WINONA, Minn. – Although hardly a major employer in Winona, Malteurop has a powerful landmark presence with its towering concrete silos. The French company has 15 employees. Malteurop, of France, acquired the Froedtert malt company in 2008. For old times’ times’ sake, it maintained the “F’ symbol atop the west end of the silos. Froedtert began milling barley into malt in Winona in 1905. At the time there were farmers who weighed the morality of switching to barley as a crop because of the morality of producing an ingredient for beer and whisky. Those who switched to barley consoled themselves to teetotalers of the time that malt also went into breakfast cereals and sure made for great milkshakes.
Barley for malt. A four-axle Union Pacific yard engine switches grain cars past the Froedtert barley silos. A second engine stands by. The two locomotives will be paired before the day is over for a trip on Canadian Pacific tracks to LaCrosse. it’s almost a daily back and forth. Image: Steve Lunde