Root Shoot's Malt Cup Madness: 15 Medals and Counting...

This past weekend, on March 1st, 2025 the Craft Maltsters Guild hosted the 7th annual Craft Malt Cup and Root Shoot continued its winning streak! If malt had an Olympic team, we’d be waving a flag right now. For the seventh straight year, Root Shoot has medaled at the Malt Cup, making us the only malthouse to do so since the competition began. That’s 15 medals total since 2019, spread over 9 different varieties of malt we make.

The Malt Cup is no joke. Hosted by the Craft Maltsters Guild, this is the only competition in the world focused solely on craft malt. Think of it like the Grammys, but for grain. This year’s competition had a total of 8 malt style categories: Pilsen, Pale, Vienna, Light Munich, Wheat, Caramel plus two new categories including Distillers Malt and Unique & Interesting. There were a total of 112 entries from across the world, with 34 malthouses participating, 7 countries, 14 states, 41 grain varieties, 7 grain types, and 97 judges.

Malts go through a rigorous evaluation process, including sensory feedback, quality analysis, and an overall “do brewers and distillers actually love this?” assessment. Judges—who include malting experts, brewers, distillers, Cicerones and academics—used tools like the Base Malt Flavor Map and the Hot Steep Method to break down each entry’s analytic and sensory qualities.

If your malt gets a medal here, you know it’s the real deal.

The Guild’s Craft Malt Cup is a malt competition geared toward small, craft operations like ours. It allows entrants to compete against one another on a level playing field and is helping the entire industry build credibility around the quality of craft malt as we work to expand its role in brewing.

It’s also just fun. We get to put up our best malts for evaluation, then sit back, nervously await the results, and learn about what other malthouses in the country (and the rest of the world!) are doing. This year, the winning entries came from a huge geographical spread, ranging from California to Maine, and Colorado (ahem…) to Australia. Australia! Now that’s cool. When the Craft Malt Conference is held in Australia, we’ll definitely go.

And so, this year, nestled with our team in downtown Denver, we found out that we earned our 12th Craft Malt Cup medal, and then our 13th, 14th, and 15th! Our Distillers Malt (Light Munich 4) took GOLD, our Munich 10 took SILVER, our CaraRuby took SILVER, and our Munich Wheat took BRONZE! Now, that’s worth a toast!

This year’s win makes us the only malthouse nationally or internationally to medal in every year that the competition has taken place. We’re proud of that fact. Ultimately, however, we are even more proud of the craft malt industry as a whole.

Sure, we love winning (who doesn’t?), but these medals mean more than just bragging rights. They belong to the land we farm, the soil we care for, and the grains we grow with intention. Every bag of malt we produce starts on our farm, where sustainability and traceability are more than just buzzwords—they’re the backbone of everything we do.

Brewing and distilling aren’t just about making drinks. They’re about telling stories, creating experiences, and building community. When you use Root Shoot malt, you’re not just getting top-tier ingredients—you’re supporting a transparent, sustainable supply chain that starts with our hands in the dirt.

So, for this month of “Malt Madness” we hope you’ll join us in thanking our team. From maltsters to drivers, farmers to packagers, they work incredibly hard to keep this business running smoothly and successfully.

We’ll bask in the glory for a minute (okay, maybe two), but then it’s back to work. The future of craft malt is bright, and we’re just getting started. Whether it’s refining our processes, launching new malts, or continuing our commitment to sustainability, we’re here for the long haul.

Pour a glass, raise a toast and cheers to another year of making great malt and great memories. Now, if you’ll excuse us, we have a trophy shelf to expand.

Cheers,

—Your Root Shoot Team

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Huge congrats to our fellow 2025 medalists and maltsters raising the bar:

  • Pilsner (20 entries)

    • Gold: Red Shed Malting

    • Silver: Cascadia Malt

    • Bronze: Montana Craft Malt

  • Pale (13 entries)

    • Gold: Voyager Craft Malt

    • Silver: Red Shed Malting

    • Bronze: Two Track Malting

  • Vienna (13 entries)

    • Gold: Admiral Maltings

    • Silver: Murmuration Malts

    • Bronze: North Dakota Malthouse

  • Light Munich (12 entries)

    • Gold: Blue Ox Malthouse

    • Silver: Root Shoot Malting (Munich 10): Toasty, deep amber, and smooth. If malts had personalities, this one would be the friend who always brings a fancy cheese plate to the party.

    • Bronze: Two Track Malting

  • Wheat (15 entries)

    • Gold: Linc Malt

    • Silver: South Fork Malthouse

    • Bronze: Admiral Maltings

  • Caramel (11 entries)

    • Gold: Blue Ox Malthouse

    • Silver: Root Shoot Malting (CaraRuby): A caramel malt that brings warmth and sweetness. Basically, the dessert of malts.

    • Bronze: New York Craft Malthouse

  • Distillers Malt (9 entries)

    • Gold: Root Shoot Malting (Light Munich 4): The perfect balance of fermentability and malt character. If you’re making spirits, this is the MVP.

    • Silver: Troubadour Maltings

    • Bronze: Cascadia Malt

  • Unique & Interesting (19 entries)

    • Gold: Grouse Malting (millet)

    • Silver: Red Shed Malting (barley)

    • Bronze: Root Shoot Malting (Munich Wheat): A bold, nutty twist on wheat malt. Because why be ordinary when you can be unique?

    • Honorable Mention: Voyager (rye)

  • Best of Show: Blue Ox Malthouse

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Root Shoot Malting’s Overall Award-Winning Malts:

Be(er) Our Valentine

From your favorite malthouse in Loveland, our very own Adam Gurtshaw crafted FOUR malt-forward, valentine-themed beer recipes just for YOU. Featuring Root Shoot malts, these recipes are sure to give you a grain crush! Planning to brew one? Let us know, and we’ll happily join you in the brewhouse!

Plus, every malt order placed in February will include some sweet pallet surprises! Reach out to sales(at)rootshootmalting.com to place your next malt order.

Eight Years of Beers // Field Day 2024 Fun Facts (and Photos!)

We never truly got a chance to say thank you!

To each and every one of you who came out to celebrate EIGHT years with us…and those who helped Field Day happen!

So if one of us Root-Shooters didn’t make it over to you personally to say thanks for joining us, we apologize. And…thank you so much! We wanted to take a minute this month to make sure to give some shout-outs and share some of the fun, and the fun facts from our big day!

But first, beer!

Beer is at the heart of Field Day and we had SO MUCH good beer! A huge thank you to Verboten, Bent Barley, Wynkoop, Station 26, Knuckle Puck, Los Dos Cerveceria, Bruz, Barquentine, Zwei, and Avant Garde, for giving us some killer kegs to put on tap! And so many more breweries that brought cans to share!

A few beery fun facts:

The Mexican Lager from Los Dos was the first 1/2 barrel to kick

Zwei’s Blanch Dubois Pale Ale was the favorite on tap, and…

Talnua’s Continnum Cask Whiskey was selected as the second (annual) Field Day Favorite craft beverage winner, by the previous winner Cy at Timnath Beerwerks. Which leads us to the next fun fact…Root Shoot has a traveling Field Day award….a handmade didgeridoo (seriously!) from Kjell Wygant at Two22 that will live at Talnua for the next year, until it goes to someone new next Field Day.

A spirited good time!

Craft malt isn’t just for beer, and the whiskey and canned cocktails at Field Day were a huge hit. Samplings from The Family Jones, Talnua, and Abbott and Wallace helped warm our bellies as the night cooled off. If you haven’t yet been to all of their tasting rooms, we highly recommend you schedule some field trips. They’re the perfect place to be as fall settles in!

