Sky Watch Friday 18

The Bass Maltings.

These historical structures, The Bass Maltings, were built in the early 20th century and
replaced several small malt houses in the area.
It was used for six decades to turn grain into malt for the production of beer.

The eight enormous buildings- each identical and known as pavillions- covered an area the
size of six football pitches, and can be seen for miles in the county. Three of them have been
badly damaged by fire.

The rural area was ideal for growing Barley Malt.
This when ready was harvested and transferred to the maltings which then started the three
key stages in the production of making beer.

Steeping stage: which involves soaking the malt in water and took about two days to complete,
increasing the water content of the barley kernels from approximately 10% to 50%, stimulating
the metabolic process.

Germination stage: when strict humidity and temperature controls are used to breaks down the starches
into simple sugars, this took four to five days processing.

Kilning stage: which is drying the malt to about 4% moisture to prevent the loss of the sugars, it is at
this stage that the colour and flavour of the final brew is determined.

The workers as well as their wages each received three free pints a day.

The maltings struggled to remain open through the second world war, eventually closing as a maltings in 1960.

Some of the buildings were being used in the 1980s for processing vegetables, prior to pickling, or freezing.

Though they have fallen into disrepair over time.

HRH The Prince of Wales supports restoration efforts through The Phoenix Trust, of this site.
Possible facilities would be apartments, restaurants and a museum.

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Thanks again to the dedicated team of workers, unpaid in wage or beer, for their time and energies in maintaining
a seam free running of Sky Watch.