Since its inception January 1997 all the beer brewed at Drayman’s Micro-Brewery was hand mashed only by myself in the same tiny 600L mashtun. I chose to do mashing, wort collection and wort kettle operations entirely on my own because of the close relationship I have with the beer I brew.

In the last 10 years I have mashed more than 340 000kg of malt and brewed more than a million liters of beer. My claim of a world record in brewing is of course open to be challenged from other micro-brewers worldwide. To give you an idea of how much malt this is, picture a row of grain silo’s commonly seen in the Free State. One of those silos contains 340 tonnes.
My mashing procedure is as follows:

1. The pre-crushed malt is stored in buckets (13 x 11kg each). Each bucket is manually lifted from the floor with my left hand and poured into the mashtun containing hot water.
2. The malt is stirred in with a wooden mash paddle of the same design as stirring paddles commonly shown on many ancient brewery pictures.
3. The mashing regime that was used is an upward step, gas flame heated, infusion mash; with intermittent stirring to avoid scorching on the bottom while heating. Video recordings of mashing show that the mash is stirred on average 30 times (counted as full revolutions) per brew. This equates to about 70 000 hand operated stirring revolutions in the 10 years. The mash frequency was calculated according to brewery records, malt bought, excise tax accounts and sales invoices. It averaged to 4.5 times per week; 10 years are 530 weeks, times 4.5. Thus 2385 mashes were done in 10 years. The frequency was only once interrupted for 6 days when the brewery relocated but was never (neither in sickness or by taking leave) interrupted for longer than those 6 days in the 10 years.

Calculated as total kilograms of malt mashed at 143kg per brew, it is an astounding 340 000 kg malt manually lifted and poured into the mashtun and stirred with a wooden paddle with my own two hands! Using the average of 250grams of malt per liter of beer, this equates to more than a million liters of beer brewed.
A new larger mashtun which allows easier mashing is now in use and I have employed a trainee brewer who has taken over mashing. My hands and my back are thanking me - they have had enough!

I want to thank all my loyal supporters throughout these years for making this possible by drinking all this beer and keeping me in business! I see it as my small part in contributing to the enjoyment and happiness of mankind.

Prost!
Moritz Kallmeyer
3 January 2007