Chevallier® Heritage Malt

The revival of a forgotten flavour and exemplar of British malt is a singular tale indeed and a tale worth telling. Turn the clock back to 1820, Suffolk, a humble farm labourer by the name of John Andrews, puts his feet up after a hard day’s work to find, itching against his big toe, a nice looking cereal grain in his work boot.  Being an enterprising chap, he planted this good looking grain in his small workers’ cottage garden to see what might grow.  When the Reverend John “Barley” Chevallier turned up to his tenants’ house and saw this flourishing crop he recognised the potential of this good looking cereal and began to plant in earnest.  From this point on Chevallier was born!  From humble beginnings, Chevallier maintained a staggering 100 years as the top malting barley in Britain, only dying out in the early 20th Century in large part to newer higher-yielding grains.

Back to the recent future, as in 2012 Crisp Malt, in collaboration with Dr Chris Ridout and Dr Sarah de Vos of the John Innes Centre, a local plant research facility, raided their seed vault looking to revive a true brewing legend.  With gentle hands and lots of patience a “Great Scott!” moment gripped the team and something amazing was reborn.  Armed with successful growth, a healthy crop was moved to the Crisp Malt 1870`s floor malting with an incredible result.  The workers at Crisp Malt and the team of research scientists were blown away by the flavours that came back and history was made. Chevallier’s profile of pronounced cracker and biscuit aromas give a soft nod to the nation’s historic beer palette and it’s the well-loved flavour that will wow new audiences and give Grandad a trip down memory lane.

Chevallier® Heritage malt is characterised by its rich complexity, deep maltiness and marmalade sweetness, its flavour is as pronounced as its pedigree, leaving a round robust malt character in the beer.  We think you will agree that its uses are going to be exciting and varied, including as an excellent balance to high and bitter hop loads and in a barley wine. In today’s market for revival and difference amongst craft brewers, this malt has already become a popular choice, both here and abroad, and with more experimental malts in the pipeline, brewers are champing at the bit to get a hold of a truly authentic grain.

From the malt, you can expect more character, lower attenuation, more sweetness, higher protein content and a longer conditioning time. Standing out in a high gravity strong ale, this malt shows flavours of toasted bread, sweet caramel and cocoa. If the saying is true that ‘it`s the difference that makes it’ then this malt is certainly worth making.

Suitable for any malt-forward ale such as a big robust barley wine. Alternatively, it can be used in modern beer recipes where there is a need to balance a high bitter hop load such as in a Double India Pale Ale.

*let the heritage malt come through, go light on specials