by French & Jupps
East London Brewing Company, established in 2011, has been a key player in the UK's craft beer resurgence. Known for their consistent quality and diverse range, from the classic Foundation Best Bitter to seasonal innovations, they exemplify both tradition, progress and quality. In this article, we explore the role of roasted malt in their brewing process, gaining insights from Head Brewer George Boustred, who discusses with us how they utilise roasted malts to achieve distinctive flavours and drive innovation at East London Brewing Co. and more.
Brewery Name: East London Brewing Co.
Brewer Name: George Boustred
Job Title: Head Brewer
Spotlight Beer: Cowcatcher APA 4.8%
Website: www.eastlondonbrewing.com
Introduction To George Boustred
Q1. What inspired you to start brewing?
I was a real ale fan from a young age and always tried to drink local beer wherever I was in the country. To be honest, I started home brewing because I couldn’t believe how cheap it was to make 30l of beer! So I brewed a series of terrible best bitters and fell in love with the process.
Q2. How long have you been at East London Brewing Co?
Head Brewer for 3 years.
Q3. How have your beer styles and flavours profiles evolved over the years?
Our core cask beers have been delicately refined maintaining those classic flavour profiles characteristic of traditional English ale and now we’ve adapted the way we brew to make all our beers vegan. On the Keg side we have grown and developed our range, experimenting with new hop combinations and yeast strains.
Q4. What factors have influenced these changes?
The rise of American style craft beer lead us to venture into the world of kegged beer back in 2020, exploring the variety of new and exciting flavours available in emerging beer styles. We work with a mindset of constant improvement and the standard of beer in the UK brewing industry is better than ever, which has pushed us to play with new processes and ingredients to elevate our beer to a standard we’re very proud of.
Q5. What sets your brewery apart from others in the industry?
We have a close relationship with local businesses and boozers and have always focused on being part of the community in East London. We’ve always proudly produced cask ale as our bread and butter and pride ourselves on well refined classics, that have inspired the way we build recipes for modern beer styles.
A Guide to Choosing Brewing Malts: Tips from George Boustred, Head Brewer, East London Brewing Co
Choosing Base Malts
Q6. What factors influence your choice of base malts? Is it beer style, colour, extract?
Honestly, quality comes first then the decision is based on trusted suppliers and price. With base malts, we feel there is a number of suppliers producing excellent malt so with that in mind, we review annually our malt cost in comparison with other suppliers. Fortunately, we have an excellent relationship with our main supplier for base malt and are always really happy with their quality, service and price.
Q7. What are the key characteristics to look for when selecting a great base malt?
We look at the quality of the malt, the extract potential and nitrogen.
Q8. Do you have a specific approach to creating a balanced malt bill, ratios, preferences?
This really depends on the styles of the beer. Whatever recipe we are making, there is always a focus on what it is about that style that we love so much and exactly what characteristics we are trying to achieve.
Choosing Specialty Roasted Malts
Q9. What is your approach to incorporating Roasted Malts into your beer recipes to achieve specific flavour profiles? Are there any dos and don’ts?
We tend to liken the flavour of certain roasted malts to food and drink and base our decision on what specific flavours we want. For example coffee, dark chocolate, raisin, burnt toast. There are certain levels of dark malt we don’t like to cross for fear of astringency.
Q10. Do you have a methodology for using roasted malts effectively? Perhaps any examples of beers you have brewed where roasted malts have played a significant role?
Our most award winning beer and current Champion Stout of London is Quadrant Oatmeal Stout 5.5%. This recipe uses 4 different roasted malts in different proportions.
Q11. How do you balance the bitterness of Roasted Malts with the hop bitterness and aroma in your beers?
Our stout is in fact a lot more hoppy than you would expect. We found a good strong hot-side hop profile helps to balance rich beers brewed with lots of roasted malts.
Q12. When using significant amounts of Crystal and/or Patent malts, how does this influence your yeast strain selection to achieve your desired flavour profile or ABV?
When we make recipes we plan our target ‘final gravity’ and do calculations see what we expect this to be based on the speciality malts and ingredients we are using. The yeast strain is usually chosen for it’s flavour properties more than anything. The mash temperature is a variable we’ll play with to hit our target ‘final gravity’.
Q13. When using Patent Roasted Malts, for example, what approach should you take when considering balancing these with Crystal Malt varieties to achieve colour, sweetness, and flavour?
