Our plan is to clean and package full batches in 4-5 hours once everything is installed. Wish us luck!