Next Monday, March 24th, starting at 5:00 p.m., Brave Horse Tavern will tap into Chuckanut Bohemian Pils. This beer is only available at Tom Douglas Restaurants and Chuckanut Brewery and Kitchen in Bellingham. For next Monday’s soiree, the chef is designing a special burger to pair with the Bohemian Pils.
This very traditional Czech Pils is brewed using floor malted barley* from the Czech Republic and traditional Czech Saaz hops. The brewery describes it as, “A bit sweeter and richer than our Chuckanut German Pilsner, this beer is sure to go with any kind of food and is refreshing all by itself.”
Brewmaster Will Kemper will be at the event on Monday night to chat with people about his amazing beers during the event that starts at 5pm.
* Floor malting was the traditional way of producing malt before the Industrial Revolution. It was a largely manual process. Imagine big, long buildings with grain spread out across very particular wood floors, natural ventilation, and men with shovels and rakes. Floor malting was phased out and replaced by pneumatic /mechanized malting. By the 1940s, the process had all but disappeared. Companies like Weyemann offer floor malted product as specialty malt. Also, small producers still use the old method. For example, Rogue Ales produces some of its own malt, using the floor malting method, from barley grown on its own farm. On a large scale, it simply is not a cost-efficient way to produce malt. Proponents claim that floor malting produces a richer, deeper flavor and character. As I understand it, the most popular and widely used floor malt is Weyermann Floor Malted Bohemian Pilsner Malt.
If you want to know more about the history of malting, or malt in general, take a class. There’s a lot to know. Or, you can just read this for a primer.