Micro Maltsters Roundtable
The old saying goes that a rising tide lifts all boats. And when it comes to the tidal surge of craft brewing, the same is true. In a time of such great interest in local beer and farm-to-table food, it is only natural that interest in artisinal ingredients would also grow. We spoke to four craft malt producers — micro maltsters if you will — about their unique niche in the world of contemporary craft and homebrewing, and how working with small-scale ingredients can help brewers big and small create beers that are truly local.
Questions
Why did you decide to get into craft malting, as opposed to say working for a large malt house?
Erik May, Pilot Malt House: I’ve always been a ‘wantrepreneur’ desiring to own my own business and felt there was a need for a small, artisanal malting operation in Michigan. I am committed to living in Michigan now (wife and kids will do that to you) and wanted to help re-create a malting industry here in Michigan — we had a thriving one back when Stroh’s was kickin’ ass and taking names.
Seth Klann, Mecca Grade Estate Malt: I started homebrewing more than four years ago and soon got into brewing all-grain batches. We grow dark northern spring wheat on our farm for the milling industry, and I quickly realized that much of the malt I was using for homebrewing came from the very same grains we were growing on-farm. The next question for us was: Why aren’t we malting our own grain and selling directly to brewers and distillers? It seemed like a simple question, but it’s one that lead us down the rabbit hole of craft malt, resulting in over three years spent on research and development, construction, and growing a new industry.
Andrew Peterson, Peterson Quality Malt: I homebrewed back in college and I always thought, “Maybe someday I’ll open my own brewery and go pro.” By the time I could make it happen, however, there were so many breweries operating in Vermont. I realized I needed to differentiate myself if I was going to open a brewery, and decided that if I could grow my own grains and malt them that would make me different. I liked that idea, but soon realized that I couldn’t do both as malting is a full time job.
Brian Simpson, River Bend Malt House: I wasn’t really interesting in malting in particular at first, I was looking to start a sustainable business. I saw how craft beer was growing in Asheville, so malting became an obvious niche — craft beer needed craft malt. It seemed like an easy connection to further localize the footprint of Asheville’s beer, while allowing us to offer a unique product.
How much does your malt house differentiate from a large-scale malting operation? More specifically, how much of the process do you do by hand or on modified mechanisms? Explain.
Erik May, Pilot Malt House: We do most of the work with our hands; we built our equipment (with local fabricators/engineers) literally from nothing so we understand every aspect of the process from start to finish.
Seth Klann, Mecca Grade Estate Malt: Malting is such a capital-intensive endeavor that we realized early on we could never compete with a large-scale malting operation on price. We felt that there was no reason to enter the market growing and malting the same way the big guys were doing and then charging three times as much because it was “local.” Every aspect of our business, from field to malt, had to be unique in order to differentiate our product.
Part of our research was taking a good, hard look at what people were excited about when it came to “craft malt;” one aspect being a more hands-on approach in regards to floor malting. There are certain qualities and processes that make floor-malted grain so desirable, yet fairly hard to source. From the beginning, it was our goal to blend Old-World traditions with modern technology to make a more consistent and high-quality floor malt. We worked closely with an engineering and manufacturing company to design our own proprietary process called “Mechanical-Floor Malting” that relies on fully-automated, shallow-bed, all-in-one malting machines. Right now we are producing and selling malt from our prototype machine, which produces 700 pounds (318 kg) of finished malt a week. Our large machines, “Version 2.0”, (delivered in November) are capable of producing up to 20,000 pounds (9,072 kg) of finished malt.
Andrew Peterson, Peterson Quality Malt: I am very small. I have one employee, Jamie Dragon. We both are involved in all parts of malting. For example, we use a canoe paddle to turn the grains — I don’t think a lot of the big malting companies are doing that (laughs). Part of the fun of this business is figuring out how to automate things and set up controls that are efficient. For example, for kilning, I’ve got a web server setup that allows us to monitor and control the kiln from any computer or smartphone. For the most part, though, being small means having more than one job. Sometimes I’m at my desk, sometimes I’m moving 50-pound (23-kg) bags of grain; it’s a lot of smaller jobs that all need to
be done.