Root Shoot Spirits provided our American Single Malt Whiskey and we now must say that the Dazzling Ice Shot Luge is our new favorite thing.

Fine Food!

Did you even see that charcuterie board??

Wander and Graze out of Denver knocked it out of the park (field!)

If you’re having an event, you should totally hit Shelby up!

Our friends, partners, and the all-around fantastic people at Six Capital Brewing and BBQ and Golden Toad did an amazing job prepping and seasoning over 350 hamburgers, all the sides, and they even brought beer, too! It was service with a smile, good spirit, and even a little singing.

How best to top off a good meal? With Little Man Ice Cream, of course.

Food fun fact: Every single burger served was from Olander Farms, born and raised just down the road from Field Day by Farmer Steve.

And, oh, the music!

The One and Only Jon Ham has been a musical fixture at Field Day for years, now and the amazing vocals from Angie Stevens and the Beautiful Wreck (with her friend and Root Shoot’s own Christian Roberts) we were pinching ourselves as we watched a concert in a field of conserved farmland with spectacular views of the Front Range… (minus the wind!). Thanks for sticking around to listen to Songbird Duo rock out all night!

High fives!

The Waggener family, you rock! The Waggener Farm is such a magical place and we are so grateful for their family’s commitment to protecting agriculture in the Front Range. Jake Waggener and Jane Vielehr were gracious enough to not only provide our backdrop for Field Day, but they sponsored our delicious food!

Volunteers, you rock! This event is made possible because of YOU! Many thanks for pouring beers, slapping on wrist bands, flipping hamburgers, harvesting barley, and donating your time. Check out the antique harvest photos below!

Donors, you rock! Wow! To those of you who are sporting some new Root Shoot swag, wear it proud! Your donations towards merchandise and all tips are greatly appreciated. These funds will be used towards future Field Day events!

Thank you for celebrating EIGHT years of craft malt with us!

If it weren’t for you, we wouldn’t be us. Cheers to eight years of friends, fun, and the craft malt community! We’d love to hear feedback from the event, so we can continue to make it a successful Field Day for years to come. Please fill out this FEEDBACK FORM.

Enjoy photos from the day, courtesy of Emily Sierra Photography.

Same As It Ever Was

Remember studying the Nile River and ancient Egypt in school?

It’s the stuff of legends for elementary school students: huge pyramids, lion-looking sphynx, and images of strange creatures, humans with animal heads, [carved into rock. Always, in these primary lessons of world history, time is spent studying the Nile. The longest river in the world! Its annual flooding provided rich soil! Ancient Egyptians were master farmers even building irrigation systems to water their crops!

In fact, the ancient Egyptions dug a systems of canals to irrigate their crops. They build reservoirs to hold water to feed these canals. Then they built gates to control the water flow and…

Wait, just one second.

Five thousand years later and half a world away, this is all starting to sound quite familiar.

Over the millennia that humans have been farming, amazing advances have been made. From understanding soil health to managing pests, from the discovery of the role key elements play in growing healthy crops to plant breeding for specific characteristics in labs, we have tools at hand today that the ancient world would never have imagined. We can grow plants in simple water solutions (hydroponics.) We can grow plants on top of tubs of fish (aquaponics.) We have AI weeding machines, half-million dollar tractors, and grain elevators the size of skyscrapers.

Yet one thing that has remained stubbornly the same is the concept of flood irrigation. Take a water source - a river or reservoir, say. Dig a ditch off of it to route water where you want it to go. Install some gates to reduce or increase flow. Then direct that water to your field, and run it down pre-made furrows between your crops.

It is, in all ways that matter, exactly the same as it was five thousand years ago.

There’s something oddly comforting in that. A connection to both the generations of farmers who preceded us, developing, honing, and passing on their craft. And a connection to the land. An understanding that as smart and resourceful as humans are, sometimes getting work done means simply getting muddy, getting wet, and battling the impressively powerful determination of water to go where it wants to go, ditches, canals, and dams…be damned.

Times are changing, slowly.

We’ve moved most of our fields off the flood irrigation system and replaced them with pivots, which use less water and require less hands-on work, both important characteristics when running a family farm in an arid climate. Overall, we’ve managed to get all but about 5% of fields under pivots greatly reducing our water usage and the labor required to keep our crops growing.

Pivots cost much more money, however. They require more infrastructure, and can only be placed in fields where the size and the shape allow for them.

Pivots won’t work everywhere. And so, for those fields that don’t fit them, for the corners that they can’t reach, for the years we can’t afford them…

We’ll slip on our boots and grab our shovels. We’ll cut a gate made of plywood and cover it with a tarp. We’ll traipse out to the field (every 12 hours, religiously) to move the pipe, check the flow, and repair any leaks. We’ll stand in the sunset and water, evaluate the progress of our crops, and pray for a good season.

The same as generations before us. The same as farmers thousands of years ago. The same across fields throughout the world.

The same as it ever was.













Where Does (Our) Water Come From?

It’d be great if it rained water from the sky.

Rumor has it that that actually happens in parts of the country. Word is, that there are areas so wet and humid that farmers can actually grow crops using nothing but soil, sun, and water that - apparently - just comes on its own. Just falls from the clouds without pivots, ditches, or pipes.

Must be amazing. ‘Round here, we’ve never heard of such a thing.

A bit of an exaggeration? Perhaps. It does rain here, of course. Sometimes too much in spring. And often our Colorado rain is accompanied by an impressive round of Colorado hail, which is precisely the type of precipitation we don’t want. Yet even in the wettest years, the reality is that we live in an arid climate.

The average annual precipitation for our farm’s area is just shy of 16 inches per year and, as most of that does not come in the dead of summer, there are precious few crops that can grow without supplemental water. Thus, we rely on our irrigation system.

Water in the West, the policies that govern it, and the system of rivers, irrigation ditches, pipes, and pivots that make it happen are incredibly complex issues. When we, as farmers water our barley or fill tanks for livestock, we represent the final destination of a long journey for each gallon of water that pours from our pipes. In our case, that journey begins in the high country of Colorado and ends, (hopefully!) with a pint glass of beer (or a snifter of spirits) in your hand.

At Olander Farms, our irrigation water comes from two ditch systems, the Handy and the Home Supply ditches, and both originate from the Big Thompson River. If you’ve ever been up Highway 34 to the Dam Store, that’s “our” dam. If you haven’t seen it up close and personal, it looks like this photo.

The three compartments you see on the lefthand side are three headgates for the Handy Ditch, the ditch that supplies the majority of our water. A little further down the river, the Home Supply has a similar set up.

Each of the three gates can be opened, closed, or adjusted to let out a specific amount of cubic feet of water per second (CFS). The water then runs down a long flume, into a ditch and then meanders all the way from the dam through west Loveland, into Berthoud and lands in the Welch Reservoir. Along the way, it feeds properties along the upper ditch.

After a brief respite in the Welch Reservoir, a second series of ditches pulls the water through the lower ditches including ours, feeding additional properties east of the reservoir. Eventually, the ditch peters out past Johnstown.

Water in the West is so valuable that it’s frequently referred to as “liquid gold” and, as is the case with any valuable commodity, it’s highly regulated. Overseen by the Department of Natural Resources, the state employs a system of engineers and water commissioners to ensure that the water drawn from rivers and ditches gets where it needs to go…and that no sketchy shenanigans siphon it off elsewhere. Water users must own water rights, and those rights come at a cost - often tens of thousands of dollars per share.

Once water hits the ditches (many more exist outside of the Handy and Home Supply that we use) ditch companies oversee the management and distribution. Key players in this process are the ditch riders, personnel who go out and “ride” every inch of ditch, cleaning, maintaining, inspecting, repairing, and keeping an eye on this as the water flows.

