Great Chit

Great Chit is a highly under-modified chit malt made from Southern-grown 2-row barley in North Carolina, Virginia and Tennessee. Germination is cut short, so the grain barely chits, and kilning is gentle. That preserves the protein and beta-glucan that build foam and body. Flavor impact is deliberately minimal: grainy and lightly grassy, nothing more. The reason to use it is structural. It improves head retention, foam stability and mouthfeel, and it does the job of raw grain or a dextrin malt while still being malted. The style exists because German brewers needed a way around the Reinheitsgebot's ban on unmalted adjuncts. Using Great Chit Riverbend publishes 5 to 20% of the grist. At 5 to 10% as a foam and mouthfeel aid in lagers and hoppy pale beers. At 10 to 20% in NEIPA, where the protein contributes to both haze and the soft body the style depends on. Substitute it for flaked barley or dextrin malt when you want the same structural effect from a malted grain. Min DP 100, so it still carries enzymes despite the short germination. Styles: NEIPA, hazy IPA, West Coast IPA, pale ale, Pilsner and other lagers Specifications Grain 2-row barley, under-modified chit malt Color 1.5 to 2.5 SRM Max usage rate 5 to 20% of grist Extract (FG, dry basis) 80% Protein 10.1% S/T ratio 38 to 43 Min diastatic power 100 Min alpha amylase 30 Grain origin North Carolina, Virginia and Tennessee Bag size 50 lb About Riverbend Malt HouseBrent Manning and Brian Simpson founded Riverbend in Asheville in 2010, the first craft malt house east of the Mississippi. It is now the first Certified Regenified malt house in the world. Grain comes from family-owned farms inside roughly a 500-mile radius of Asheville, across North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia and Florida. They still hand-rake grain on a traditional malting floor alongside modern germination-kiln vessels, and in 2025 they supplied more than 300 breweries and distilleries.