Where There’s Beer ... There’s Malt!

Bamberg is famous for its craft beers and where beer is brewed you need malt! Often when taking the train to Bamberg I passed a huge neo-gothic, Victorian factory building, rather unusual to Bavaria as it is made of red brick. During the Christmas break, I decided to take a wander down to it and take some photos. It was too cold to sketch and as we're in Lockdown I don’t think standing around sketching is too much of a good idea.

This is the view of the Weyermann Malting factory from the railway side. The factory was designed specifically for the purpose of malting and has remained virtually unchanged since opening in the late 1900's

Here we are in the inner courtyard and as you can see from the rising steam/smoke the malting process is still very much a part of daily life. I'm sure that beer production in Bavaria counts as ''essential'' work.

To be honest the building looks like a cross between a Victorian workhouse and a haunted house, quite spooky and the smell of malt pervades the air, strong and pungent. 

There are usually factory tours and beer, whisky or gin tastings going on but due to Covid-19 not at present, the Factory shop  however was open so I took a peek in (with mask of course) they have a vast array of craft beers, whisky and gin and you could see some of the stills. I'm going to have a go at sketching these coppery machines but that really is way out of my comfort zone! Have to see how it goes, perhaps a beer might help! 

Where there’s beer there's malt!