The Main Thing is the Main Thing: Malted Barley
Beer is not brewed using a long list of ingredients. In fact, for the most part it’s just four: hops, yeast, water and malted barley.
Of those four ingredients, malted barley is by far the most important. It not only converts the fermentable sugar into alcohol, but it also delivers a boatload of the flavour, character, mouthfeel, colour and complexity to beer — something that Sean Hoyne has long understood and believed in.
Malt Forward
Many of Hoyne’s recipes are considered malt forward. While we share the recent infatuation with hops that has driven the craft beer industry over the past several years, we’ve never forgotten the importance of malted barley in a balanced recipe.
GOING TO THE SOURCE
The extent to which we live by our love of quality malted barley could be seen by taking a simple walk through our malt warehouse. There, you would discover a wide collection of malted barley brought in from around the world. We brew beer with a deep respect for tradition, and whenever possible, use malts grown in the regions from which the different styles are derived.
The Secret Ingredients
One of the malt houses that we have carefully chosen to work with is Thomas Fawcett and Sons in the UK, which we use in our Dark Matter. They’ve been malting barley since 1809 and are one of the last floor-malted malt houses in existence anywhere in the world. Floor malting is an old practice of carefully spreading the raw barley out across a massive floor in a vast warehouse. The floor has small gaps between wooden slats that allow warm air to rise up and slowly toast the barley into malt.
The process is laborious — and costly — with crews of workers constantly walking throughout the warehouse, hand-turning the malt with long-tined rakes. It’s worth the expense, however. Thomas Fawcett and Sons’ malt delivers a unique, rich flavour to our Dark Matter that helps make it one of our most popular beers. Most folks who love Dark Matter don’t know why the beer is so flavourful — which is fine by us — but those that do, understand the value of great malt.
We also use malted barley from a malt house just outside Heidelberg Germany, called BestMalz, which is ideal for making German style lagers, including our Pilsner and our Dortmunder. Sean and Chantal had the great pleasure of touring their impressive facility in the fall of 2019 and were able to see firsthand the quality of their products.
It is our belief in the integrity of brewing traditions that drives us to source ingredients true to the styles of beer we love to make. When we make ales, not only do we use Canadian malted barley, but we also use several British varieties, like Maris Otter and Golden Promise to create beers that are true to their foundation, with a unique yet classic quality that delivers a flavour that transports you generations into the past.
There is a running joke in the brewery that if there is a more expensive way to make beer, we’re going to find it. To be sure, using fine ingredients found in the heart of traditional beer regions is costly — but we believe it’s worth it and are willing to absorb those costs to ensure lovers of Hoyne Brewing Company always have the most authentic beers possible.
Fine ingredients make fine beer.
