On April 20, Briess welcomed a group of over 40 Farm Bureau members during a bus tour sponsored by YFA (Young Farmer and Agriculturists) to tour the Briess Manitowoc Barley Operations. The Farm Bureau members were enthusiastic to learn and see how raw barley transformed into a number of specialty malts.
Before the tours began, the group huddled in an employee break room and listened to Manitowoc Plant Manager, Dave Luckow give a brief history of the Manitowoc facility and overview of the malting process.
Dave explained to the group how Manitowoc is one of three of the Briess Malting Facilities, with two other locations in Chilton and Waterloo, Wisconsin.
First stop of the tour was the base of the grain elevator to see where barley comes in by railcar before being stored and transformed into malt.
Between his hands, Dave splits a small germinating barley kernel to illustrate the current stage of the chitted barley.
The tour was hands-on, in the germination compartment, Young Farmers scooped up handfuls of germinating barley – smelling the cucumber like aromas.
At the top of a Steep room, our guests peer into a bubbling tank filled with barley.
The steep room is an impressive room to be in, the sheer size is outstanding. Two of the tour participants requested a photo op in this spectacular room.
The steep tanks tower three stories high, requiring a series of steps to descend down.