Brian Simpson, River Bend Malt House: We do everything with sort of a traditional methodology mixed with new world science. For example, we floor malt the grains and turn by hand with a rake — similar to how English and Scottish malts are traditionally made. The kiln we built, however, is more modern than the traditional kilning method. We hand malt every piece of grain that comes in, which lends itself to unique flavor profiles that you might not get from a strictly automated system.
Where do you source grains, and how do you foster relationships with farmers?
Erik May, Pilot Malt House: All of our grain is grown in Michigan. We work with growers from around the state who grow for us. It was a much harder sell (to convince growers to grow malting barley for us) back in 2012 when I started Pilot as corn prices were at an all-time high. I went door to door in those days, peering into the back yard or into a barn for a grain head or a combine looking for someone with a general knowledge on growing small grains. I ended up finding one grower who threw in 10 acres as a test. We’ve since grown our ‘network’ to more than 30 growers and 1,200 acres worth of malting barley (>90% malting barley), wheat, rye, and some other small test grains.
Seth Klann, Mecca Grade Estate Malt: All of our malt is sourced directly from our farm and is grown within a 2-mile radius of the malthouse, providing uniformity across fields. Uniform, quality grain equals uniform, quality malt. As farmer/maltsters, we are able to apply our knowledge of crop production from pre-plant all the way through harvest and finally into the malting process.
We are currently the largest “estate malthouse” and have planned to increase malt production as we expand the family farm.
Andrew Peterson, Peterson Quality Malt: I have several barley fields of my own, and I source from other Vermont farmers as well as contacts in Maine and the Champlain Valley of New York. It’s been kind of a slow process getting farmers on board. Existing farmers tend to want to grow what they know works and sells, which is corn and hay. But when I can get a farmer to try barley in one field the first year, then maybe the next year he might try barley in three fields.
Brian Simpson, River Bend Malt House: All of our malt is single origin — we don’t blend. Part of our mission is to source our grain as close to home as we can. We also want to deliver it as close to home as we can to keep our footprint small. We stay within a 400-mile radius for sourcing and distributing; we do move outside the state but stay in North Carolina, Kentucky, and Virginia for the most part.
Who buys your craft malt?
Erik May, Pilot Malt House: A host of Michigan breweries, local homebrew stores, a brewery in Indiana, and one of the largest online homebrew retailers in the country based up in Minnesota. We are working with dozens more to hopefully supply them with more malt in the coming weeks/months.
Seth Klann, Mecca Grade Estate Malt: We currently sell our malts to brewers and distillers, primarily in the Pacific Northwest and all the way into California. Some of the current beers made with our malt that we’ve been excited about has been a “Central Oregon Saison” made by Deschutes Brewery using our Pelton base malt, coriander and carrot seed, and local honey. Mazama Brewing in Corvallis recently used our Lamonta base malt paired with Crosby fresh Centennial hops in their Oregon SMaSH beer, and Paul Arney of The Ale Apothecary is releasing 100% locally-sourced beers starting with Carpe Diem Manana. We are also currently selling to one homebrew supply store, Redmond Craft Brewing Supply.
Andrew Peterson, Peterson Quality Malt: I sell primarily to commercial brewers and distillers. Homebrewers make up a very small percentage, but that segment is growing. Homebrewers have really had an enthusiasm for making something truly local and have been very supportive of our products. I originally wasn’t thinking I could scale thing down to work with homebrewers, but I’ve figured out how to get my malt to homebrewers and that faction is increasing.
Brian Simpson, River Bend Malt House: Unless we are working on a special project for a brewer outside of our normal territory, we generally sell to breweries in a 400-mile radius. There are about
25-30 breweries that are very consistent customers, and well over 100 who buy from us. On the homebrewing side we’ve also developed a lot of all-grain, pre-milled kits.
What malt varieties do you produce? Do you make any specialty malts? Do you have plans to expand your line of products in the future?
Erik May, Pilot Malt House: We produce all the mainstays (2-row, pale, white wheat, red wheat, Munich, Vienna, caramel 20 °L – 120 °L, etc.) but we are investing heavily in unique, proprietary varieties. We do a lot with smoke and with heat profiles to produce truly unique varieties of malt. We will add a second line at some point in the next year that will quintuple our output. We are also developing our own drum roaster so that we can produce our take on crystal, roasted, caramel, etc.
