Malt Guarantee – Only the Best Barley Is Good Enough
With a moderate protein content, high levels of starch, and a high capacity for germination, the barley we use to make Bitburger beer is carefully selected to ensure it is always the best. This barley is processed in our malthouses to become the malt we use in Bitburger beer.
Malt Determines the Character of the Beer
To make Bitburger Premium Pils with its barrel-fresh taste, we have strict demands for our team of malting experts. We’ve worked with the same partners for our malt for years, but they are still subject to meeting very particular quality requirements. To meet these requirements, we take samples from each malt sample and run thorough tests in our in-house laboratories. Only when we’re sure that the malt passes our stringent quality checks is it cleared to be used in our brewing.
MALT DETERMINES THE CHARACTER OF THE BEER
AND IS LARGELY RESPONSIBLE FOR IST COLOUR.
Turning Barley into Malt
The origin of our barley can play an important role. A large proportion of our brewing malt is prepared at malthouses in Rhineland-Palatinate (our home state). Our locally-sourced barley has been a key ingredient for our brewing for decades – and for good reason. It is important to us that we continue to develop and optimise this ingredient. That’s why Bitburger has taken a pioneering role in pushing development forward in improving the quality of Germany’s brewing barley. We promote breeding and cultivation of barley strains that are particularly suited to beer brewing.
Bitburger‘s Brewing Barley Day - Recognising Quality
Bitburger has held an award ceremony since 1989 to recognise the best brewing barley of the year: the 'Bitburger Braugerstentag' ('Bitburger Brewing Barley Day'). The event is organised for people from across the brewing industry to meet up, together with the region's Rural Service Centre ("DLR" in German). Bitburger is always focused on high quality, and the first-class ingredients that are associated with it. The event brings together people from all levels of the supply chain, creating a common platform for all those who contribute to promoting quality in the barley grown in the region - attendees include producers, traders, malthouses and breweries. At the 28th Bitburger Braugerstentag, which took place in November 2016, the variety 'Avalon' was selected and awarded with the top prize.
Did You Know?
There is an old saying in German which means “Hops and malt, may God preserve them”. Malt determines the overall character of beer – from its colour, right through to its taste – and is made from malting barley. During the malting process, enzymes are formed in the barley grain which convert the starch contained in the grain into maltose sugar. This sugar will play a key role during fermentation, and beer cannot be brewed without it.