It’s an old profession. Irrigation ditches have been used in our state long before we even were a state. And while some technology has changed - flow is monitored electronically now, and ditch riders use pickup trucks rather than horses - the vast majority of the ditch infrastructure remains largely the same as it has been since its inception: tradition, in liquid form, flowing from the mountains to our fields, to your beer and whiskey.

Cheers!

-Your Olander Farms team

Field Notes for Farm Nerds: So Many Seeds

Often in our posts, you’ll see us drop farm lingo about what we’re doing and, in springtime, (like now!) what we’re planting. One frequent source of confusion in all that lingo is the difference between all the seed types we plant. We’ll reference our “non-GMO distiller’s corn.” Or tout this year’s, “heirloom Hopi corn.” Some seed is “treated” other seed is “untreated” and, in the end…it makes a farmer’s head spin. If our heads are spinning, we figure you non-farmer folk probably just learn to ignore our farm babble sometimes. Sorry about that.

So, this edition of Field Notes for Farm Nerds: clearing up all this seedy business.

Here’s the scoop on the seeds we sow!

Treated Seed: These seeds have been treated in some manner to reduce the incidence of seed or soil-borne pathogens. Typically, this means the seeds have been treated with a pesticide, fungicide, or preservative and as such, treated seeds are not usually used in organic farming.

Untreated Seed: Exactly as it sounds, these are seeds that have not been treated with a pesticide, fungicide, or preservative. While arguably cleaner and permitted in organic farming, these seeds may have more disease or pest pressure.

Organic Seed: Organic seeds are seeds that have been grown on a certified organic farm that uses certified organic methods. Officially, that is the only definition of organic seed. If you’re growing your own seed in your own garden using organic methods…it’s still not organic seed unless you’re a federally certified organic grower. Over time, however, “organic” has come to be a catch-all term for produce (and seeds!) that are grown without the use of synthetic inputs such as pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides.

Non-GMO: These are seeds that have not been genetically modified meaning, more specifically, the DNA of the organism has not been artificially altered. For us, as farmers who grow corn, this is an important distinction to be aware of as we choose our crops. Corn has commercially available GMO and non-GMO options. But if you’re a home gardener…don’t sweat it. GMO seeds aren’t available to you. In fact, even commercially, there are only 9 crops that have GMO varieties available to farmers: corn, soybeans, cotton, alfalfa, sugar beets, canola, papaya, squash, and potato.

Psst…all that distiller’s corn we’re growing? It’s non-GMO AND un-treated!

Heirloom Seed: Heirloom seed mean it’s old, and it’s been passed down through generations in a traditional manner. There is no single standard definition of how old a variety has to be to be heirloom. The minimum accepted rule of thumb is 50 years. Some argue 75 years. Heirloom seeds play an important role in maintaining the genetic diversity of food, and keeping crops in the rotation that, while they may not be picture-perfect or the highest-yielding varieties, posses unique genetics.

Variety is the spice of life, as they say, and maintaining genetic variety in a food system is the key to surviving the next plant plague. The Irish potato famine? That’s what happens when an agricultural ecosystem doesn’t have healthy variety.

All of these seed distinctions don’t necessarily stand alone. A seed could, for example, be an heirloom organic seed. Or a treated GMO seed. Or a non-treated GMO, a treated non-GMO, an organic, untreated seed…and the combinations continue almost ad-infinitum.

The skinny?

We’ve got a little bit of it all. Though, no GMO crops in any foodstuffs!

Different strokes for different folks.

Different seeds for different needs, growing this family farm, one plant at a time.

Worm Tea

Cup of worm tea, anyone?

Served up with a tasty crash course in composting, perhaps? 

Yes? Oh, we’re so glad you accepted! You’ll just have to hang on a year or so.

Welcome to Farmers Todd and Steve’s latest regenerative project: a Johnson-Su bioreactor.

It sure sounds fancy, doesn’t it? Like something straight out of an Austin Powers film, right up there with “sharks with laser beams attached to their heads.”  But as much as it might evoke something high-tech and sci-fi-worthy, it’s really just…a pile of organic matter and some worms. But before we dive into worms, let’s back up a minute to cows.

We’ve been doing traditional windrow composting for years at Olander Farms. It’s a system we believe in to add nitrogen to the soil and divert waste products, mostly dairy manure, into something useful. Here’s how traditional composting works: Mix carbon-rich materials (i.e. cornstalks) with nitrogen-rich materials (i.e. manure,) add sufficient moisture, and then let it process by alternating periods of allowing the piles to sit with regular intervals of turning it to mix it. Through this process, bacteria in the pile really get cranking, heating the pile up, breaking it down, and creating a nitrogen-rich end product to add our fields. 

Great, right? Sure is!

But what if we could do better?

We’re giving it a shot with the bioreactor experiment.

While certainly of value, traditional composting has limitations. First off, it is a bacteria-dominant form of compost. Why does that matter? 

An ideal agricultural field has soil with a 1:1 fungal-to-bacterial ratio. Currently, however, most fields - ours very much included - are bacterial dominant, which means quite simply, that the balance is off. We know, from extensive soil testing on our own fields, that our microbes aren’t where they should be for the land to be maximally healthy. We’ve got far too many bad microbial critters, and not nearly enough good ones. 

Enter the bioreactor.

Developed by Dr. David Johnson of California State University and his wife, huiChen Su, a Johnson-Su bioreactor is a new(er) system of composting that creates the fungal-dominant, high-microbial product that our soils so desperately need. 

An admittedly oversimplified explanation of the process looks like this: set some large, tower-like containers on top of pallets (for airflow) on the ground. Intersperse pipes running vertically throughout the bins (this will also be for airflow) then fill them to the top with damp organic matter. Let it heat up (those bacteria will do their thing, just like traditional composting) and then, when the temperature of the bioreactor drops to 80 degrees or below, pull the tubes (you’ve now created air pockets) and add…worms! Red wigglers to be specific, an excellent composting worm. After that, allow the bioreactors to sit for one full year, watering them occasionally.

What makes this relatively straightforward process different? The combination of organic matter + worms + time (with a little water and air thrown in) creates fungal-dominant compost. It’s teeming with microbes, worm castings, and all the good things that are lacking in our farm fields. After a year, when the bioreactors are taken apart and the compost extracted, it can be used to brew a “tea” that can then be sprayed on fields to give them a dose of microbiology. Or the compost can be applied directly to the fields, much like our traditional compost.

We’re going to go the tea route for our first try. We just built our initial bioreactors last month, so they’re only beginning the process of creating microbes. For this farm year, we’re working with a vermiculture company out of Ft. Collins to try and kick off the farm season with some local, homemade vermi-tea.

It’s probably about as tasty as it sounds. While we enjoy sharing, our honest advice is maybe to stick to the beer and whiskey made with our award-winning malt. Leave the tea for the barley and rye. 

Cows and compost. Worms and water. Microbes, fungus, and fully planted fields. 

We’re excited to be jumping into another growing season, excited to be learning new things, and, as always, excited to have you with us.

We’ll keep you posted on the compost. If all goes well, maybe we’ll invite you out to sip on a brew while brewing some poo. Worm poo that is.

Just another day of fun (and fun-gal!) in farming.

- Your Olander Farms Crew

Beefy Steve's Cow Corner, Episode 1: What In The World is Beefy Steve Up To?

A Crash Course in Cattle (and More!) with One of Our Favorite Farmers

Steve Olander has been farming longer than some of you (okay, many of you…) have been alive.

