maltster:
(also ‘maltman’; plural: ‘maltsters‘)
‘malt’ = as a noun, is a cereal, usually barley, that has sprouted and used in making beer; and as a verb, it is to make beer or other beverages by distilling grain, usually barley
a person whose job is to malt grain,
a young maltster at work
e.g.
The pint/can of beer you drink is made from the barley grown by a farmer, malted/turned it into a malt by maltster and brewed into beer by a brewer.
It’s interesting to know that a maltster was actually a professional name given to a woman because in the olden days malting was traditionally done by women in malt houses, like seamsters (tailors), and it is only since the nineteenth century that the profession has gradually been dominated by men.
Few people know about maltsters because maltsters stayed mostly behind the scenes all through the history of beer making to guard their skill, and so, they naturally became obscure.
For a blog post in which the occupation of a maltster is discussed, please click here, for an informative article about what malt and maltsters are, please click here, for an interesting story of a maltster, please click here and for an article that shows us how we come across this word in our daily browsing, please click here.
Note: ‘Maltster’, always with a capital ‘M’, is often found in the names of people, e.g. Daisy Maltster, Walter-Smith Maltster, Isaac Maltster, etc. For an article that explains this word as a surname/family name/last name, please click here.
