Note To Brewers

Dear Brewers,

I am delighted you have decided to exercise your inherent creativity and take the plunge of incorporating this very special malt into your recipe! Thank you for your commitment to pushing the boundaries and keeping the spirit of craft alive!

As a long-term craft brewer myself, my hunger for recipe development was insatiable. I always have (and still do) gained a lot of creative energy when I have the tools to achieve exciting and unique beers.
With our Sage and Thyme Infusion malt, we wanted to give you even more tools.

About the malt: When we make our malts, we’re tapping into the very natural process of growing a plant from a seed. We steep our barley in water to simulate moisture in the soil, we then germinate this green malt at controlled temperatures to allow the synthesis and activation of natural enzymes in the barley seed, before we pause everything by reducing the moisture levels down. It is a beautiful and elegant example of the complexity of mother nature.

When I started as a maltster, I wanted to approach this natural process with my usual crafty spin.
I dreamed about adding exotic and exciting ingredients into the malting process and I wondered what effect such a thing would have on the final malt produced.
After months of playing with many different ingredients throughout the malting process, I was delighted to confirm that the incorporation of these ingredients into the malting process created an entirely new and unique malt product.

A complex and layered malt variety.

How to use the Sage / Thyme malt: The percentage of Sage and Thyme infusion malt in your malt bill is clearly up to the brewer, but as a rough guide, from some laboratory mash trials I have performed, I would advise brewers to use between 15% and 45% in their grist. Depending on the recipe you have in mind, aim to use the lower end of the percentage recommendation for soft / clean / lighter beers with subtle nuances, but if the intention is to create a stronger beer, or something with large hop additions, or other strong flavoured specialty malts, you should increase this percentage to the upper end of the recommendation range.
The Sage & Thyme infusion malt contains full enzymatic activity and can therefore be used as a base malt without any consequences to starch conversion.

What the malt will achieve: We are delighted to launch this edition of our Infusion malt range; featuring the soft, savoury tones of the beautiful and complex combination of Sage and Thyme – a combination I have always loved in the brewery. Our Sage and Thyme infusion malt arouses the senses in unexpected ways. A dankiness from sage which offsets bitter, herbal thyme notes to result in a nuanced and elegant pairing. Perfect for a plethora of beer styles, from Wit beer, to Berliner Wei?e, to saison, to pale ale. The herbal dankiness is even suited to something really hoppy. The Sage and Thyme infusion malt is without question, a unique addition to your malt bill, bringing an entirely new depth to your recipe. Good luck and have fun with this new creative tool!

Cheers, Cristal
– Head brewer and malt innovation specialist @Boortmalt