With decades of experience under that perpetual Western hat, and three generations of knowledge collected before him, Farmer Steve is one of this country’s most valuable treasures: a veritable encyclopedia of lived agricultural experience. Well-versed in everything from barley, to corn, to irrigation systems, and tractor repairs, Farmer Steve can do it all…but given a little free time, it’s likely you’ll find him behind the farmhouse hanging out with his “ladies.”

Cattle have long been a passion of Farmer Steve’s. So much so that it’s earned him the nickname of Beefy Steve and a reputation for selling the best farm-fresh beef around.

But in a high-quality farming system, cattle aren’t just for T-bones and hamburgers. They’re an integral part of a healthy ecosystem; and a lot of thought, science, and care goes into raising them.

We’ve mentioned cattle many times before on our posts and on our socials, but we’re going to partner with Beefy Steve himself to do a deeper dive into all things bovine at Olander Farms.

So, let’s begin…at the very beginning:

Beefy Steve’s Bovine Count:

The herd has grown by a good bit this year!

The Carr Herd:

Beefy Steve acquired 53 bred cows this year which means exactly what it sounds like: 53 pregnant mommas. Those mommas are calving right now, so soon we anticipate that number…well, doubling!

Because everyone loves baby pics, here’s our first calf of the year.

Name suggestions, anyone? Look at that little spot on its head. Spot! Too obvious?

This herd is a mish-mash of different breeds: Red Angus, Black Angus, Hereford, Black Baldies, and probably a few others mixed in. Beefy Steve’s take, “They’re a motley crew, but they’re cool!” This herd is referred to as the Carr Herd, and you’ll hear a lot more about them, soon.

Billy’s girls:

The home herd, affectionately referred to as “Billy’s Girls” for Billy the Bull, are 16 bred cows that live right out the back door of the farmhouse. (When they’re not meandering about grazing fields, anyway.) The ladies are Angus, Billy is Wagyu, and this herd has been responsible for Beefy Steve’s high-end beef sales. If you haven’t tried a Wagyu-cross steak yet, you haven’t lived.

the rest of the mob:

Over the course of the year, an additional 270+ cattle will graze our farm fields under grazing leases. An easy food source for the ranchers owning the cattle, the grazing is also actually a key part of our farming operation as it helps us regenerate and improve our fields. More on that, soon!

What’s next for Beefy Steve’s cow corner?

We’re planning our upcoming posts! In April and May…calving updates! Lots of them. Stay tuned to learn from the Beefy Master himself.

And, as the weather to from winter to warmer, if you’re looking to get grilling and support a local farm, you can always order Olander Beef directly from Steve! Give him a call or text at 970-217-2342 to order.

N, P, K-illing It

What do farmers do in winter?

Sip whiskey? Ski the slopes? Repair tractors?

Sit in the malthouse office and listen to presentations on soil science while perusing photos of weevils and root balls?

The last option, obviously. Maybe a little of the first three, as well.

While the winter is the off-season for farmers, it certainly doesn’t mean that it’s all whiskey while skiing. Or beer while repairing. Or sleeping in late, eating pancakes, and taking long walks with the dog in the park. (Who are we kidding anyway? Thompson doesn’t do walks or parks. He does cornfields at Mach speeds, only.)

Winter provides a good time for reflecting on how the last growing season went, and planning how to do better for the next one. Our soil, the most valuable commodity we have, is a key part of that reflection and that’s why this year we partnered with Red Dog Soils during the growing season to monitor the work we do and evaluate the current state of our fields. At the end of 2023, we sat down to get the results.

As with so many things in life, the results were a mixed bag.

Soil science is very….well…science-y. It’s kind of math-y, too. Just look at this summary. This is one of 52 slides we reviewed in doing an in-depth dig into our soil.

Don’t worry….we’re not going to give you 52 slides worth of soil samples.

We’re gonna give you the, “Quick! Summarize it! We wanna go drink beer!” version.

N, P, K (Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Potassium) is the baseline chemistry of all a farmer does. As key as water and sunshine, these three elements are absolutely necessary to produce healthy plants. A deficiency in any of the three will have visible impacts. Once the NPK in a field is nailed down, there are all sorts of other goodies to dive into: micronutrients, soil fungi, bacteria, beneficial insects, detrimental insects, the list goes on and on.

But, as we discovered, we don’t even have our NPK straight. Not even after the years of work we’ve done. We’re short on Phosphorus and Potassium in most fields. We’ve got too much bacteria and too little fungi. We have lots of pest nematods and a whopping zero beneficial nematodes. Several fields need improved soil structure and, and, and…

So should we throw in the towel and stop farming?

Nah.

Nothing worth doing is easy and we are making progress. The fields we cover crop are retaining more moisture, a key to improved biology. The plants we used a foliar spray on showed marked improvement. We’re constantly evolving our crop rotations, reducing tillage, and giving our land a chance to heal.

It’s easy, sitting in a Farm-to-Fork restaurant to preach the benefits of regenerative agriculture and wax poetic about compost, carbon sequestration, and this new generation of eco-responsible farmers, but the boots-on-the-ground reality of farming is that it’s not just about sprinkling some fairy dust in the form of cow manure around, then calling it good. It’s a slow process. We’ll make mistakes, figure out adjustments, and try again.

But when you get one try per year, it takes time…lots of time.

We’re in it for the long haul, and we’re in it for generations: future generations of farmers to whom we hope to leave an optimistic legacy and healthy fields.

Right after we go enjoy just a couple more winter beers, that is.

— Your Olander Farms Team







It Was a Dark and Stormy Night...

…as Michael Myers moved stealthily through the dim malthouse, unconcerned about the Thunder and Lightning around him, plotting his next move…

No, we haven’t confused our holidays and we’re not intro-ing another Halloween-themed blog (though the sheer convenience of having a malthouse manager named Michael Myers makes it tempting), but December did bring lots of Thunder and Lightning to the malthouse, it just did so in the form of…barley.

If you’ve been following our winter barley saga, this is the episode you’ve been waiting for! How does it all end??

For those of you just joining…here’s the 15-second version: Thunder and Lightning are two fall-planted barley varieties, a rarity in Colorado where barley is typically spring-planted. We’re trialing them as part of our attempt to be more resilient in a changing climate. We’ve never grown them before and it’s been a wild ride, including nearly losing both crops to hail, but despite the odds, they rallied, enough to harvest some grain and so…we malted our first batches!

And, as this entire, drama-filled experiment has been, the malting process was…yet another wild ride. A big, stormy, soggy Thunder-and-Lightning filled adventure.

Thunder was our first batch. We had enough of it to do two batches, so, we figured, if we screwed one up, we could always run another. This is the sort of excellent thinking that frequently saves our rear-ends, because naturally, we proceeded to immediately screw up the first batch.

When Thunder went into the steep tank, we discovered it had an extreme water sensitivity that hadn’t shown up in our previous tests. The water uptake on it was faster than any batch we’ve ever seen. Much faster. The barley sucked up water rapidly, swelled to the point of nearly popping out of the manhole of the tank and, essentially, drowned itself. When we realized what was happening, we quickly transferred it out and into the drums, but in malting, steeping is perhaps the most impactful part of the process in terms of creating a high-quality product and if you don’t get it right, it’s hard to recover.

The barley didn’t recover. It was stunted and unhappy, so we kilned it dry and gave it to the Olander Farm cows as an early Christmas present. The cows were thrilled. The malthouse staff, less so.

The second batch came out much better. We knew the shenanigans that Thunder was pulling now, so we moved much faster. We reduced the first steep time way down, we reduced the dry steep time way down, we reduced the second steep down, and then transferred it as fast as possible.

