Fifty Meter Beer Project – Wind Malt

Welcome to the fourth (and likely penultimate) FMBP video of 2025. In this video I discuss the malt I made this year, what makes it special, and what I’m going to brew with it. Central to this years project is wind malt – a historical malt that is not often seen today, but which dominated Belgian, Scandinavian, and other brewing regions for centuries. I only discuss it a bit in the video – I’d strongly recommend the article by Joe Strang in Beer & Brewing for an in-depth dive into this fascinating and unusual malt.

For anyone wishing to replicate this malt, the process is very easy – by far the easiest malt I have made.

Wind Malt

1. Pre-treat your malting water to remove any chlorine/chloramine.
2. Wash the grain well.
3. Using a cycle of 12 hour soaks + 12 hour air-rests, bring the malt to 42-46% humidity
4. Germinate the malt by spreading the malt on the floor about 25 mm (1″) deep. Try to use a room below 16C (60F), and turn the malt 1-2 times daily.
5. Germination is complete once the large majority acrospires are between 75% and 100% the length of the grain.
6. Transfer the malt to a dry and well ventilated area to dry. This could be outside in the sun if the weather is good, in some sort of dedicated drying box, or in a food dehydrator running below 36C (97F).
7. Dry until the moisture level is below 10%.
8. Let cure/rest at least 7 days before use.