By Brent Manning, Board President
The Guild Board of Directors would like to wish everyone a healthy and happy holiday season. We would also like to thank everyone for their participation in this year’s Craft Malt Week celebration. The weeklong campaign held September 11-17 featured a tremendous amount of positive stories highlighting the people, places, and beverages that make our industry so special.
Following our busy summer of budget planning, the Board has turned our attention to the upcoming Craft Malt Conference slated for March 16-18, 2023 in Portland, ME. Early bird registration for this event opened in mid-October and will remain available until January 15. Be sure to read our latest conference update announcing the keynote speaker.
Over the past quarter, the Guild’s Governance Working Group organized our annual board member election which is currently underway. Member Malthouses have until December 4 to submit their vote in the 2023 elections. There are two great candidates running for the open Member Malthouse positions. Learn more about them here.
The Technical Working Group is putting the finishing touches on an exciting new member benefit called the Responsible Production Guide. This comprehensive document has taken almost two years to compile. It covers a wide range of topics pertaining to grain handling, food safety procedures, and general best practices. The Board of Directors is currently reviewing the final draft and we plan to make it available to the membership in 2023.
We also crossed an exciting milestone in November as we welcomed our seventieth Member Malthouse to the Guild. We wish a warm welcome to the three newest Member Malthouses in our cohort including Field Five Farm in Saanichton, British Columbia; Hogarth Malt in Olds, Alberta, Canada; and Subversive Malting and Brewing of Catskill, New York. We also want to take a moment to recognize three Member Malthouses who joined earlier in 2022: Cold Stream Malt & Grain Co. in Garfield, WA; Mississippi Mills Malting Co. in Pakenham, Ontario, Canada; and Old South Malt House of Cullman, AL. We see this growth as continued proof that our industry is thriving during these uncertain times.