Straight From The Kiln

Get the latest news in the malt world from our founders and master maltsters on our blog.

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Our 10th (!!!!) Harvest Report – 2021

Wow, the samples are starting to arrive and they look beautiful!   Each year we hold our collective breathe from late May to mid June, watching the weather and waiting for early reports on grain quality. These crucial weeks determine…
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National Homebrew Day – May 7th

Homebrewing was an integral part of our early development and we are excited to celebrate National Homebrew Day on May 7th! I started homebrewing back in Wilmington with an old 5 gallon pot and igloo cooler. I cobbled together a gravity…
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Calculating our footprint

  We launched Riverbend in 2010 with the intent of building a more sustainable supply chain for craft beer and spirits production. The first page of our website included a declaration of support for our local farmers and the planet.…
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Using a CoA for Malting and Brewing – Pt. 3

We work hard to produce consistent, quality malt. As part of this process, we send every batch to a third party lab which provides us with a full Certificate of Analysis (CoA). A recent review of a discrepancy in color, prompted an interesting…
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Craft Malt Conference – 2021

The art of creating good malt out of bad barley has not yet been discovered. Robert Free, 1888 (UK Barley Breeder) Craft Malt Conference - Summary Wow! What an exciting few days for the craft malt community! Three solid days of technical…
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Using a CoA for Malting and Brewing – Pt. 2

Inside the Matrix....Beta Glucan and Arabinoxylan 𝛃-glucan is a glucose polymer that is found in the cell walls of the endosperm. 𝛃-glucan along with another non-starch carbohydrate called arabinoxylan (or pentosan) comprise more than…
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Favorite (Lager) Beers of 2020

The beer community has been asking (begging?) since 2015 for more and different craft lagers to enter the market. Looking back at 2020, I think we got there! Was it COVID that pushed the industry to make the final leap? The ability to store…
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Using a CoA for Malting and Brewing – Pt. 1

Planning for a successful batch of malt or brew day starts with a Certificate of Analysis (CoA for short) which provides a tremendous amount of information about the malt you will be working with. In the early days, these laboratory analyses…
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Smoke Sessions – 2020

I’ll be honest, I was not a fan of smoke beers. To me, they all came in one flavor….campfire. I could pick it out of whatever I was drinking and just couldn’t get past it. Never did I go back for a second pint.   With that as…
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