{"id":4653,"date":"2019-11-24T00:00:28","date_gmt":"2019-11-24T00:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/budweiserbudvar.com\/uk\/?post_type=story&p=4653"},"modified":"2019-12-02T09:51:51","modified_gmt":"2019-12-02T09:51:51","slug":"single-malt-beers-essential-ingredient","status":"publish","type":"story","link":"https:\/\/budweiserbudvar.com\/uk\/blog\/story\/single-malt-beers-essential-ingredient\/","title":{"rendered":"SINGLE MALT: BEER\u2019S ESSENTIAL INGREDIENT"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Following the journey of Moravian barley from<\/span> field to glass.<\/span><\/span><\/h2>\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n
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P<\/span>rop up a bar anywhere at the moment and start a chat about beer and you can guarantee the conversation will soon turn to hops. Cascade, Centennial, Citra, Simcoe, Saaz, Chinook \u2013 the many different strains of floral cone in its varied forms seems to dominate the minds of drinkers, almost to the exclusion of everything else. Yet every great brewer knows that there is something even more fundamental on the ingredients list when it comes to creating quality beer:\u00a0the malt<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

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Although wheat, oats, rye, millet and even rice and corn (mentioning no names\u2026) are used in beer brewing today, malt \u2013 which is essentially germinated barley \u2013 remains the undisputed king of the beer grains. Mention malt to most drinkers though and conversations can stall. Even bona fide beer lovers don\u2019t always grasp what it is, how it\u2019s produced or the vital role it plays in brewing.<\/p>\n

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But if hops is the glitzy centre-forward scoring goals that wow the crowd and make the headlines, malt is the creative midfielder, the backbone at the start of every move, shoring up defence and putting in killer crosses. It keeps a low profile, sure, but without it there would be nothing.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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As Ale\u0161 Dvo\u0159\u00e1k, beer sommelier at Budweiser Budvar, explains: \u201cMalt is the body of the beer, the colour of the beer, the character of the beer. It makes the alcohol. Hops are the spice in brewing for sure, but without malt beer is\u2026impossible.\u201d<\/p>\n

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To try and understand a bit more about this somewhat secretive ingredient and why it\u2019s so important in quality brewing, I\u2019ve travelled with Ale\u0161 to Krom\u011b\u0159\u00ed\u017e in Moravia, to the east of the Czech Republic. Known for its incredible Baroque Bishop\u2019s Palace and Gardens, this town with its stunning square and architecture is testament to the historic wealth of this area, and it is wealth largely won from the ground.<\/p>\n

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Outside town we drive through the extraordinary rolling countryside of Moravia\u2019s Han\u00e1 region. It\u2019s picturebook stuff: a searing blue sky frames field after field of ripe golden barley, painting an agricultural scene unchanged in generations. The treasure trove growing here is malt in its \u2018original\u2019 state, a strain of malting barley perfected over many centuries to provide the ideal base for brewing the world\u2019s finest lager.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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J<\/span>ust as Bohemia is renowned as the Czech home of the noble Saaz hop, Moravia is the malt capital, one that is arguably unrivalled in Europe, and Budweiser Budvar has always proudly sourced its barley from these fields. In fact, it is part of the reason the beer carries a \u2018Protected Geographic Indication\u2019 status today.<\/p>\n

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After ten minutes, we pull into a barley farm cooperative in the village of Klenovice na Han\u00e9. The chairman of the farmers who pool together in this collective, Miroslav Kole\u010dk\u00e1\u0159, is waiting to meet us and fill us in a little on this place and its people. \u201cWe are perhaps different here. I am from Han\u00e1. I was born in Han\u00e1 and at least ten generations of my ancestors have been farmers,\u201d he says. \u201cPeople from here are still really tied to agriculture and the village life; it is still our way of life.\u201d<\/p>\n

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He leads us past a herd of very happy looking cattle that produce both impressive milk yields and fantastic beef for the farmers. It\u2019s clear that nothing gets wasted here. With the field space a premium, the cows are fed on the mast that comes as a by-product of the barley growing. And it clearly does them good. Still, there\u2019s no mistaking the real focus of this farm. As we talk, farmers are climbing into the cabs of huge combine harvesters, trundling past us and down to the golden fields. It\u2019s harvest time and in Han\u00e1 nothing gets in the way of bringing in the barley.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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\u201cMalt is the body of the beer, the colour of the beer, the character of the beer. It makes the alcohol. Hops are the spice in brewing for sure, but without malt beer is\u2026impossible.\u201d<\/span><\/h3>\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n
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B<\/span>y the time we make our way through the fields to join them, the combines are hard at work. Row after row is being methodically cut, sending out cyclonic clouds of dust, giving the warm air a wonderful biscuity, cereal smell. In the combine\u2019s wake, the freshly shorn stubble shows up blonde against surprisingly black soil. I reach down and grab a handful. It turns out that this particular earth, almost mythically famous for its productivity, is at the root of Han\u00e1\u2019s historic reputation as barley-growing heaven.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThere is a saying here that if a farmer\u2019s trouser button falls into the soil, it will sprout and grow.\u201d Explains one of the farmers, Jaroslav Ml\u010doch, as he steps down from his combine. \u201cOf course, it\u2019s not true,\u201d he adds quickly. \u201cBarley actually requires expertise and knowledge, although the earth here is certainly the most fertile.\u201d<\/p>\n

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When I ask why that is he smiles and shrugs, unable or unwilling to share the secret. \u201cWho really knows?\u201d He says. \u201cIt is very old soil and we are in the river basin of the Morava \u2013 perhaps that creates the conditions. We get good rainfall but never in harvest time. What I do know is that the soil retains water perfectly and it is just right for the shallow roots of barley.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Growing on these fields for centuries, the barley Budweiser Budvar uses to produce its 90-day matured lager has been modified over centuries \u2013 and continues to be intensely monitored and checked in regional \u2018breeding\u2019 stations \u2013 to be the finest lager malt strain you can find, often referred to as the \u201cmother of all lager barely\u201d. Consistent quality is everything to the brew, even if the growing itself is pretty simple.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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