Seth Klann, Mecca Grade Estate Malt: We are producing a core series of base malts named after nearby ghost towns and historical sites that sound similar to recognized, classic styles, ex: Pelton is our Pilsner-style base malt and Vanora is our Vienna-style base malt. However, we want each malt style to exist as a distinct brand and product. All of our malted barley comes from a single variety, Full Pint. Full Pint is a spring 2-row barley developed by Dr. Patrick Hayes at Oregon State University, and has a very distinct, nutty, graham cracker flavor profile. Our larger machines will be able to produce what we are calling our “Opal” malt, which is a hybrid between caramel and crystal malt. We are also planning on producing our “Wickiup” series of malted dark northern spring wheat and will be planting spring rye this coming year.
Andrew Peterson, Peterson Quality Malt: I started out the business by asking brewers and distillers what they wanted me to make for them, so I knew what I could sell. I started out with a heavy base malt, and now I’m also malting a Pilsner and pale malts. I also made my first crystal malt this year, which sold out quickly because of its amazing flavor. I’ve also done some darker malts and ambers. There’s a lot of room to play and come up with new flavors. Over time I’m hoping to come up with all sorts of malt styles. I’m also eager to try some experimenting with
green malt.
Brian Simpson, River Bend Malt House: We produce base malt, Pilsner, and English ale, as well as malted wheat and rye. For the wheat and rye we do a base malt process. For the barley products we do some 6-row and some 2-row varieties.
What sorts of small-scale experimenting do you do with different barley varieties, roasts, etc.?
Erik May, Pilot Malt House: It doesn’t make much sense for us to nail down a half dozen recipes and exclusively manufacture those. While we will always make the staples (2-row, pale, Munich, etc.) we will inevitably end up with a host of proprietary varieties that are unique in flavor, performance, aroma, color, etc. Our ability to tactically come up with unique varieties of malt ultimately all harkens back to our name; Pilot Malt House was built on the premise that we can be a ‘pilot’ malting system with the capability to be unique and creative (some would say a bit crazy) every time we start a batch.
Seth Klann, Mecca Grade Estate Malt: Much like an estate vineyard might place particular focus on a single varietal, we’re committed to working with single varieties of grain for malting. Nearly all of the malt that you can purchase from big malt houses are a blend of several different varieties over several different years to meet a certain specification. Since we are a batch system and using only one vintage at a time, we have to be as consistent as possible. The goal is to have each grain of malt be the same product as opposed to a mixture. However, this is easier said than done and is a large reason why we have invested so much time and money into developing new technologies and processes that get us there.
We also work closely with Oregon State University’s Barley Breeding Program (check them out at http://barleyworld.org), providing acreage each year for field trials. To help increase the program’s seed stock, this year we had more than 100 plots of different barley varieties growing: 2-row, 6-row, purple, black, malt from Tibet, you name it . . . it was here! It was all a part of a study to look at the link between genetics and flavor. There are thousands of varieties of barley in the world, but North American malt is only comprised of a handful of varieties that all taste similar. Yes, variety DOES have an impact on flavor.
We are excited to be producing distinct base malts that finally prove this point. The knowledge we gain from how genetics impacts flavor will help us moving forward as we develop proprietary varieties specially bred for our farm and malting process . . . but that’s a whole, other topic!
Andrew Peterson, Peterson Quality Malt: The kiln that I built is truly unique. As a general rule, when you’re kilning you do it at a low temperature. Most malt producers have giant coffee roasters for darker malts. I, however, built a kiln that can go higher in temperature, which means that I can use it as a roaster as well. This gives me an ability to play around. For example, our roasted barley and chocolate malt are not really that dark in appearance – we’re getting a reaction inside the grain but not color in the husk — which means less astringent flavors from the husk. Is this a fabulous new thing? I don’t know! More brews need to be made with these trial malts to find out. It’s been fun, and tricky, but I’ve been doing lots of experimenting and plan to do more.
Brian Simpson, River Bend Malt House: The Munich malt we recently started making is a very unique product . . . it’s a Munich style with our own twist. Every now and then we like to try something new. For example, we did some naked oats last year, and in the future we’d like to start roasting darker stuff.
