A maiden brew Loveland’s Grimm Brothers Brewhouse has taken malt from a Loveland maltster and hops from a Longmont hop processor on a maiden voyage, producing a local brew called Local Love. The first commercial batch of Munich-style malt from Root Shoot Malting and Willamette processed hops from the new Colorado Hop Co., formerly Front Range Hop Co., went into the beer, brewed Sept. 10. The brew is a “SMaSH” beer — single malt and single hop — according to Grimm Brothers’ Aaron Heaton. He said such a beer emphasizes the taste of each ingredient. “It really does let you try one malt and really get a distinct flavor of it and one hop and really get a distinct flavor of that as well,” he said. Grimm Brothers will have a release party for Local Love from 6 to 8 p.m. Tuesday at Laureate Publick House, 548 N. Lincoln Ave. in downtown Loveland. The brewery will donate $1 to Easter Seals Colorado for every pint sold at the release party. The beer will be officially released at the Great American Beer Festival in Denver Oct. 6-8, where Root Shoot Malting will have a table. Local Love also will be sold at Grimm Brothers’ taproom, 623 N. Denver Ave., starting Wednesday.

If the Midwest is the breadbasket of the nation, then a new grain-malting business near Loveland is helping make the Northern Front Range the beer barrel of Colorado.

Fifth-generation farmer Todd Olander and his father, Steve, have gambled on the longevity of the local craft brewing and distilling scene by building an operation that takes the barley they grow and turns it into the malt that brewers need.

Root Shoot Malting started producing its first weekly batches of malted barley in August and already has some Loveland and Denver customers and even a specialty beer brewed to showcase Root Shoot’s malt and the hops from a new Longmont company.

Malting is the process of germinating grains to develop the enzymes that convert starch to sugar and break down proteins. Beer brewers, alcohol distillers, bakers and others use malt for their products.

“We saw an opportunity in the emerging craft beer market,” Todd Olander said. “We’re putting a lot of faith in these craft brewers and distilleries that they’re going to want this product.”

Preserving the family farm

Todd is a 2006 graduate of Colorado State University who had planned on a career in construction management but returned to work the family farm within a year because he missed it.

“We’re just trying to find a niche so we can stay here and not move out east,” he said.

Todd’s great-great-grandfather, Richard Saulcy, bought land on Colo. 60 east of Campion in 1926, and the family has farmed it ever since. He and his dad work what’s left of the original 400 acres — now 140 — and lease another 1,200 acres in the area.

The Olanders grow barley, wheat, corn and alfalfa and do custom combining of corn for silage for local dairies. For 25 years they grew barley for Coors Brewing Co., which malts its own grain. Now they’re putting those two processes together themselves.

“We can control the market a little better if we control everything from the beginning to the end,” Todd said.

The equipment, the process

To get into the malting business, the Olanders built a 14,000-foot building, ordered two huge pieces of stainless-steel malting equipment from a German company, sent Todd and his brother Mikel to a two-week course in Canada and visited Italy and Germany to see the system at work and visit the manufacturer.

One end of their new building is dedicated to malting, and they have 10 grain bins outside that hold 10 metric tons (22,000 pounds) each.

The barley is piped into the building, where it goes first into the steep tank, an 18-foot-tall vessel that soaks, drains and soaks the grain again over the span of two days.

Then it’s on to the 30-foot-long germination and kiln vessel, where the barley is allowed to sprout to just the right point before it’s dried with a flow of hot air. Finally, the shoots and rootlets are blown off the dry malt, which is poured into bags — either 2,000-pound “super sacks” for holding or 50-pound bags for sale.

The process takes about a week and is almost entirely automated, with “recipes” entered into a computer, although the Olanders said they’re experimenting with adjustments to the process.

By varying the way the grain is germinated and dried, they can create different types of malt from the same variety of barley, from a dark “chocolate” malt to pale, Munich, Pilsner and many more.

The malted grain looks a lot like raw barley, but it’s easier to chew and has distinct flavors depending on the malting process.

Todd said they plan to malt wheat and possibly other grains in the future, “but we’re trying to perfect barley first.”

Root Shoot Malting will run one batch a week year-round, which Steve said will require 10 metric tons each week, or 400-plus bushels. That’s 4.5 acres of barley for a batch, or almost 300 acres to stockpile enough barley for a year.

Adding value

The drum-malting process the Olanders use produces a more uniform malt than other systems, they said. And though they charge more than the large malt suppliers, their product gives more sugar per pound.

Aaron Heaton, co-founder of Grimm Brothers Brewhouse, confirmed that the first batch of beer the Loveland brewery made with Root Shoot malt had an efficiency 5 percentage points higher than the product Grimm buys from German suppliers.

He said Root Shoot’s ability to do specialty malts and introduce brewers to different varieties of barley will help it find a niche in the local market.

“With the continued expansion of brewers over the years, it makes sense to have a local maltster,” said Heaton, who said he expects to continue buying malt from the Olanders.

Todd said the “buy-local” novelty “will wear out at some point,” and he wants to create a demand for Root Shoot malt by providing a higher-quality, more consistent product.

“I know we can grow really good barley here, so we can have a high-quality malt,” he said.

Craig Young: 970-635-3634, cyoung@reporter-herald.com, www.twitter.com/CraigYoungRH.