Maltings in England - English Heritage

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The green malt is laid on the drying floor to a depth of about eight to twelve inches (20 to 30cm), although in the 18 th and 19 th centuries the depth might be as little as 4 inches (10cm). The length of time it took to kiln the malt has varied over the centuries. In the 16 th and 17 th centuries the literature is not specific, simply stating that the malt is kilned until it is done and a check is made by hand. By the 18 th century it would seem that kilning lasted sometimes as little as four hours. and sometimes as much as twenty hours, although the length of kilning seems to have depended in part upon the construction of the kiln and the type of fuel being used. During the 19 th century the kilning time increased and was generally three or four days. On some modern kilns, the curing time has been reduced to just twenty four hours. The temperature varied according to how well the kiln was constructed and the type of malt being made, but could be as high as 220°F (105°C). In the first quarter of the 19 th century it was recommended that for the making of pale malt the temperature should be 120°F (31°C) and that for brown malt should be 147°F (46.1°C). The malt was turned during kilning, by hand in the early days, and later on by mechanical turners. In the 18 th century turning every two, three or four hours was recommended. 45. Suxé Furnace - Malthouse No 4 Weymouth, Dorset. [BB95/08083] A variety of fuels have been used in the kilning of malt. Straw was popular in the 16 th to 18 th centuries as was wood and fern. The type of fuel use also depended upon what type of malt was being produced. Well-dried billets were used for the kilning of brown malt. It was always considered that coke was the best, especially for making pale and amber malts. By the 19 th century the usual fuel was anthracite or coke and as the combustion products usually passed directly through the malt a fuel of low arsenic content was essential. By the later 20 th century gas or oil are used, with gas usually preferred to oil while anthracite is still used in Suxé anthracite hopper furnaces (fig 45). There are few structural details available on the early kiln furnaces. The simplest were open fire baskets placed in a room under the drying floor with usually a deflector plate above the basket to disperse the heat evenly around the drying floor. Bricked-in furnaces with fire bars in a stout shaft of stone or brick seems to have been in use from at least the 18 th century with the disperser plate in a heat chamber immediately below the kiln floor. Characteristically these kilns were rectangular with the kiln floor supported by brick or stone vaulting in various arrangements (figs 46-48). 46. Malt kiln furnace - Burghley Park, Cambridgeshire. [BB95/02438] © ENGLISH HERITAGE MALTINGS IN ENGLAND 20
47. Malt kiln furnace, Market Deeping, Lincolnshire. [BB91/16455] 48. Malt Kiln furnace, Market Deeping, Lincolnshire. [BB91/16450] These developed into shaft furnaces, which on a much large scale were built into the 20 th century. Patent kilns seeking improved distribution of heat sometimes by means of a fan were introduced by a number of firms, including H.J.H. King, Robert Boby, Robert Free, and E.S Beaven (fig 49). Later, as mentioned above, the Suxé anthracite furnace was introduced. After the repeal of the Malt tax when much larger maltings were being built, doubled-floored kilns, which were popular elsewhere in Europe, were introduced through the advocacy of designers such as H. Stopes. However, after a couple of decades of popularity the difficulty experienced in getting the correct balance of temperature between the two floors caused this arrangement to fall out of favour. 49. Beavens kiln furnace, Warminster Maltings Wiltshire. [BB95/05274] When kilning was completed, the malt was removed promptly from the kiln. Traditionally by men shovelling the malt off. Later there were more mechanical means, either by dropping it through the floor into chutes, or, more recently, by the floors tipping up and the malt dropping into hoppers and chutes. © ENGLISH HERITAGE MALTINGS IN ENGLAND 21
Page 1 and 2: STRATEGY FOR THE HISTORIC INDUSTRIA
Page 3 and 4: ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This report was co
Page 5 and 6: SUMMARY This report will seek to ch
Page 7 and 8: SOME DEFINITIONS Whilst most of the
Page 9 and 10: maltsters who were a feature of alm
Page 11 and 12: Marshfield being a good example. Bu
Page 13 and 14: THE MALTING PROCESS AND ITS BUILDIN
Page 15 and 16: 16. Watton Road malthouse, Ware. -
Page 17 and 18: The steep water is changed several
Page 19 and 20: as at Swaffam (fig 29), asphalt, br
Page 21 and 22: conditioning units were introduced
Page 23: twelve hours. It was considered goo
Page 27 and 28: Other features From the above descr
Page 29 and 30: Early Malthouses: 16 th and 17 th C
Page 31 and 32: Survival is very uneven across the
Page 33 and 34: structures were predominantly queen
Page 35 and 36: Early pneumatic malting plants ofte
Page 37 and 38: Newark Pattern Then there is the Ne
Page 39 and 40: Pneumatic Maltings Pneumatic maltin
Page 41 and 42: to have an economic use. Part Two o

Maltings in England - English Heritage

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