What are the advantages for brewers — both commercial and hobby — sourcing local, craft malt? How does this dovetail into the craft beer movement?
Erik May, Pilot Malt House: In addition to selling some really high quality malt, we are also selling a narrative that links growers with brewers (commercial and hobby). There’s value in that relationship and I’d argue it’s the way it should be. There’s value in taking grain grown just miles away, malting it at our facility, and then, in turn, selling it to local breweries, distilleries, and homebrew shops — whether the value comes from the reduction of miles on the road (trucking grain all over) or from the fact that we are employing farmers, many of which are hobby farmers that may not be growing anything if it wasn’t for the opportunity to grow malting barley.
Seth Klann, Mecca Grade Estate Malt: The biggest advantages to small-scale malting are local selection, quality, and customer relationships — transparency being the biggest for us. Malt remains such a faceless commodity that there is a bit of skepticism from brewers when you say you are making “craft malt.” Many people still think we are shoveling wet grain around on a barn floor.
It’s been a thrill to have brewers and distillers out to visit the farm, and show them from field to finished product how malt impacts their beer. In the end, we put the most value on the relationships we have with our customers. Anyone can see what we’re doing on the farm at any give time and the whole beer supply chain finally becomes tangible. It’s particularly rewarding to take a commodity such as grain that we used to haul to the docks at Portland to only disappear into the market, stay right here at home by adding value to it. Plus . . . great tasting, local beer!
Andrew Peterson, Peterson Quality Malt: There’s a freshness in a locally-made malt that’s very apparent, particularly with darker roasted grains. It’s fresh and filled with flavor. There’s also the ability to control what your ingredients are and know where they come from — what fields, etc. Around here we can say which farmer grew which barley and in what field. This is one of the parts of craft malting that appeals to me — supporting local agriculture. In Vermont, a lot of dairy farms are shutting down, and I’d much rather support them, keep those families farming, and see fields of grain than drive past another subdivision.
Brian Simpson, River Bend Malt House: Terroir (the French wine term encompassing the land, environment, and climate where something is grown) is obviously a factor — it’s important to a lot of brewers to know where the malt is grown and what the local flavor profile is. I also feel that the malting process is the biggest opportunity to lend a unique flavor profile to a malt.
What are some disadvantages? For example, are your malts harder to source for a homebrewer? Is it more expensive than malts from larger-scale maltsters?
Erik May, Pilot Malt House: We are most certainly more expensive than the large-scale maltsters — economy of scale warrants this. The ‘big guys’ produce 150-ton batch sizes while we are turning out 1-ton batches sizes several times a week. While we expect to continue to grow, we will always be an artisanal malt house offering a unique spin on traditional varieties of malt. All of that said, what the ‘big guys’ do is amazing to us, we respect the hell out of them but feel that there is room for us (and other craft/small maltsters) to offer another option. Our base 2-row doesn’t taste like Briess’ or anyone else’s for that matter — it’s unique because it’s grown here, grown in this soil, this climate, harvested by different equipment, and ultimately malted by us and our equipment.
Seth Klann, Mecca Grade Estate Malt: Right now the biggest disadvantage for us is supply. We are only able to produce 700 pounds (318 kg) a week, and all of it has been spoken for until we go into full production in our new malthouse this January. We’ve been placing everyone who is interested in purchasing this malt on a waiting list, and have really appreciated the amount of support we’ve received while everyone is patiently waiting.
That being said, the jump from 700 pounds (318 kg) a week to 28,000 (1,270 kg) in our first phase will be a big one, but we have prepared as best we can for this huge increase in production. Part of this preparation has been an investment in a new grain storage and cleaning facility capable of storing 72,000 bushels of barley, or, 3.6 million pounds (16,329,325 kg).
Since we are an estate malthouse, we need enough reserve stored away in case our crops are wiped out by a natural disaster. Customers are expecting estate-sourced, single variety malt from us to fill their contracts, so we aren’t able to buy surplus grain from another farm or market. Even if we have a poor crop year and the grain isn’t up to our standards, we need to be prepared to sell it all as feed instead of blending it into batches throughout the year. As of now, we have an
entire year’s worth of reserve supply. Every year we will over-plant so we can increase that reserve to at least two years.
