Every year, we take time to identify some of our favorite beers we tried and why they stood out to us. In 2025, breweries across the Southeast collaborated on fundraiser beers made with Riverbend malt for causes they cared about. We were inspired to see so many of these initiatives, and delighted to support at brew days and with malt donations. Thank y’all for inviting us to be a part of these awareness and fundraising efforts. 

Beers For Helene Relief

Hurricane relief is still ongoing across Western North Carolina. To do our part, we worked with our friends at Big Pillow Brewing, Whaley Farm Brewery, and Leveller Brewing on beers that raised needed funds for disaster recovery. 

We were happy to donate Czech-Style Pilsner and Double Kilned Munich malts for a collaboration by Big Pillow Brewing and Black Mountain Brewing when Big Pillow was able to re-open after Hurricane Helene with this Czech Amber was pouring on their first night. 

Whaley Farm Brewery was able to re-open with small batch beers on draft in June of this year. We were more than happy to send some malt to help restart their operation and are huge fans of Chris’s American Bitter recipe that was made with Riverbend Southern Select.

Leveller Brewing Co. Pearletta, a Saison made with an array of Riverbend malts including Honey Malt and Munich Rye, was released at a benefit for ReString Appalachia. This thoughtful group raised money to put quality instruments back in the hands of those who lost them in Hurricane Helene.

Beers For Soil Health

 

Props to our friends at Fullsteam Brewery, who became the world’s first Certified Regenified™ brewery this year! Their investment in soil health and conscious farming practices has been a part of their plow to pint ethos from their start. In 2025, Fullsteam crafted their Reset: ESB and Reset: Oktoberfest with our Certified Regenified Southern Select malt. The Reset series is a line of classic, true-to-style beers brewed with 100% North Carolina malt.

More Beers For Good 

We collaborated with Greenville, South Carolina’s new Wild Yarrow Brewing Co. on Spirit Moves crafted in support of the Michael Jackson Foundation for Brewing and Distilling. It’s a Hazy IPA made with Riverbend Southern Select, Hull & Oats, and Appalachian Wheat rich with notes of peach rings, raspberry, watermelon candy, and mango. 

The second annual Craft Malt Month inspired festbier collaborations with Printshop Beer Co. and Lookout Brewing. Printshop channeled the spirit of traditional German brewing with old-school production techniques! Fermented with the traditional 3470 German lager strain, naturally carbonated to retain more malt flavor, and then lagered to craft a smooth, clean brew, this festbier balances flavor and drinkability.⁠ Lookout’s expression of the season had hop additions that give it a refreshing, tropical twist. Proceeds from both beers were donated to the Craft Maltsters Guild.⁠

Veteran owned breweries from across the Southeast— Wild Heart Brewing, Scuffle Hill Brewing, Over The Horizon Brewing, Forgotten Road Ales, Seminar Brewing, and Surf City Brew Co. — created a Veteran’s Day collaboration double dry hopped hazy called ‘DDH-214’, a play on the term DD-214 that indicates a Veteran has departed from service. ⁠The grist on this collaboration was made with Riverbend Avalon Pilsner, Base Camp, Appalachian Wheat, Hull & Oats, and some Great Chit malt, and all proceeds will be donated to Fisher House Charleston.

What were your standout beers of 2025 that were made with Riverbend malt? Submit them here to be featured.

One year ago, Hurricane Helene shook the communities of Western North Carolina with irrevocable damage. At Riverbend, we lost power in our facility and subsequently a great deal of malt product— but we were lucky. Our incredible team stayed safe from the storm, and showed up diligently to help us create a new normal. Once the lights were back on, we were able to donate this unusable malt to farmers for feed and compost. 

Hurricane Helene seemed to fall away from the 24-hour news cycle as quickly as it arrived. We think it’s important to note that for months afterwards, many of our customers worked tirelessly on repairing their facilities, rebuilding their income, and reconnecting with their teams. Everyone in the area felt the impact. To name just a few of the companies that have demonstrated this resilience, we tip our hats to Hillman Beer, who had significant damage at their Old Fort location; to Whaley Farm Brewery, who rebuilt their entire building in time to celebrate three years in business.

Many of our customers and partners— too many to name here without writing the world’s longest blog post— facilitated heroic relief efforts. The River Arts District Brewing Company offered hot meals and supplies to anyone in need for weeks; Oak & Grist Distilling Co. transformed into a potable water station to support their neighbors; Walnut Grove Farms and ASR Grain Company shipped truckload after truckload of supplies to Asheville and nearby areas. Cellarest Beer Project also offered supplies and meals to their neighbors, and now in gratitude for Blue Ridge Public Radio’s coverage and updates in Hurricane Helene’s aftermath will match 100% of station donations in their taproom throughout the month of September to help them recoup losses from federal funding cuts. 

