is an old English term for the shoveling of steeped, drained grain onto a malting floor in a heap (a “couch”). See floor malting. In traditional British malting, couching is the first of three steps in germination. The others are “flooring” (germination proper) and “withering” (air-drying in a thin layer). A couch retains the temperature of the grain and thus accelerates the uptake of surface water after the wet transfer from the steep. This promotes the completion of chitting and the start of germination. See chitting and germination. The couch is anywhere from 20 to 90 cm high (about 8 inches to 3 feet) and often placed in a rigid, rectangular structure with a flat bottom called a couch frame. In cold weather, couching can last 24 hours or longer, and the couch is often covered with sacks or a tarpaulin to maintain the proper temperature. Once chitting is complete and germination starts, however, the grain begins to give off considerable heat, and it becomes more important to release rather than contain that heat. At this point the couch needs to be broken up and spread out on the floor, in a layer ranging in thickness from perhaps 7 to 40 cm (about 3 to 15 in.). The more advanced the state of germination in the couch and the higher the ambient temperature, the thinner is the layer on the floor to allow excess heat to escape.