Andrew Peterson, Peterson Quality Malt: Consistency isn’t what it is with the big guys. But while that sounds like a disadvantage, to me that’s a selling point. For example, in the wine world, different vintages of grapes have their own characteristics . The other big hurdle I face is cost — my malt is about twice as expensive as the stuff from out West, which is initially a stumbling block for a lot of brewers. In a finished beer, however, the materials cost is low. For example, a 100% locally-sourced beer costs about eighteen cents more per pint than one brewed with malt from the big malt houses. In this time of awareness about locally-sourced products, when people are paying significantly more money for locally sourced meat and vegetables, that extra cost seems like a small price to pay.
Brian Simpson, River Bend Malt House: We are more susceptible to the environment. For example, a large rain event that affected only our region only would make a big impact on us. We do not blend our malts, so it would be a challenge if something like that were to happen. The other issue is price. We are at a higher price point for many reasons, the main being that we offer our farmers a higher price for their grains — sometimes 2-3 times what is paid for feed-grade malt. On the back end of that we are a small-scale operation that involves more labor. That’s a limiting factor of what we produce, but we still sell out of everything we make.
More specifically to homebrewing, do you make small batches of homebrew to test your malts? Any particular recipes? How do you develop recipes for these test batches, and what information can a brewer glean from your process?
Erik May, Pilot Malt House: We invested in a Picobrew Zymatic several months back for quality assurance purposes. We’ve done several test batches of beer, primarily utilizing SMaSH recipes so that we can fairly quickly assess the performance, flavor, aroma, color, etc. of our malt. It’s been a pretty useful tool for us.
Seth Klann, Mecca Grade Estate Malt: We are still homebrewers and brew as much as possible on our half-barrel electric brewery. In our new malt lab and brewery we are planning to eventually upgrade to a 4-barrel pilot system. We perform most of our wort analysis using a programmable, heated stir plate using a “modified Congress mash:” we grind our malt through a double-roller Monster Mill, use 50 grams of malt to 400 mL of water, and perform a 60 minute rest at 148 °F (64 °C). We feel this best represents what most brewers can expect out of a single-infusion mash. While we are able to perform a handful of tests in-house, we are planning on having every batch tested for full-malt analysis and certified by an independent lab to remove any bias on our part in data.
One of the most exciting uses for our estate malt is in making SMaSH beers, which we brew the most often. SMaSH beers are used to try out the newest, coolest, and/or rarest hop; malt selection is many times an
afterthought. It’s been extremely rewarding to give brewers such complex, single malts with depths of flavor that give most hops a run for their money.
Andrew Peterson, Peterson Quality Malt: At this point in the business I’m just starting to do some homebrewing in-house and I’m setting up a little homebrewing system here for test batches. Also, pretty much all of my neighbors in all directions homebrew, so I hand them grains, let them work with them, and then they tell me what they find. I get a lot of honest, outside feedback that way.
Brian Simpson, River Bend Malt House: We have a small pilot system that we experiment with, and we spend a lot of time working with homebrewers. For example, we ask homebrewers to brew the same beer with different grains to compare them side by side.
What other advice would you give to a homebrewer about sourcing craft malt and about brewing with craft malt?
Erik May, Pilot Malt House: Brewing at any level is all about experimentation, finding what works, what you like, if you’re a professional brewer what your customers like, if you’re a homebrewer what do your buddies like, etc. That said, be fearless when you select your grains. Venture out of your comfort zone and try working with a variety of grains that allow you to create a really unique beer.
Seth Klann, Mecca Grade Estate Malt: Craft malt is built on the belief that your local maltster is accessible, receptive, and reflective of your local beer culture and community . . . including agriculture. Don’t be afraid to ask your craft malt producer anything about farming, malting, and brewing.
Andrew Peterson, Peterson Quality Malt: The biggest change to working with craft malt is to take a different approach. Instead of trying to clone Heady Topper, think of your craft malt as a new palate. Experiment; the beauty of homebrewing is if you don’t brew a hit, that’s ok, and if you hit that homerun, you can try and do it again.
Brian Simpson, River Bend Malt House: Be adventurous in your homebrewing and take a shot at working with small-scale malts — it’s really exciting. Everyone who is doing this craft malt processing is creating really great products and giving all brewers an opportunity to try working with something unique.
