I am extremely proud of the quality of the malts we’re making and delivering to our customers today. Hats off to maltster Scott who consistently manages to achieve premium malt quality characterized by high friability, extract and enzymes, all made with barley from our local family farmers.
But making great malt depends on acquiring the best barley, and planning and securing high quality malting barley in reliable quantities is not easy. What looks good in the field in May might not even make it to harvest due to extreme weather that can knock down a crop in minutes, as happened to a 20-acre field last June in Lancaster County. A field of barley in Monroe County that tested very well after harvest in July degraded in storage and didn’t meet germination specs by December. Managing barley in storage to maintain quality over 12 – 18 months is a big challenge for farmers, and it represents another risk that discourages many farmers from sticking with the program.
Although we pay a significant premium for malting barley over commodity prices, it’s barely enough of an incentive to keep farmers from switching those acres back to less finicky crops. But when those farmers can taste their grain in your beer, it evokes an incredible sense of pride because they seldom see any of their crops go to consumer products they can connect with, as most go to commodity markets or onto container ships bound for destinations unknown.
Our mission from Day One has been to support local family farmers. We can only do this if the craft brewing community cares about that mission too. We are constantly aware of the changing economic forces stretching breweries in dozens of directions, and that encouraging brewers to use local craft malt has been an uphill battle due to cost. But, really, the difference in cost in the finished beer between Double Eagle’s Pennypack Pilsner and a premium malt like Weyerman Pils is typically less than a nickel per pint at the small brewery scale. And the performance is similar: our brewery customers are achieving mash efficiencies of 85%-plus. We offer a product that is fresher because it’s locally grown and doesn’t sit in a warehouse for months, and we do everything possible to care for our accounts with responsive, personal service.
Without wide adoption of local craft malt by local breweries, Double Eagle will continue to struggle to forecast and plan acreage and infrastructure to adequately provide a reliable supply of excellent malt. If we know what our demand will be two years from now, we can plan those acres to meet the need. We don’t want to over-commit to growing more acres of grain than we can accommodate, and we don’t want to under-commit on acreage because we expect that some fields will fail to produce the quality we need.
There are many ways to incorporate local grain that produce a successful outcome for everyone – the customer, the brewer, the malthouse and the farmer – but my favorite (short of a beer made with 100% local malt) is to dose some local grain into all of your brewery’s core beers, giving you the right to promote your brewery as a supporter of local family farms. We’ll even give you a tin-tacker to post in your taproom so your patrons will know that sourcing local ingredients is important to your business.
A small entry-level commitment like this from many small breweries will enable us to predict grain needs and acreage much more effectively. Your support will truly become an investment in your local grain supply chain.
To adopt local malt, one bag at a time, request a portfolio and price list.