Quality Corner: 2023 Harvest Outlook

With the 2023 malting grain harvest close on the horizon for much of the continent, and already behind us in some regions, the Craft Maltsters Guild asked some of the leading North American grain research organizations for their regional perspectives on this year’s crop quality and yields. Their harvests, overall, were successful and their outlook…

Field To Bench: Alabama barley and the possibilities of plant genotyping

By Emily Hutto, Photos courtesy HudsonAlpha Institute for Technology  Jeremy Schmutz is vacationing in England sipping on a Barsham Brewery Golden Clues IPA made with Bodicea hops and local Maris Otter barley. Schmutz is the HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology Faculty Investigator and co-director of the HudsonAlpha Genome Sequencing Center, one of the only centers performing…

DEI in Action: The Community Malt initiative aims to bring Black farmers into the brewery supply chain

By Louis Livingston-Garcia, Photos courtesy Harlem Brewing Co. Calypso barley has nothing to do with Calypso Afro-Caribbean music originating from Trinidad and Tobago, but Harlem Brewing Co. Founder Celeste Beatty can’t help but tie the two together. She sees the textures of the music and the textures of the grain as complementary rhythms. Calypso barley…

Member Highlight: Thornton Distilling Company, Maker of Dead Drop Spirits

Our next member highlight takes us to Thornton, Illinois where a time-honored local brewery building now houses a distillery that’s making history by distilling European heirloom grain grown in Indiana. We asked Thornton Distillery’s Head Distiller Ari Klafter about their origin story and about his passion for peated malt. Here’s what he had to say.…