About this episode

The episode discusses the importance of malt in brewing and features an interview with Andrea Stanley, co-owner of Valley Malt, about local grain sourcing.

Spending some time with beer’s raw ingredients is important. Finding out what is new, exciting, or how other brewers are utilizing them to create world class beer helps make the whole industry stronger and pints taste better. This month, we’re taking a look at malt and speaking with two industry professionals who are intimately involved in the processing and promotion of grain. Andrea Stanley is the co-owner of Valley Malt , a craft malthouse in Western Massachusetts supplying craft brewers, distillers, and bakers with locally grown malts and grain. In 2009 Andrea read an article about local farms and bakeries in the fertile CT River Valley reviving the lost art of growing and processing local grains. As an avid supporter of local food, Andrea saw an opportunity to connect this emerging local grain growing with craft brewing. She reached out to a local vegetable grower in her hometown of Hadley and convinced him to plant 25 acres of barley as a crop rotation. Initially her goal was to prove that malt barley could be successfully cultivated in Massachusetts and malted into an ingredient that local breweries would want to use. In October 2010, Andrea shoveled the first 1-Ton batch…

People in this episode

Guest: Andrea Stanley

Topics covered

• malt
• craft brewing
• local grains
• beer ingredients
• supply chain
• agriculture

Keywords

• agriculture
• malt
• craft brewing
• local grains
• Valley Malt
• beer ingredients
• supply chain

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Valley Malt

Places: Western Massachusetts, CT River Valley, Hadley

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