Double Eagle Malt’s mission from our inception has been to support Pennsylvania family farmers. And by support, we mean give them an opportunity to not only succeed but enable them to pass their farms on to the next generation. To execute on that mission, we pay our farmers more than twice the commodity price for high-quality malting barley than commercial malthouses do. Still, it’s not easy for them to manage all the complex issues of planting, harvesting, storing, cleaning, testing and meeting the more than 15 quality specifications we require for a successful harvest. If it fails to meet those standards, we help them find secondary markets, like feed or cover crops, so it still results in a net positive result.
Another challenge is acreage planning. We need to forecast two years ahead, anticipating demand to make sure we have barley in storage to last beyond the next year’s harvest while it waits to break dormancy. And there is always the chance that one field or more will fail to produce grain that is acceptable quality, so we typically overcommit acreage. That challenges our growers to find additional storage for the time it takes the new barley to break dormancy and/or accommodate a greater yield. Farmers, being accustomed to fickle markets and variable demands, are naturally elastic and can roll with the punches if things don’t materialize exactly as planned. For all of this, we are grateful, because without their commitment to supporting us, we have nothing to offer.
Why should brewers care who grows their malt?
That may sound like an odd expression: “Who grows their malt.” Because, generally speaking, brewers get their malt from brewery supply houses or big malthouses, sources which insulate the very connection to the field that the local craft malthouses celebrate. The American Malting Barley Association (AMBA) uses the expression “No barley, no beer” to emphasize the vital link that brewing owes to farming. And while malt has been called “The soul of beer,” it’s still largely considered a commodity ingredient in most brewery production facilities.
Brewers sell beer by communicating flavor profiles, body, mouthfeel, bitterness and other physical attributes that differentiate their product and make it attractive to consumers. But they also promote intangibles like beer names, label artwork and social causes to make their beer distinctive. Somewhere in the middle they’ll use messaging about specific hop ingredients and what they contribute to the beer. Certain hop varieties have developed cult followings after repeated consumer education. Citra and Simcoe are known for their citrusy, fruity flavors; Chinook evokes “dank”, piney notes and is typically associated with a West Coast IPA beer style. New England IPAs are redolent of stone fruit flavors like peaches derived from a particular set of hops.
But what about malt?
Brewers generally don’t communicate malt messaging to consumers. Malt isn’t sexy like hops are, but it does provide the basis for the body, mouthfeel, flavor depth, alcohol content, and certain intangibles like foam, lacing and head retention, all of which give beer its soul. For ten years, it felt to us like an uphill battle to try to communicate a malt message that brewers could deliver to consumers that added real or perceived value. Malt just does its job, quietly and stoically, supporting the other cast of players.
But let’s face it, malt is really mostly a trade reference. When I catch up with people who remember that I’m involved somehow in the brewing supply chain, they typically ask, “How’s the hops business?” Often, after taking a second to recompose myself, I will say, “it’s good” without trying to correct them. But it points out two things: first, an onslaught of hops messaging by brewery marketing folks has had such a dramatic impression on consumers that it’s the first thing they think of in association with beer; and second, an obvious lack of knowledge or interest in other components completely overlooks the most important ingredient in beer, grain. Consumers have been taught by brewers to care about hops, and I believe it’s malt’s turn to get some attention. As illustrated in the infographic, the economic impact of an acre of local grain is a very important metric, and one that I think consumers would care deeply about if they were educated the same way they are with hops.
Let’s not talk about malt to consumers
A couple of years ago, we at Double Eagle had an “ah-hah!” moment when we realized we were promoting a product that nobody understood. Malt is a trade term. Many people think about malted milk balls or malted milkshakes from their youth when they hear the term, which is really not very helpful. So, we started to think – and speak – in terms of grain instead. Not barley, or rye or wheat or oats or spelt or corn or any other small grain that can be converted to malt for use in brewing, but just grain. Most beer consumers have a general awareness that grain has a role in beer, but they don’t understand it very well. Fine. We’ll roll with grain.
We developed a new tagline with the intention that brewers would use it to communicate value to their consumer markets: “Made with PA Grain.”
But it wasn’t until the winter of 2025 that we rolled it into a logo that quickly and directly allowed brewers to adopt something that suddenly added value for the consumer to their products. And it’s really working. The new “Made with PA Grain” logo is simple but elegant, direct, yet subtle, and more importantly, it signals something all Pennsylvania craft beer consumers can feel proud of: PA grain in PA beer. We offer a variation in a QR code that takes the beer consumer to our farmer profile page to view the photos, read the stories and see the locations or our farmer partners. Either way, by virtue of the logo or the QR code, the message is getting traction among our brewery customers, so the more who use it, the greater the differentiation value to the brewer.
What’s special about local grain and malt?
We hold these principles of locally sourced grain as positive competitive attributes:
- Flavor: As with farm-to-table foods, fresh, locally malted grain adds unique flavor profiles to beer and spirits
- Sustainability: Local grain travels fewer miles and products far less CO2
- Community: Using local grain supports local agriculture, jobs and economic vitality
- Reputation: Supporting local businesses positively affects consumer perception of your brand’s ethos and values
- Economics: Positioning your locally-sourced beer as a premium product allows you to make a little more on every pint
Case in point, Warwick Farm Brewing
The ownership team at Warwick Farm were a tough sell. But over time, we were finally able to convince them to give our local malt a shot. And not only did they accept the challenge, they were so impressed with the performance of our grain and so engaged on highlighting the malt’s role that they developed a special label that put grain on par with hops and the Philadelphia Eagles, for a beer that debuted on the day of the Eagles’ 2025 season opener. It was a win all around — and hopefully — the beginning of a successful, long-term relationship.
But Warwick Farm is only the latest example. Since we debuted the Made with PA Grain logo, several of our other brewery customers have adopted the trademark on their can labels or tap lists. They include Brass Collar Brewing (Souderton), The Millworks (Harrisburg), Blind Cat Beer (Scranton), Hopping Eagle (Hawley), Weyerbacher (Easton), Shy Bear (Lewiston), Tannery Run (Ambler) and many others.
We’re hoping this is the beginning of malt’s, oops… grain’s turn in the limelight.