It worked beautifully. The kilning went without a hitch and the end product is gorgeous. We just got the specs back on it and it gives every indication that it’s going to be a fantastic malt: it has high extract, high friability, and the protein is right on the money.

But does it make good beer??

Well, you’ll have to be the ones to let us know! We now have 18,000 lbs bagged and ready to roll out the door. If you’d like to be one of the first to give Thunder Pilsner a try, give our sales team a shout! We can’t wait to see what comes of it!

And what about that Lightning?

Have we mentioned that nothing is ever easy?

Since they are essentially sister varieties, we anticipated the same behavior. We were ready with our timers and our hoses and our tank. We would steep it quickly and move it efficiently.

So naturally, it pulled the completely opposite stunt.

Lightning required more water and longer steep times. It didn’t show the same vigorous water uptake and didn’t need to be transferred as quickly.

Just goes to show that processing new barley varieties has a rather….steep…learning curve.

The jury is still out on Lightning. It’s in the drums as we blog and then we’ll send it off for testing.

In the meantime, if you’re looking for more good things, remember that we’ve run two other experimental batches this year! Our first chit malt was just released last month, and our new Munich Wheat malt just got a shout-out in this article by The Colorado Sun on brewers and distillers using local grains.






Realistic New Year's Resolutions

January is a slow month on the farm. (Slow in farmer-speak, mind you. There are still tractors to be worked on, cattle to care for, and fences to mend, but hey…that’s easy, right?)

We’ve been using the extra time to sip on some whiskey and stout and stare into the fire. It’s a high-quality way to pass the time. We highly recommend it. Not only does it help you unwind, but it also allows for reflection, rumination, a whole reevaluation of how life is going and if that’s the actual direction you want it to go.

It also, occasionally, provides for some meaningful insights. That’s what happened to us this year. We were just sitting in front of the fire, enjoying a couple of craft beverages when - boom! - just like lightning, we realized…

New Year’s Resolutions don’t have to be boring.

Who made that rule anyway? Why does everyone talk about going to the gym, losing weight, eating better, and reducing spending? Why can’t a New Year’s resolution be a commitment to hide in the coat closet and scare the bejeezus out of a family member monthly? Or to order dessert more often when you go out to eat? Or to take more sip-and-paint classes, excel only at the sipping part, but still gleefully hang your artwork in the garage for your cars to admire, no matter how bad they are??

We also realized during our fireplace staring, that fun resolutions can also often do good, in which case you get all the smug satisfaction of doing something right, along with the joy of just having fun.

So, if you’re looking for a few New Year’s Resolutions that don’t involve working out or keeping your house cleaner, we’ve drawn up a list of craft beverage-inspired suggestions for you. Support local businesses, invest in the local economy, and try all sorts of new tasty libations. Win, win, and win.

Crafty Commitments for 2024

  1. Try every beer that your local brewery brews over the course of this year - even those that aren’t your typical style. You might discover a new favorite!

  2. Go to a distillery with a friend. Read the cocktail menu without talking. When drinks come, each of you orders, then… drinks what the other person ordered. Repeat monthly. Expand your horizons…or maybe test your friendships!

  3. Commit to petting every dog you see on a brewery patio. (With permission, of course!) Enjoy that oxytocin in tail-wagging form!

  4. Pick a local spirit that you love. Learn to create one absolutely stellar cocktail with it. Make that your signature drink for the year and take it to all the parties.

  5. Commit to attending at least one brewery event that you wouldn’t, usually. Trivia, running club, stitch ‘n’ bitch…something new that sounds like a good time!

  6. Leave a new positive Google review each month. Got a series of breweries, distilleries, or other small businesses that you frequent regularly? Give a glowing Google review for one each month. A little love goes a long way for small businesses.

  7. Be a new brewery/distillery superfan! Keep tabs on new craft beverage joints scheduled to open in your area, then visit them (frequently) as soon as they do. It takes a lot to start a small business and every bit of support helps!

  8. Try monthly mixology. Purchase some local spirits and research a new cocktail recipe each month. It’s okay if they’re easy…as long as they’re tasty!

9. Buy the right glasses for different types of beer and spirits and learn how to use them. Still sipping whiskey out of that old coffee cup you inherited from grandma? Get a tulip-shaped whiskey glass and learn how it changes the experience.

10. Cook with craft: beer isn’t just for brats. Stout chocolate cake, beer cheese soup, honey, and ale chicken sliders. The craft beer-inspired recipes are endless…and you can sip while you simmer, confident that you’re supporting small business and filling your belly!

These were just the first 10 craft-inspired resolutions we came up with this week. We’re sure there’s more. Have some good ones? Send them our way!

Suddenly, this resolution thing seems so much more manageable…

Cheers to the New Year!

—Olander Farms and Root Shoot Malting

Malthouse Math (and a Little Year-in-Review)

Let’s do some malthouse math for a minute. 

Yes, we’re aware that you probably told Mrs. Jones, your 4th grade teacher, that you would never actually use math in real life. You may have even whined during science classes. But that was before you became a craft malt aficionado who, (albeit grudgingly,) realized that both math and science are actually key components in the business of making good beer and good spirits, and you most definitely aren’t whining over that glass of craft whiskey in your hand. So…you probably owe Mrs. Jones (and likely your high school biology teacher) an apology, accompanied by a high-quality craft beverage. 

While the two of you sip away, we’ll run you through some of the numbers that created that craft cocktail you’re enjoying.

so much malt

  • 125 total batches. At 20,000 lbs of grain per batch, that’s 2,500,000 lbs rolling out of those drums and into your beer. And we’re not done growing yet! If we ran all 3 drums at full capacity all year, we could do 156 batches of malt, equaling around 3,000,000 lbs of grain. We’re almost there…but this year’s malthouse construction combined with some learning curves around running our newest drum, meant we weren’t running all drums all the time. When we do, there will be all kinds of magnificent malt coming your way.

  • 1,000 deliveries. Magnificent malt is no good unless it makes it into your beautiful brews and divine distillations, so we went out to you 1,000 times to make it happen.

  • 350 pick-ups. Teamwork makes the dreamwork, and many of you made our lives easy by swinging by the malthouse for your orders. The honest truth of it?  We just love getting to see you.

Trendsetter Tips

When you’re sending two and a half million pounds of malt out the door, you start to notice some trends - and we’re not talking about mom jeans and mullets. More like Malted Oats and Munich Wheat.

  • Folks like lager. Last year, we malted 53 batches of Genie Malt, our biggest seller. This year, we only did 39. Why? Because Pilsner was up. We ran 23 batches of Pilsner Malt and talking to our brewers, most of that Pilsner was going into lagers, a welcome relief for some from the IPA craze of the last few years.

  • The IPA craze (and haze!) isn’t going away. Malted Oat sales grew by over 50% this year and most of them…yep…they’re going into your hazy IPAs.

  • Whiskey is where it’s at. Our distiller’s malt sales were up by 70% over last year. We’ve got a…spirited…bunch of customers. 

It’s not just the numbers

We’ve hit a few milestones that have nothing to do with pounds of malt or deliveries down I-25, but they’re a pretty big deal for us, nonetheless.

  • Our build-out is complete.

A lot more goes on in the malthouse than just bags out the door. Perhaps our biggest success this year was finishing construction. For the entire seven years that we have been in operation, we’ve been growing, building, and moving malt - often literally, from one side of the malthouse to the other as we figure out the best system to add equipment, run a production line, serve our customers, and keep our sanity.

This year (finally!) after seven straight years we’re done. While there will always be maintenance and improvements, we’ve completely built our facility. 

Will we miss making malt schedules around concrete work and fire sprinkler tests?

Nope.