This depends on how dominant we want the Black Malt characteristics to be in our recipes. We find a small percentage in our dark bitter offers a pleasing nutty character to the beer to support a much larger bill of crystal malt.
Q14. Does your water chemistry interact differently with Crystal and Patent Malts to influence beer flavour? Do adjust your water profile?
Our water treatment is different for every beer we brew. The biggest change for malt bills with large amounts of crystal or patent, is to add less lactic acid to the water to reduce acidity.
Q15. Have you experimented with different types of Roasted Malts or unusual malt varieties, and how have these experiments influenced your brewing process and beer styles?
Yes we have. We use some German malts and some dehusked malts. It’s always useful to do small pilot brews forwarding one speciality malt to understand what that brings to a beer recipe.
The Future of Brewing
Q16. In 2025, what trends do you see shaping the next year in the beer industry?
I think there will be a concerted effort to get a message across to consumers about how breweries are working to reduce their carbon footprint and produce more environmental beer. There seems to be a shift of younger drinkers exploring more traditional beer styles and hope this continues.
Q17. How is your brewery adapting to these trends?
We have always prioritised green energy and minimising our energy usage. We are soon to be working with Loughborough University researching the use of microalgae to capture waste C02 from beer fermentations. This year we will begin canning unfined versions of our best bitter to make our heritage in producing traditional styles more accessible to younger drinkers.
Q18. Are there any specific (industry wide) innovations on the horizon that you are most eager to see, or be developed?
C02 capture is a game-changer for small breweries. Breweries sharing c02 that is captured from fermentations would be a huge development for the industry and I personally believe this would be key for cutting the carbon footprint of small craft breweries. We hope down the line that the equipment will become affordable so that we can capture our waste c02, clean it and provide food grade c02 to smaller local breweries.
Pro Tips for Homebrewing
Q19. What advice would you give to homebrewers who are looking to improve their skills and create more complex or consistently brewed beers?
Experiment. Brew as much as you can. Play with different parameters of pH and temperature and try to learn what changes these can make to your beer. Get to know off-flavours so you can work out if any of these are creeping in to your brews and DON’T OVERLOOK WATER. Knowing your water profile is key.
Q20. Do you have a ‘go-to’ golden ratio, or malt bill, for making a particular beer style that you would encourage homebrewers to try?
To be honest, no. I’m a big fan of simple malt bills and for modern hazies I’ve always liked 80% extra pale, 10% wheat, 10% oats but we always play with these in our recipes and there’s no hard fast rules.
Q21. If you could advise, what are some common mistakes that homebrewers should avoid?
Package stability. Keep everything clean, avoid oxidation and try to stress test your beer (heat it up to 35deg C for 48 hours) to see how well your beer holds up.
Final Thoughts…
Q22. If you were stranded on a desert island and could only have one beer, or beer style, for the rest of your life, which would you choose and why?
Kernel Table Beer. Always Delicious and can be supped all day. Might be more hydrating in the desert sun.
Q23. Where can readers find your beers, learn more about your brewery and connect with you?
You can buy direct from us online. Otherwise you’ll see our beers out and about in pubs, bars and bottle shops of East London.
Explore Liberation Brewery’s expert roasted malt selection and the evolution of beer styles with brewing insight from Pat Dean at the multi-award-winning Channel Island brewery.
French & Jupps, Great Britain’s oldest maltster, will be exhibiting at the Craft Brewers Conference on the TBI Pro Brew Supply stand, number 1801, from April 28th to May 1st, 2025.
Gain professional brewing insights into the uses of roasted malt from Santi Bello, Head Brewer at Windsor & Eton Brewery. Explore the techniques behind their award-winning beers and discover valuable knowledge for aspiring and experienced brewers.
We’d love to become part of your journey and for you to become part of our story.
If you are looking to create your project using the finest malt with beautiful flavours and aromas, please get in touch,
French & Jupps Ltd, Roydon Road, Stanstead Abbotts, Herts, SG12 8HG
Registered Company No. 00165116
To learn about the journey from field to glass and more detailed explanation of the malting process click below.
Proudly delivering outstanding quality and services for centuries to come.
We pride ourselves in:
Producing the finest quality speciality malts
Providing an inspiring environment for businesses to develop and grow
Supporting the community and local youth programmes
Family owned and driven by core family values.
We are: One team, supportive, honest, respectful and care greatly about our community, local talented youth and the environment.
French & Jupps Ltd, Roydon Road, Stanstead Abbotts, Herts, SG12 8HG
