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Brooms seem to be a recurring element in the group photos—I'd love to know more about the brewers' intended symbolism with these.

That caught my interest too and I noticed that along with the broom was a shovel. I browsed around and found this from The Oxford Companion to Beer:
"Once properly hydrated, the malt is then sent not to a germination chamber, but to a 'floor,' where it is spread evenly by hand into an approximately 15 cm (6 inch) thick layer. The favored floor material for European floor maltings has always been tiles quaried only in the Bavarian village of Solnhofen. This stone is hard and thin, with excellent thermal dispersion, moisture retention, and wear resistance. British floor maltings have retained their own types of stone floors. While on the floor, the germinating grain must be turned by hand twice a day, 7 days a week, to keep it properly oxygenated, to dissipate heat, and to keep rootlets from tangling the malt into an unmanageable mat. The traditional tools for this hard labor are a wooden malt shovel and a special, iron-wrought rake..." no mention of a broom but perhaps it can be assumed to be part of that process?

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