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[Web Creator] [LMSOFT]
Welcome to our farm based brewery, where the ale
is made using ingredients we grow.
_________________________________________

The Derwent Valley of Tasmania has a perfect climate for growing malting grains. We grow our own barley on our farm.  Currently we are able to send our own grain to Powell's Malt in Victoria for malting.  This is the only small batch malting facility in the southern hemisphere.

We have spent much of our energies converting our shearing shed into a brewery. The next project for us is to establish a malting shed on our property so that grain processing can happen a stone's throw from where it is grown & harvested.  This will complete the aim to establish our Real Ale Farm.


Striving for varietal diversification in barley - MARIS OTTER & GOLDEN PROMISE.

Our efforts to buy seed for the reputed ‘king of malting barley’, Maris Otter, proved difficult. It has not been grown in Australia for more than 40 years and yet is still considered the highest flavour barley variety for brewing in the UK.   Unable to source the seed, even from overseas, we eventually found a sachet of approximately 400 seeds in the Australian Winter Cereal Museum.  We acknowledge the assistance of Mr. David Sparrow in this search.  We have commenced propagation on our farm using this seed. It will be slowly propagated over the next few seasons until we have enough of the Maris Otter grain to malt for use in our own ale. 

Our growing reputation as a brewer growing malting grain also resulted in a kilo of Golden Promise barley arriving by post from the Waite Institute in Adelaide.  The drought has hampered our efforts at propogation thus far but we thank the scientists and researchers from the Waite for thinking of us and look forward to expanding our varietal diversity.

SPELT, the ancient pre-cursor to wheat

The Parsons from Curringa Farm at Hamilton in the Derwent Valley have grown this rare and ancient grain.  We were thrilled to be able to source this from them but soon realised it was going to be a little more challenging than first thought.  Spelt grows with an outer husk which needs to be removed by a specially designed 'spelter' before it can be malted or milled.  The closest spelting machine we could find was in North West Victoria so the grain has travelled.

We have replaced the wheat malts in our Derwent Ale with Spelt malt since the middle of 2011.  It has resulted in a wonderful creamy texture which we look forward to continuing for many brews to come.



  
MALTING GRAINS