  • We’ve got new malts for you to meet!

Worrying less about construction logistics allows us more time for innovation, and this year we rolled out two new malts, with the newest hitting the shelves just this month. Please welcome Munich Wheat and Chit Malt to the Root Shoot family. Wanna give them a try? Just shoot us a line!

  • We’re hoping to continue the winning streak.

In March, we had a pretty impressive win at the Malt Cup, and we’re gearing up for 2024’s competition. Samples have been submitted and over the next months, the judges will be doing their work. While any business enjoys winning awards, for us the real benefit of the Craft Malt Cup and our work with the Craft Maltsters Guild is the challenge to always get better. 

And with construction over, an excellent staff on board, and a solid harvest sitting in our silos, that’s our focus for next year. Doing what we do, and doing it just a little better, every day, year in and year out. We make malt so that you can craft your liquid art.

Make Mrs. Jones proud, one craft cocktail at a time.

- Your Root Shoot Malting Team




Root Shoot Wrapped: 2023 Harvest Notes

Our Spotify Wrapped list just isn’t as exciting as most.

Stuck on a tractor for days end, Todd’s playlists veer much more toward podcasts than music, and until people get as worked up about hour-long talks on soil health as they do their own personal top five artist lists (“Bro, have you heard that new banger on mycorrhizal fungi? It is dope!”) we’ll probably be the outliers.

That doesn’t mean we don’t keep track of our own Wrapped list, though. It just has more to do with bushels of barley and liquid cow manure than it does with bluegrass tunes or gangster rap.

So grab a beer, settle in, and get ready for Root Shoot Wrapped: your top five farm hits of the year.

One heck of a harvest

If we had to make a song of this, it’d probably be an old-school country tune all about sitting in the tractor petting the farm dog (at least when Thompson’s not barreling through the corn rows, howling his head off.) But it wouldn’t be one of those mopey tunes - despite some storms and hail, we had a pretty solid harvest this year! The deets:

Total acreage farmed: 1,914 acres (that’s up 117 acres from last year!)

Genie Spring Barley: 627 acres netting 62,700 bushels which comes to 3,009,600 pounds of barley! We need 3,000,000 pounds to run the malthouse for one year at full capacity, so….nailed it!

Thunder Winter Barley (experimental variety): 15 acres netting 1,188 bushels or 57,000 pounds. That’s about 20% lower per acre than we’d like to see due to hail damage.

Lightning Winter Barley (experimental variety): 15 acres, netting 791 bushels or 38,000 pounds. Hit even harder by hail, Lightning’s production was almost 50% less than we’d hoped for. Dang thunderstoms. Trial #2 of Lightning is in the ground for next year!

Guardian Rye: 55 acres, 60 bushels, 160,920 pounds

Helix Hard Red Winter Wheat: 288 (dryland) acres, 320,820 pounds

Huffman Soft White Winter Wheat: 50 acres, 210,000 pounds

Monida Oats: 48 acres, 172,356 pounds. These oats are going to be making a lot of your hazy IPAs hazy!

Non-GMO distillers’ corn: 27,000 bushels or 1.5 million(ish) pounds.

Silage Corn (food for cows!): 93 acres. 2,232 tons

Alfalfa: (also food for cows…and sheep!) 584 acres, 3,504 dry tons  (~400 3'x4'x8' Bales)

Odds and ends: Barley straw: 700 Bales,Corn stalks: 550 Bales, Grass hay: 80 Bales

cows (and compost!)

This song’s easy. As Corb Lund knows, Life is better with Cows Around. Mostly, that’s because they regenerate our fields with some chewin’ and poopin’. We only keep a very small herd (18 cow pairs and Billy the Bull) so it takes some wheelin’ and dealin’ with local ranchers to keep our rotational grazing going.

Webber Cattle: 186 cows that will graze about 120 acres of sorghum and cover crops including legumes, cowpeas, hairy vetch, buckwheat, clover, turnips, radishes and more.

Larson East Farm: 103 pregnant cows will graze 130 acres of volunteer barley, buckwheat, cowpeas, turnips.

Billy and his ladies: will be grazing 40 Acres of corn stalks that were interseeded with annual ryegrass, cow peas, and radishes on our home property.

So Much Manure: While the cattle we graze are just left to…do their business…in the fields, it actually takes more manure than they produce to apply to our fields, so we’ve had some longstanding agreements with local dairies. Manure can actually be environmental issue for dairies, so by partnering with them, we’re able to take their waste and turn it into delicious craft beverages. (Admittedly, with a few steps in between.)

This year, we brought in hundreds of loads of raw manure and liquid manure (that’s one heck of a visual, right?). The liquid manure went right on the fields. The raw manure gets mixed with our cornstalk bales to get the right mix of nitrogen and carbon, and we form piles that we turn multiple times per week until it breaks down into compost. We’ll apply that to fields throughout the winter to up the quality of our fields.

collaboration:

Hmmm…if we had to turn this into a Harvest Hit, it would maybe be…an impeccable acapella tune, with all singers in perfect harmony? Cheesy, we know, but every year we seem to work with such an amazing group of people and organizations, and this year was no exception!

Zero Foodprint Partnership: We received a $25,000 grant from Zero Foodprint to work on our composting projects, and nutrient management and no-till practices. Using some of those funds we also joined forces with Red Dog Soils to assist us with soil and plant tissue analysis during the growing season. We plan on continuing to work with both organizations to keep our regenerative push moving ahead!

Turn It Up Media: This amazing crew assisted us with our rollout of Root Shoot Spirits, one of our biggest projects of the year! But more on that in a minute.

Local Family Farms and Ranches: Farming is not a solitary endeavor, and in addition to the aforementioned cattle operations we worked with 5 other local farmers to harvest barley and corn.

conservation

In our world, conservation is sort of like that tune that takes an unpredictable turn or two. (Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody, perhaps?) We never really know how things will turn out, and we’re always listening intently for the next notes…or the next available acreage for lease.

This year, we gained 140 acres on the Waggener Farm property, land that’s conserved by Colorado Open Lands. We also gained another 211 acres with a lease on the Little Thompson property owned by Larimer County.

However, we’ve long farmed the land that was where the new Bucee’s is and while we still have maybe 80 acres there, we know we’re probably going to lose it, soon. When a farm lease includes language like, “farm at your own risk,” well…

We’re not holding our breath.

And our newest hot Harvest hit…spirits!

Aided by the marketing prowess of Turn It Up Media, Root Shoot Spirits launched its inaugural American Single Malt Whiskey: 2500 bottles (10 barrels) aged 5 years and ready for you to pour into your favorite snifter.

This isn’t a one-time thing. There are future batches of Root Shoot Whiskey coming, and if you’ve read this far, here’s your reward:

You’re the first to know that our next small batch whiskey release will be coming in August of 2024. Go ahead, mark your calendars!

All in all…

This was a tough year to beat. A strong harvest, lots of rain, a team trip to Germany, a tasty whiskey release and…

An amazing team

Perhaps not every year can be a fantastic year, but when ones like this come, we’ll certainly take them.

Wishing you and yours all the best in 2024. As for 2023 on the farm…

We’re calling it a wrap.

Happy Holidays and all the rest,

—Olander Farms






Field Notes: The Ultimate Thirsty Thursday

To the extent that farmers take a break, winter is it: a chance to kick back, relax, and enjoy a grain-to-glass beverage or two.

As we launch into this holiday season, we’re encouraging a little relaxation for all! Join us in slowing down this month and not sweating the small stuff. Take time off, nap on the couch, stare at the sunset, and serve yourself up a tasty beverage…preferably one sown, grown, and malted with love by some farmers we know.