 

Hurricane Helene Relief Beers 

Also in the wake of Hurricane Helene, we worked with many breweries to provide malt for beers to benefit our community. DSSOLVR’s Higher Calling project and North Carolina Brewers Guild’s Pouring for Neighbors provided the springboard to have those conversations. As the beers made their way to taprooms across the nation, we felt kinship with the broader community. 

Whether our customers crafted these relief beers, or simply just continued purchasing our malt— they made a tremendous difference in our ability to support our team and community over this past year. Again, we don’t have enough room to acknowledge everyone, but we’ll thank a few of them like Sierra Nevada, Lookout Brewing, and Riverside Rhapsody for their continued and consistent purchasing. 

 

Visit Asheville

Asheville and the greater WNC area are heavily reliant upon tourism, which has seen expected decline since Hurricane Helene. Billy Strings blessed us with a two week residency in February, providing a huge economic boost to the small businesses throughout downtown. The music community also fanned out to support those that had lost their instruments in the flood through the work of Restring Appalachia. These efforts help preserve the old time music that has been passed down for generations throughout the region.

As spring opened up, businesses slowly began to see increased foot traffic and sales. Local leaders arranged for outdoor art markets in the reclaimed spaces throughout the River Arts District and the residences responded. The Explore Asheville group has also been hard at work engaging media far and wide to help us convey the message that we are open for business, and could use your support now more than ever. Big thanks to journalists like Joshua Bernstein and Jenn Rice for lending their influential voices to this narrative. 

Now, the majority of the Blue Ridge Parkway has reopened and craft breweries in Asheville are celebrating Oktoberfest all across town. With a long and vibrant leaf season ahead, predicted to peak late in October, now is the perfect time to plan your trip to the area. If you’re headed this way, please give us a shout. We love malt house visitors!

 

Looking Ahead

No doubt the weeks ahead will bring tears for those we lost, but also continued hope for the future. Our community has rallied to support one another in so many powerful ways and has made great strides towards a recovery that we now know will take years to achieve. The people of Western NC are no strangers to carrying the weight of rebuilding on their backs. They responded after the Flood of 1916,  and more recently with Hurricane Ivan in 2004. The scars took years to heal, but the rebirth served to strengthen our commitment to the land and our neighbors. 

Hurricane Helene will be no different., We will rise again.

Please take a moment to learn about and support these organizations still working to rebuild WNC.

BeLoved Asheville

Samaritan’s Purse

North Carolina Craft Brewers Guild

Since the inception of Riverbend Malt House, we have been learning how to work with what grows in the South to produce not just high-quality beers, but also spirits. This exploration has plunged us into the often polarizing conversation about distillers malt. What is distillers malt? What’s the optimal enzymatic content for converting starch, and how does that vary across styles of spirits? 

The answers to these questions usually vary depending on who you ask.

Our deep dive started with 6-row Thoroughbred barley that was originally intended to feed cattle rather than fill mash tuns. Working with our farm partners and honing our craft helped elevate this humble ingredient into award-winning whiskey!

As the quest for a truly local Bourbon recipe intensifies, we find ourselves at yet another inflection point. Our current 2-row barley varieties offer a strong enzyme package and great flavor,but not quite what large-scale distillers require. For example, we can push diastatic power levels to the 170-180 range, distillers malt spec is >250. On the alpha amylase front, distillers usually look for >85, and we have landed in the 65-70 range.

Why the enormous appetite for enzymes in distillers malt, you ask? 

Well, they often use as little as 5% malt in their recipes, which puts a tremendous amount of pressure on the enzymes to convert a large amount of starch into fermentable sugar in a short amount of time. This is compounded by the intricate production schedules that can include dozens of active fermentations and processing in column stills that require constant “feeding”.

A simple question was posed: Can we make up for the lack of enzymes by adding a bit more malt to the recipe? This would allow the finished spirit to remain very much in the realm of the legally defined Bourbon, but also allow for 100% of the ingredients to be sourced locally.

We partnered with our friends at End of Days Distillery to test the limits of our Speakeasy Distillers Malt, comparing it to the well-known Metcalfe spring barley sourced from traditional barley-growing regions of the Pacific Northwest.

