Why are brewers and distillers, and their fans, leaning into products made with craft malt? That’s what the Choose Craft Malt series is all about!
Reason #2: Craft maltsters consistently produce the world’s most premium malts.
By their very small batch nature, our member malthouses are able to purchase grains from family farmers dedicated to crop quality. Not to mention they work more intimately with the grain, promoting more batch-over-batch consistency.
Craftmalting.com offers an online sensory information center for members to find malt quality resources such as sensory basics and malt flavor evaluation tools including the hot steep method, sensory software by DraughtLab, flavor maps, flavor standard kits, and more.
The Craft Maltsters Guild has supported the importance of quality control and assurance among its members since its founding in 2013, and the results are clear. The Malt Cup, open annually to maltsters of all shapes and sizes, typically ranks craft malts as superior in quality. This competition provides a Certificate of Analysis (COA) to all entrants in all categories, an important tool for determining malt specifications and a gauge for improvement year over year.
In 2025, the Malt Cup will boast eight malt style categories. The Guild is thrilled to grow this program, and excited to execute the judging process over the next several months. Read more about the Malt Cup’s rigorous standards here.
Premium malt translates into its end product, which often means award-winning beers and spirits. More and more, winners at prestigious competitions— such as the Great American Beer Festival®, the World Beer Cup™, the San Francisco World Spirits Competition, the Canada Beer Cup, and the Good Food Awards— were made with craft malt.
We hear from craft brewers and distillers across the continent that the freshness and high quality of craft malt helps them to produce their best and most lucrative products possible— and we say that’s a win for the whole small grains supply chain!
Read previous Choose Craft Malt series posts:
Reason #1: Built For Craft