A Quarter is an ancient and potentially confusing measure applied to English malting barley.

Not to be confused with a “quart” (a measure of liquid), a quarter is the standard measure for barley as bought by a maltster, and it equates to 448 lb, which should yield approximately 80 lb to 100 lb of extract for the brewer.

However, during the malting process, during which malt is dried, the weight of a given quantity of malt decreases. A quarter of malted barley (still in line to give the same yield of extract) weighs approximately 336 lb. Although the actual weight has fallen by around 25%, the projected yield is still the same. A quarter is therefore a measure of weight, but the weight it describes is different depending on whether it is applied to barley or barley malt. Many old British beer recipes are based upon quarters of malt, a measurement that can leave the modern interpreter nonplussed.

Perhaps because of its confusing nature, today a quarter is a measurement rarely quoted outside the malting industry, and it is rarely listed even in glossaries of brewing terms. But it is still in contemporary use.

The capacity of a malting is traditionally measured according to the number of quarters which can be processed through it over a 4-day period. So a “50 quarter malting” does not refer to a plant that has the capacity to hold 50 quarters of malt, but to the quantity of barley that goes through it every 4 days. The floor space of a traditional floor malting is measured in square feet per quarter.