TOPIC:

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Fantastic, and absolutely ABOUT TIME!

So much of the US malting industry has simply adapted to the needs of the mega pisswater lager producers; it would be great to see some US Maltsters start bringing that protein content down, extract values up and focusing FLAVOR.

(Having said all of that there's more CO2 produced as a result of malting than any other stage of beer production; doing it at a smaller scale will only result in lower efficiencies and more CO2 production, so I'm torn...)


Adam

I wonder how close ICB is to be able to create support industries like that in Ireland- I'd love to get into milling and malting, and not just for the brewing industry.

I'd say we're about as far away from that sort of scenario as it's possible to be.

It would take a maverick farmer not interested in typical Irish farming to plant a maverick barley variety and invest a lot of money in malting equipment.

If someone could get the Dept of Ag involved whereby there would be grant aid or tax relief then there would be some hope.

One moderate micro, using 2 tonnes a week would probably be able to support a farmer growing about 30 acres of barley.

I saw this article, and was looking at the idea myself a while back, I really like the idea of being able to source grain here in Ireland! There are a few small maltings opening up over in the states but I really don't think the numbers would add up.

Some links for anyone with some interest:

[url:7fu3t04q]http://www.valleymalt.com/history/[/url:7fu3t04q]
[url:7fu3t04q]http://rebelmalting.com/About.php[/url:7fu3t04q]
[url:7fu3t04q]http://www.coloradomaltingcompany.com/[/url:7fu3t04q]

[url:7fu3t04q]http://www.nordicinnovation.org/Global/_Publications/Reports/2010/Nordic%20Malt%20House.pdf[/url:7fu3t04q]

I'm sure there are more but not a bad starting point...

I found this article interesting

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