To entice you to spend some time sittin’ and sippin’ we’ve even rustled up a few cocktail recipes for the fall season. Whether you’re an apple aficionado or a maple maniac, we’ve got something for you.

And if you’re the simple type…well…you can try our all-time favorite beverage: The Solo Shoot.

Read on for more…and if you make any of these, we’d love it if you sent us photos! Email all your holiday craft beverage snaps to team@rootshootmalting.com.

Cheers!

The Holiday Smash (or Cherry Whiskey Smash)

ingredients

4-5 fresh pitted cherries
1 oz amaretto
1/2 oz lemon juice
2 oz Root Shoot American Single Malt Whiskey

directions

Muddle above ingredients.
Add ice, shake for 30 secs.
Double strain and pour into a glass of ice. Garnish with 2-3 maraschino cherries.

Granny’s Delight (or Farm Fresh Pressed Apple Whiskey)

Ingredients

2 ounces Root Shoot American Single Malt Whiskey
4 ounces fresh pressed Granny Smith apple juice

Directions

In a tall glass, add ice, whiskey, and apple juice. Garnish with a cinnamon stick. Cheers!



The Turkey Day Tipple (or Lemon Maple Whiskey Spice)

Ingredients:

2 ounces Root Shoot American Single Malt Whiskey

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

3 teaspoons maple syrup

Directions:

Shake, pour over ice, garnish with cinnamon. This one is delish!

The Solo Shoot

Ingredients

2 ounces Root Shoot American Single Malt Whiskey

Directions

Serve neat. We know…it’s not technically a cocktail, but…why mess with perfection?

Good News and Good Brews

It’s a month of gratitude, and we are here for it!

Life gets so busy at times that all of us - your Root Shoot Malting team most definitely included - often forget to stop and smell the rose…er, hops…and recognize all that is right and good and delicious in the world. This month, as part of our emphasis on gratitude, we’re doing a Good News/Good Brews round-up. Heck, we’ve even thrown some good spirits in as well…we just couldn’t make it rhyme with “news.”

Our industry is so fantastic, the people are so amazing, and the libations are so well-crafted that we could probably do a good news review every month. Maybe we should. But for now, we’re wallowing in the autumnal awesomeness around us, and making this (by no means complete) of some of the excellent things happening - and pouring right now. And of course, we must start with…

Get your drink on!

With the holidays approaching, there are so many options for beverages to accompany those hearty homemade meals. A few things we’re loving right now?

Upslope’s oatmeal stout:

An annual release featuring Root Shoot’s English Pale malt, this year’s batch of stout is particularly palate-pleasing. Actually, in the words of Malthouse Manager Mike, it’s “really freaking awesome.” Which is amazing, because we’ve always considered it really freaking awesome before…but this year…a real winner. If you’re looking for a dark beer for these short days, this one should make your short list.

Horse & dragon’s Agile INquisitor Doppelbock

Are you the “Go big, or go home” type? Then you should go grab the new Doppelbock by Horse & Dragon. Registering at a whopping 9% ABV, this big beer features Munich 10 malt and was made for thick sweaters and campfires: something to keep you toasty all night long.

Coopersmith’s GABF Gold Medal Pro-Am Beer:

She Fancies Herself A Little Bit French is local homebrewer Mark Pennick’s second consecutive win with Coopersmith’s in the Pro-Am category (using Root Shoot malt, of course)…and this beer…is just…

Wow.

A huge congrats to both Mark and Coopersmith’s on being amazing partners and absolutely stellar brewers!

It’s not all beer, either!

The (New) Rosie’s Root Shoot Cocktail:

Live in NoCo? Rosie’s is a brand-new cocktail bar behind the secret door at Rosie’s Barber Shop in Loveland. Sound intriguing? That’s because it is! As is the Root Shoot cocktail they have on the menu. But since speakeasies thrive on a little bit of secrecy, you’ll have to go check it out to learn more…

Molly Brown spirits..at home:

Want to get your drink on, but too cozied up in your pjs on the couch? Molly Brown Spirits can be ordered online. The belly-filling warmth of bourbon, without ever leaving your bed!

Beer (or bourbon or gin or whatever you may choose) is no fun without buddies, however, so in addition to suggestions on some of the beverages we’re currently sipping, we’ve also got suggestions to…

Hit That Holiday Fun, Early!

So many releases, so many anniversaries, so many holiday happenings that there’s no reason to wait until Thanksgiving to start having fun…Mark your calendars and start celebrating, now!

Timnath beerworks’ 5th anniversary:

Join them starting Wednesday to celebrate 5 years of Timnath beer! The festivities run into the weekend with events daily 11/8 to 11/11. Check out their calendar for more!

Green Mountain Beer Company’s 7th anNIVERSARY:

Live a little further south than us? GMBC is celebrating their 7th anniversary 11/24-11/25 in addition to all the regular fun they have going on. Open mic nights, live trivia, music bingo, run clubs…you could spend every night of the week there and never get bored!

Verboten Brewing’s Barley Friday:

Wayyyy more fun than Black Friday is Verboten’s annual Barley Friday: a day to taste (and take home) an impressive array of artful barleywines.

Woods Boss Sip and Shop and City Star Handmade Market:

You know how we feel about supporting local. The holidays always provide ample opportunity to support artisans, craftspeople, and makers of all types…and to do so with a beer in hand? Even better! This month, Woods Boss’s Sip and Shop is happening 11/12 and City Star’s Handmade Market in Berthoud is 11/25. Stop by either place (or better yet, both!) for some artful inspiration.

Get Into That Giving Spirit

Finally, and most importantly, the holidays are about gratitude and giving: a moment in our year to take a breather and reflect on the things that matter. And something that matters very much to us? The Masters.

Rob Masters, head distiller at The Family Jones and a longtime, dedicated Root Shoot partner is currently battling bile duct cancer and is waiting for a liver transplant, hopefully coming soon. His wife, Heather, was recently diagnosed with breast cancer and they are now facing the reality of double cancer battles while also raising their son and managing life.

Please join us in supporting them through this crazy rough patch. Donations made to this account will go to paying for the cost of care as well as services that will make their lives easier during this time.

Family, Friends, health, and happiness.

And maybe a few craft beverages.

This is what the holiday season is all about.


With gratitude,

Your Root Shoot Malting team




Field Day Fun Facts (and Photos!)

We never truly got a chance to say thank you!

To each and every one of you who came out to celebrate seven years with us…and those who helped Field Day happen!

So if one of us Root-Shooters didn’t make it over to you personally to say thanks for joining us, we apologize. And…thank you so much! We wanted to take a minute this month to make sure to give some shout-outs and share some of the fun, and the fun facts from our big day!

But first, beer!

Beer is at the heart of Field Day and we had SO MUCH good beer! A huge thank you to Woods Boss, Los Dos Cerveceria, Upslope, Stodgy, Green Mountain, Two22, Public Offering, Bruz, Hello, Avant Garde, and Purpose for giving us some killer kegs to put on tap! And so many more breweries that brought cans to share!

A few beery fun facts:

The Mexican Lager from Los Dos was the first 1/2 barrel to kick

Hello/Purpose’s Vienna Lager was the favorite on tap, and…

Timnath Beerwerks’ North German Pils was selected the first (annual?) Field Day Favorite Beer winner. Which leads us to the next fun fact…Root Shoot now has a traveling Field Day award….a handmade didgeridoo (seriously!) from Kjell Wygant at Two22 that will live at Timnath Beerwerks for the next year, until it goes to someone new next Field Day.

We also must note that we had the best dang homebrew in the state, thanks to Mark Boelman and Craig Kneeland. Root Shoot homebrew is a step above.

