ABOUT THE COMPANY

History

The malt house is an integral part of the oldest brewery in Bruntál, the oldest town in the Crown Lands of Bohemia. Brewery and malting tradition is known since the 12^th century when the brewery privilege was one of the privileges to be given by the German colonizers.

Writings from the time indicate that at the current factory premises was housed the town’s brewery as early as 1557. In the late 19^th century the factory began specialising in malt production for export mainly to Germany, Switzerland, Sweden and Norway. As malt production increased, more farmland around Bruntal and Beroun was given over to growing malting barley to satisfy the extra demand. Production of malt extracts began in 1908, and together with the malt itself, these are still the factory’s main products to this day. In 1910 a distillery was established in the factory and the production of yeast commenced. Yeast from Bruntal was considered to be of such high quality that it was sold all over the Austro-Hungarian Empire and exported to the Balkans, Italy and Egypt. As a result, the production of yeast had to be enlarged several times. But the war in 1914 meant an end to yeast production and later the closure of the distillery itself as that part of the factory switched instead to producing specialised soaps, though the traditional products such as malt, malt extract, malt flour and malt coffee continued to be produced. After socialism in 1947 the factory became part of a national company "Business malt Prostějov" which produced malt for domestic and foreign breweries.

Malt is mainly refined into malt extracts, the remaining malt is supplied to breweries. The final product is a malt extract with the consistency of syrup and a characteristic smell and taste. It contains nearly all the soluble substances of the malt grain (mainly maltose and dextrin) including vitamin B complex and the industrial extracts also contain a certain part of diastatic enzymatic substances, that are able to turn starch into simpler glucoses. Malt extracts are used in many industrial products and processes for their nutrient and biological value and as ingredients in baking, fermentation and textile industries. Textile malt extract is widely used in the cotton industry as a starch removing agent to provide stability prior to printing the fabric.

Later our production range expanded further to include the production of distiller’s (smoked) malts and Sweetwort for production of whisky (Scottish style) in the Seliko factory in Olomouc. This whisky won the gold medal at the International exhibition In Ljubljana in Slovenia in 1978 and the Gold cup at the "Ex Plzeň" exhibition in 1979. We take some pride in this success, as some of the credit belongs to our factory, which provides ovenware for whisky production.

We recently endeavoured to modernize particular aspects of production, but always bearing in mind the strong importance of retaining our traditional and time-honoured manufacturing processes.