Over the past few weeks we’ve been hard at work making some much needed improvements at the malt house. The main focus (as always) has been the kiln. This little room has caused many a sleepless night for us, as there is no “textbook” method of designing, building, and operating these things at our scale. Our first design/build worked well, but didn’t give us the capacity we need to meet demand (or turn a profit!).
As any musician will tell you, there is a sweet spot where you are “in the pocket” and things just start to click……I think we are getting there! We’ve been actively producing malt just about everyday this year and the orders are starting to pile up. We’ve also got several great beers heading out to the market with our malt in them. Check it out…
Pisgah Brewing Company (Black Mountain) – Riverbend Brown available in growlers,
Last week we gave a tour to a group of students from Warren Wilson College. The students were part of an ethnobotany class taught by Jay Bost. This was a new audience for us, but it gave us a great opportunity to focus on some of the sustainability aspects of our work that are often omitted during a typical tour. We started with a brief overview of the commodity markets that control the price of grain and transitioned into the “day in the life” of a maltster routine that Brian and I have been perfecting over the past several months.
As with most things in life, everyday brings a new set of challenges in the malt house. One of the major issues we’ve been dealing with is grain raking. Specifically, how to accomplish this task without breaking our backs. As the batch sizes got bigger over the first few months, we quickly realized that our first malt rake had a tendency to float to the top of the bed after just a few feet of travel leaving the germinating barley relatively undisturbed.
A few weeks ago, I headed down to the Organic Commodity Conference held in Rocky Mount, NC, that was arranged by our friends at the Carolina Farm Stewardship Association (CFSA). This event offers a chance for farmers, scientists, policy makers, and end users to get to know one another. It also provides a great opportunity for someone with little to no farming background (like myself) to really get a feel for the market pitfalls,
» Read more about: ROAD TRIP: ORGANIC COMMODITY CONFERENCE »
Check out this great article by Anne-Fitten Glenn. Craftbeer.com asked her to expand her article about Riverbend from the Mt. Express to include other micro-maltsters across the country. We are a small group, but each of us has the same goal….to produce an artisan product that supports our local farmers.
Read all about it here.
So this is pretty exciting news! We have been working the folks over at Arcade Asheville on a special beer release to celebrate their 1st anniversary on New Year’s Eve. That evening we will be releasing the first kegs of “8-bit Ale” to the public starting at 5PM.
The “8-bit” name was chosen in honor of the early Nintendo game console that we all grew up playing…..you know the one I’m talking about.
Looking for a unique gift for the homebrewer on your list? How about some local malt to brew with?
We just dropped off a fresh batch of malt at 2 Asheville homebrew shops. Please check out Asheville Brewers Supply on Merrimon Avenue or Fifth Seasonon Banks Avenue (downtown). Both of these shops can tell you all you need to know about working with our 6-row barley.
Just our way of helping you get into the Christmas spirits!
Last week I got a phone call from the good folks at the Blue Ridge Distilling Company based in Golden Valley, North Carolina. We started talking about local grain production, craft distilling, and the challenges of running a small business. By the time the conversation was over, we were both excited about the idea of producing local spirits, and I made plans to visit their facility the following day. I also realized that I had a fair bit of googling to do!