At EOD, we made three batches of Bourbon. Equal amounts of Speakeasy and Metcalfe were utilized in each to determine a performance baseline. The third batch used twice as much Speakeasy and less raw corn, with the hope that spirit yield and starting gravity would surpass, or at least equal, that of the Metcalfe batch. 

 

Recipes:

Batch #1

75% raw corn

13% raw rye

12% Metcalfe distillers malt

Batch #2

75% raw corn

13% raw rye

12% Riverbend Speakeasy

Batch #3

63% raw corn

13% raw rye

24% Riverbend Speakeasy

The Results

Batch #1 had a OG of 1.071 

Batch #2 had a OG of 1.076

Batch #3 had a OG of 1.073

The results were inconclusive, but were not supportive of the “more Speakeasy” approach. After talking with Harmonie Bettenhausen of the James B Beam Institute and Campbell Morrissy from pFriem Family Brewers, we learned that enzymes don’t scale linearly— especially in a high-adjunct environment. When you’re working with raw grains like corn and rye that don’t contribute enzymes, you’re depending entirely on your malt to do several things – 

Break down protein matrices around starch granules (proteolytic activity), break down structural carbohydrates like β-glucans (viscosity control), and convert liberated starch into fermentable sugars (amylase action). If a malt isn’t strong enough enzymatically, adding more of it can actually flood the mash with starch that never gets fully broken down— so you’re adding extract potential, but not the keys needed to unlock it. That’s what we likely saw in Batch 3:  more Speakeasy distillers malt = more starch available, but not more sugar in solution.

While not exactly the news we wanted, these experts proposed another route to achieve better conversion” a “pre malt” addition in which 10 to 20% of the total malt utilized is strategically placed to do some early enzymatic heavy lifting before the cook. Using the pre-malt at a low-temp rest helps to unlock the starches in the corn and rye when they’re added later, especially when no exogenous enzymes are used. By adding the pre-malt at around 125–135°F before adding corn to the cook (and raising the temp), they’re setting up to get better gelatinization and make the most of the malt’s enzyme package later in the mash/cook.

We’ll share results from our next round of trials in Part 2. Stay tuned for more information!

 

Got a question about Riverbend Speakeasy distillers malt? Give us a shout.

 

Maibock season has arrived, and in 2025 we’ve noticed an uptick in the number of Maibocks we’re seeing out there. This beer style is a brewer’s favorite, and often what we reach for in early spring when the evenings are still crisp. We’re ready for patio beers, but need something with a bit more heft than traditional Pilsners or Mexican Lagers. Thankfully, the Maibock is here to fill that gap in the “shoulder” season.

Also referred to as a Heller or Pale Bock, this style typically clocks in at an elevated ABV of at least 6%. Its color is burnished gold. Medium bodied with a thick, rocky head. Classic noble hop character, courtesy of Tettnang andor Hallertauer is present but not nearly as assertive as a Pilsner.

This history of Maibock dates back to the 1600’s in Einbeck, Germany. Legend has it that the royal court was dissatisfied with the quality of the beer being produced and requested something new and stronger. This request drove the development of the Maibock that soon began to symbolize the coming of spring across Germany and is often released at annual May Day celebrations.

It should be noted that true Pale Malt was not available in the 1600’s, so the actual color of these early examples can be, and is, debated. Pale Malt was not available until the 1700’s coinciding with the advent of coke fired kilns. These techniques were further refined in the 1800’s with the “classic” Pilsner malts not making an appearance until the 1840’s. This is notable because the vast majority of examples produced today rely on Pilsner malt as their base grain. In short, the Maibock of today may bear little resemblance to the original recipe… but we digress.

What makes a great Maibock?

Just like a great Festbier, balance is the key to the Maibock beer style. A complex, malty body must be balanced by sufficient carbonation and hop presence that serve as palette cleansers. Clean lager yeast allows for a layered malt backbone to shine. Notes of airy sugar cookies, honey, and bread crust blend seamlessly before giving way to a crisp, herbaceous finish.

Okay, now we’re thirsty! Here are some Maibocks made with Riverbend malt to track down this spring. 

 

Salt Face Mule Birdie – Asheville, NC

This lovely example of the Maibock style utilizes our Avalon Pilsner malt, which contributes a touch of ripe melon to the complex blend of sweet aromatics, rich biscuity flavors, and a smooth, clean finish.

Southern Hops Murrells Inlet Culture Shock Maibock – Florence, SC

This Maibock features Cumberland Pilsner and Southern Select for a softer, breadier base that is complemented by both our Light and Dark Munich malts. 

