Colorado Malting Company is a founding malthouse member of the Craft Maltsters Guild, and a regular contributor to many of the Guild’s initiatives. We caught up with this Alamosa, Colorado-based farming, malting, and brewing company to learn more about how they’ve vertically integrated, as well as their recently launched Rye Resurgence project.
Read Co-Founder Jason Cody’s interview here.
You’re one of the first, if not the first, craft malthouses in the country.
We were the first craft malt house to commercially sell malt in the market. We also were the first to create malting systems that allowed malting to happen in a small footprint, because our systems, take all the malting processes steep, germination, and kilning, and make them happen in one vessel without the necessity of moving the grain from one process to the other.
Not to mention one of the first vertically integrated malthouses making and serving their own beer. What inspires you to keep it all ‘under one roof’?
Basically, we believe that current corporate/conglomerate market models have only hurt our producers and our agriculture. These large commodity models have only been around hundreds of years, but the local supply, farm to table models existed for thousands of years. Many see larger farming as progress, but as farmers ourselves we understand the reason for large-scale, commodity based ag is based on financial necessity because of current LOW market pricing that has been caused by middle of the supply chain businesses literally getting too big.
Farmers grow their farms because they have to in order to compete at the volume game or they go bankrupt. We believe in a representation back to the local supply reality that was time tested for thousands of years and resist becoming a part of the large scale corporate/conglomerate schemes.
We bring people together at the Colorado Farm Brewery to help them experience what this reality is like, how the quality of the products are better, and we believe in this sustainable model and hope others will follow and become a part of the solution instead of the problem. By problem I’m mostly talking about traceability of food supply and pricing structure. Once any farmer sells to large commodity-based companies, their unique contributions get piled in with hundreds of millions of other pounds of grain which all get mixed together, and shipped away, never to be traceable again. At the same time the volume game devalues the grain. This is done under the concept that all barley is basically the same, or all wheat and rye is just that, wheat and rye. But what we continue to prove at TCFB is that is not the case at all. Even the same variety of grain grown in a different soil type, or weather year, can showcase unique variation in flavor. Commodity based models bastardize what grain is and make it into something people have never really been able to discover the nuanced differences in or the unique contributions of.
We seek to change this through true 100% estate beers from Southern Colorado. Craft Beer was at some level born in Colorado, so we believe that it should be reborn here to what it truly is meant to be: a farm-to-table, vertically integrated, local agricultural product. We also have purposely operated here in the San Luis Valley because we know the economy is sorely depressed. Alamosa County is adjacent to the poorest county in the entire state of Colorado, Costilla County. We care about people, we are people people, and we want to help change things for the better in this area. Sure we could establish in the major population centers for money, but we don’t care about money, we care about people.
What are some of the ways you ensure malt quality?
Malt quality is about three main things. First is grain quality coming into the malt house. The SLV is one of the best climates to grow high quality grain in. Low humidity keeps mold and mycotoxins, fusarium, etc. from growing on the kernels in the field and causing major quality issues and health concerns. We have very high standards for incoming grains into our malting operation and our brewing.
Second is cleanliness. Having food production on the farm requires us to keep up with sanitation in a big way. We strive to do that every day.
Third, is process control. All our malt is made by us in a very hands on way. So we know exactly what we are creating, and it’s not done by a machine, but by people who can think and adjust. No one would put something in the oven and completely trust the timer not to over cook it. They have to keep checking it. We don’t believe in fully automated equipment in malt or beer. Again, we believe in people.
Tell us more about the Rye Resurgence project.
Rye Resurgence is a non-profit that seeks to create new markets for SLV rye and create higher price points for farmers who grow rye, so they can afford to use it as a rotation on potatoes and alfalfa operations. When we learned about them in February 2024 at the American Craft Spirits Association conference in Denver, we jumped on board.
Rye is a great alternative to barley and wheat in rotation because it uses less water than barley or wheat. Barley or Wheat uses about 18-20″ annually, where rye can be raised at 12-14″ this created huge water savings for the Rio Grande Basin aquifer which is the lifeblood of our area. Also, since rye is a winter crop planted in the fall it holds the soil from the strong spring winds here. That helps maintain ground moisture and precious topsoil moisture. They believe in traceability and share our vision on many levels. We are not in business with them, but mutually support each other in our endeavors.
Can consumers get involved in the resurgence project, too?
Yes there are many ways to support the project. Right now we are in a capital raise to bring some much needed funds to our malting expansion so that we can continue our vision and help the Rye Resurgence Project process rye and get it to end users. Learn more here.
What else would you like to share?
Our family is very close and we run the businesses. These are the rest of the people that deserve mention: Joshua Cody (Brother), Wayne Cody (DAD), Tim Cody (Uncle), Bobby Cody (Brother), Keith Tolsma, Suzanne Tolsma (business partners). Also my Mom (Sandra Cody) and my wife (Patricia Cody), Josh’s wife (Sarah Cody), and Bobby’s wife (Kate Cody) have all been a part of this along with our 23 children between me and my brothers.
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