With more than 5,000 craft breweries in operation in the U.S., and more opening every month, breweries need to find ways to stand out from the crowd. Some do this by pushing the boundaries of styles, offering triple IPAs with rare hops, or using non‐traditional ingredients like cucumbers, hot peppers, and oysters. Others have taken note of the local food movement and source local ingredients, much like farm‐to‐table restaurants. Beer, in its simplest form, is made from water, malted barley, hops, and yeast. For a short list of ingredients, it is a challenge for breweries in many parts of the country to find local sources of hops and malted barley. Most hops production in the U.S. occurs in the Pacific Northwest although producers have established successful hops farms in the Midwest and Northeast. Similarly, most of the malting barley production in North America occurs in the Northern Great Plains. Continued growth in the craft beer industry, combined with the demand for local products, has provided an opportunity for farmers and entrepreneurs in the eastern U.S. to start producing malting barley. However, it is not as simple as a farmer planting a field of barley and selling it to a local brewer. Many malting barley varieties perform poorly east of the Mississippi River, and there are relatively few malthouses, which process raw barley into malted barley, in operation in this region.

Malting Barley In the U.S., the majority of malting barley is grown in the cool, dry climates of Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, and North Dakota. “We have hot and humid and wet summers on the East Coast, which make it difficult to grow [malting barley] successfully,” explains Aaron MacLeod, Director of the Hartwick College Center for Craft Food and Beverage. The humid, moist, conditions are perfect for Fusarium head blight to grow, and fungicides must be used to keep barley from becoming infected. Fusarium head blight produces deoxynivalenol (DON), a mycotoxin. Farmers can use fungicides to suppress Fusarium head blight, but malting barley cannot have more than one part per million of DON. Wet conditions also trigger barley to sprout in the field, and barley that has sprouted cannot be turned into malt. “We have a lot of varieties out there that [were developed for] a dry environment, and the minute that they become mature, if they get any [rain], even a heavy dew, they'll start sprouting in the field,” says Ashely McFarland, Coordinator for the Upper Peninsula Research and Extension Center at Michigan State University. As an alternative to trying to manage western varieties in the East, growers have experimented with varieties from Europe. “If you look at the French malting barley varieties and the German malting varieties, they all have dormancy,” MacLeod says. “They have to because that's what their climate is like… When we bring those varieties over here, they can work well.” Penn State researchers Greg Roth and Alyssa Collins examine European malting barley varieties at Penn State's Southeast Agricultural Research and Extension Center in Lancaster County. Photo by Kristy Borelli. This interest in growing malting barley across a wider range of climate conditions presents a new line of research for barley breeders. The Eastern Spring Barley Nursery (ESBN) experiment, which is a collaborative effort across multiple universities, was established in 2015 with a grant from the Brewers Association. ASA and CSSA member Richard Horsley, a barley breeder at North Dakota State University, is the lead researcher of the ESBN. Currently, researchers are testing 25 barley varieties across the eastern U.S. At the end of the growing season, researchers measure yield, DON levels, percent protein, and other quality traits that are of interest to both growers and brewers. The researchers hope to identify varieties that grow well in the East, but Horsley says finding varieties with pre‐harvest sprout resistance and minimal accumulation of DON are “limiting factors.” Farmers in the East also need to learn the best management practices for producing malting barley. “You're taking small‐grains growers who are familiar with winter wheat [and] other feed grains and now training them on how to grow a malting barley crop because it requires a different mind‐set,” MacLeod says. Rather than managing for maximum yield, malting barley is managed to meet criteria for malting and brewing. In addition to low DON levels, malthouses need barley that has a high germination rate, and brewers are concerned with protein levels as well as the plumpness and evenness of kernel size. Although malting barley takes more management, it can sell for approximately three times the amount of feed barley. And while the higher price point will appeal to many farmers, growers are advised to establish contracts with a malthouse before planting. “Barley is one of the few crops sold by variety name,” Horsley points out, so it is important for growers to know which varieties to plant, and what amounts are needed by the malthouse from year to year to avoid having surplus grain. In developing a local supply chain for breweries, the brewers, malthouses, and farmers need to communicate and coordinate their efforts to ensure supplies are available. Images courtesy of: (top row, l to r) Ashley McFarland and Hartwick College Center for Craft Food and Beverage; (middle row, l to r) Flickr/ Allagash Brewing and Ashley McFarland; (bottom row) Adobe Stock/ click_and_photo.

Malting Process For many craft beer consumers, the malthouse is an unseen intermediate step between the farm and brewery. Malting is controlled germination, which transforms the raw grain into malt. Barley is the most common malted grain, but others, like rye, are also malted. Malted grains are used to make more than beer, too, including whiskey, vinegar, and food products, giving start‐up malthouses more customer options than just breweries. Malting is a multi‐step process that prepares the grain for brewing. First, the grain is steeped in water to stimulate germination. This is why the germination rate for malted barley needs to be high. Germination activates enzymes, breaks down some of the protein and carbohydrates stored in the seed, and makes starch reserves accessible for conversion to sugar in the brewing process. Sugars are consumed by yeast during fermentation, converting it to alcohol and CO 2 . After several days of germination under controlled conditions, maltsters halt the germination process by kilning the grain. This heating and drying step is when maltsters can also roast the grain, to create specialty malts that brewers use to adjust color and flavor. In the past decade, there has been an increase in craft malthouse start‐ups. “There is a significant infrastructure investment that has to be made for a malthouse to be up and running—you don't just become an expert maltster overnight,” McFarland says. The recent establishment of the Craft Maltsters Guild provides a way for maltsters to connect with each other and educational resources. These independently owned operations range from using traditional methods to high‐tech systems but share a common goal of producing high quality products in small batches.