Timber Waters Brewing Oxbow Maibock Lager – Littleton, NC

Fresh melon character from our Avalon Pilsner malt leads the way in this Maibock, balanced by a healthy dose of Light Munich, Vienna, and Great Chit that provide plenty of sweet aromatics. Oxbow Maibock Lager is hopped with Hallertau and Tettnang hops, lagered for two months prior to packaging, and naturally carbonated. “We thought the name was fitting as an oxbow lake is a phenomenon that happens when a crescent-shaped lake is formed from a Riverbend,” says Les Atkins, the Director of Communications/Community Engagement at Timber Waters Brewing. 

Big Lick Brewing Thanks Easter Bunny! Bock! Bock! – Roanoake, VA

This small-batch Maibock arrived just in time for Easter, and now it’s only available while supplies last. It boasts toasty notes with a hint of spicy Saaz hops to give it a nice German flair. 

 

Have you recently brewed a Maibock with Riverbend malt? Submit it to our Made With Riverbend page so we can get it added to this blog post!

 

Chit malt is barley that has started germinating but has not yet fully sprouted. It’s used in brewing to enhance enzymatic activity, which helps break down starches during mashing, making the malt more fermentable. This style of malt was originally developed to sidestep the Reinheitsgebot regulations in Germany.

At Riverbend, we use Southern-grown 2-row barley coupled with a brief germination stage and gentle kilning regime to create our chit malt. This highly under-modified malt can serve as a great substitute for raw grains and dextrin malts in your brew. When using our Great Chit malt, you can expect increased head retention and improved mouthfeel in everything from light lagers to hazy IPAs.

Exceptional craft brewers across the Southeast use Riverbend Great Chit as the ‘secret sauce’ in amplifying their recipes. Check out some of their mainstays—

 

SOUTH MAIN BREWING HAZY LAGER – WATKINSVILLE, GA

Hazy Lager is a delicious brew from South Main Brewing that defies categorization in the best ways. It combines the bold, hoppy flavors of an IPA with the clean, crisp finish of a lager. It’s lighter in alcohol than your typical IPA, but features the same soft palate as a hazy. Brewed with a variety of Riverbend malts, including Great Chit of course, and hopped with 100% Citra hops, Hazy Lager is perfect for those who enjoy hoppy beers with that refreshing lager finish.

 

MOUNTAIN LAYERS BREWING COMPANY PRE-PROHIBITION LAGER – BRYSON CITY, NC 

Mountain Layers Pre-Prohibition Lager offers rustic, grassy malt aromas with a savory hint of sweet corn, followed by a clean, crisp, and neutral palate complemented by a firm supporting bitterness. Brewed with 100% Riverbend malt, including Cumberland Corn, and, of course, Great Chit! It’s then hopped with Hallertau Mittelfrüh and Crystal hops for a well-rounded finish.

 

FIREFORGE CRAFTED BEER DAY ON THE LAKE – GREENVILLE, SC

Day on the Lake is an easy drinking German-style Pilsner from Fireforge Crafted Beer. Riverbend Chesapeake Pilsner, Vienna, and Great Chit malts provide this brew a sturdy malt backbone before a generous amount of noble Hallertau Mittelfrüh, Saaz, and Tradition hops are added, giving this refreshing brew flavors of fresh-baked bread and delicate herbal spices. The name says it all— the perfect beer for a relaxing day spent relaxing by or on the water!

 

GREAT RAFT BREWING SHOW PONY BOHEMIAN-STYLE PILSNER – SHREVEPORT, LA

Brewed in the German Kellerbier style, Show Pony is an unfiltered lager that delivers a smooth, refreshing experience with every sip. Riverbend Chesapeake Pilsner and Great Chit malts add a clean, biscuity flavor, while the Tettnanger hops contribute a delicate floral nose and peppery nuance that noble hops are known for. Show Pony is easy-drinking and sure to please.

 

WEATHERED GROUND BREWERY LITTLE GRAZER GRISSETTE – COOL RIDGE, WEST VIRGINIA

This Grissette, or Table Beer, is a light, wheat-forward brew made with 60-65% wheat. It’s full of Saison yeast character and a touch of hop bitterness. Riverbend Cumberland Pilsner and Great Chit malts are complemented by hop additions of East Kent Goldings and Tettnanger hops. With a light straw color and slight haze, it has a thick white head, a lemony aroma, and a dry, flavorful profile of bready grain, citrus, and spice. 

Weathered Ground’s head brewer Anthony Meador recently shared his love of Great Chit malt in the West Virginia craft beer focused publication Brilliant Stream: “We also have become a big fan of Riverbend’s Great Chit malt… It just really helps out everything we use it in.”