A spirited good time!

Craft malt isn’t just for beer, and the whiskey and canned cocktails at Field Day were a huge hit. Samplings from Molly Brown, The Family Jones, Idlewild, and Abbott and Wallace helped warm out bellies as the night cooled off. If you haven’t yet been to all of their tasting rooms, we highly recommend you schedule some field trips. They’re the perfect place to be as fall settles in!

Knuckle Puck Brewing provided their house-made kombucha for all the NA Field Day folks and we now must say that pinapple jalapeno is our new favorite thing.

Fine Food!

Did you even see that charcuterie board??

Wander and Graze out of Denver knocked it out of the park (field!)

If you’re having an event, you should totally hit Shelby up!

Our friends, partners, and the all-around fantastic people at Six Capital Brewing and BBQ and Golden Toad did an amazing job prepping and seasoning over 350 hamburgers, all the sides, and they even brought beer, too! It was service with a smile, good spirit, and even a little singing.

How best to top off a good meal? With Little Man Ice Cream, of course.

Food fun fact: Every single burger served, plus the chuck roast in the baked beans was from Olander Farms, born and raised just down the road from Field Day by Farmer Steve who…since we’re speaking of tasty food, spent two days preparing his legendary smoked meatloaf.

And, oh, the music!

The One and Only Jon Ham has been a musical fixture at Field Day for years, now and the Ham Bonne Duo with Jess D’Arbonne only doubled the fun! Combined with the amazing vocals from the opening band Angie Stevens and the Beautiful Wreck (with her friend Drew Dedon) we were pinching ourselves as we watched a concert in a field of conserved farmland with spectacular views of the Front Range…

Fun fact: There was a didgeridoo solo at the end of the night. If you missed it…you’ll just need to stay later next year!

High fives!

The Waggener family, you rock! The Waggener Farm is such a magical place and we are so grateful for their family’s commitment to protecting agriculture in the Front Range. Jake Waggener and Jane Vielehr were gracious enough to not only provide our backdrop for Field Day, but they sponsored our delicious food!

Volunteers, you rock! This event is made possible because of YOU! Many thanks for pouring beers, slapping on wrist bands, flipping hamburgers, and donating your time.

Donors, you rock! Wow! To those of you who are sporting some new Root Shoot swag, wear it proud! Your donations towards merchandise and all tips are greatly appreciated. These funds will be used towards future Field Day events!

Pssst. Did you catch the Root Shoot ice sculpture courtesy of Katie and Scott from Arctic Belle Ice? It was rad!

Thank you for celebrating seven years of craft malt with us!


If it weren’t for you, we wouldn’t be us.

Cheers to seven years of friends, fun, and the craft malt community!

Seventh Heaven

It’s fall, y’all!

Time to gather ‘round the campfire, crack open a bottle of Root Shoot Whiskey, spend time with friends, and tell a few stories.

Seeing as how we’ve got our bottle and our fire right here, ready to go, we’ll start. We’ve got a little story to tell. It ends two weeks ago when we celebrated Root Shoot’s seventh anniversary in the middle of an alfalfa field with all our amazing partners: brewers, distillers, farmers, and craft drinkers. But the roots of our story began over seventy-five years previous, when the first Olanders began farming in the Front Range: a long line of farmers, growing crops and raising animals, generation after generation, steadily and faithfully until, four generations later, things got much harder. The farm crisis of the 1980s pushed farms to get big or go under. Land was split off, sold, and had to be repurchased again to keep the farm whole.. The profit margin became thinner and the development of agricultural lands more aggressive.

So, what is that fifth generation of farmers to do?

That, friends, is where the Root Shoot story begins.

And, as so many good things do, it all started with a beer…

A beer and a brewery tour, to be more specific. In 2014, Todd and Steve, along with Todd’s brother Mike took a tour of High Hops Brewery with a Young Farmers group. At this point, Todd was farming (he’s the key fifth generation we mentioned) but malting wasn’t even a consideration. That day, however, chatting with the folks at High Hops, Todd realized that purchasing local malt wasn’t even an option for Colorado craft breweries. It simply didn’t exist, at least in any meaningful quantities. 

To use the obvious farming metaphor, a seed was planted. The Olanders had been growing barley for decades. But what if that barley could take the next step to being malt? What if it happened right there on the farm? Todd started visiting other local breweries. None were using craft malt. Many were interested. All said that to make the switch, the number one requirement would absolutely be consistency. 

Brewery visits morphed into serious conversations. Emily and Todd began having in-depth discussions about what it would take to “save the farm.” How could they ensure a steady income? Protect the land? Keep agriculture successful in the rapidly changing Front Range of Colorado? Could malt work? Would malt work?

Did they really have any other viable options?

So, they did it.

In 2015 Todd traveled to Bamberg, Germany to meet with Kaspar Schulz, the only maker of labor-efficient, turn-key malting equipment at the time. The same year, they broke ground for a malthouse on the farm property and started scouring the internet for barley varieties that might work for quality craft malt. That first year, Todd planted seven different barley varieties. (He has since trimmed it down to one and a couple small test plots of trials each year.) They had no idea how those varieties would perform, no idea how they would malt. In fact, they had no idea how to actually malt them short of buying equipment that supposedly would make it happen. But, you know…details, details.

In 2016, the malthouse construction finished. The steep tank and first drum arrived from Germany, landing in Houston where the steep tank promptly had a crane fall on it, causing significant damage.

Custom malting equipment from Germany isn’t exactly something one can run out and purchase at your local Wal-Mart. A replacement tank would be at least a year off, so the ever-impressive farm crew simply took possession of the damaged tank and hammered and banged on it until it was usable again. In April, Todd took a course at the Canadian Malting Barley Technical Centre (CMBTC) on how to malt. In July, Kaspar Schulz sent out a crew to teach him how to use the malting system. In August, they worked together to make the very first batch of malt (Light Munich, if you’re wondering), then handed Todd the keys and hopped on a plane back to Germany. Root Shoot was now on its own, with exactly two (unpaid) employees: Todd and Emily.

Did you catch that? Let’s rewind and look at that timeline one more time.

Todd learned how to malt three months before his malting business opened and a full year after investing the time, money, and land in building a malthouse. At the time, he had zero confirmed customers. He had made exactly one batch of malt in his life, under supervision. The only people who knew how to work his malting system lived on another continent and had no U.S.-based operations.

Sometimes, the key to success is having no room for failure.

For a full year, the malthouse ran with just Emily and Todd. They figured out how to malt the seven different barleys they had grown, created recipes from scratch, learned how to use their new equipment, and, constantly, pounded the pavement for customers. On top of all of this, Todd was also running the farm and Emily was working her “real” job as a dental hygienist four days a week. They lived in Ft. Collins and frequently drove to Loveland at 2 a.m., just to check on a batch of malt. It was utter insanity. 

And yet…it worked. They attended their first GABF with beers from Grimm Brothers and Resolute brewed for the event. City Star Brewing in Berthoud toured the malthouse with their staff, became Root Shoot’s first regular customer, and served as a huge advocate. In 2017 Root Shoot hired its first sales position, in 2018, fearless Malthouse Manager Mike came on board and did absolutely everything the malthouse required: malting, packaging, order-filling, cleaning. Root Shoot hosted its first Field Day, ordered a second drum, and began the process of putting the farm in a conservation easement. 

Five years later, we can’t believe how far we’ve come.

We now have three drums running 365 days per year (and yes, we did eventually replace the original, damaged steep tank.) We have a fully staffed malthouse, with sales reps, packaging support, a dedicated driver, and even behind-the-scenes help with things like communications and HR. We still make Mike clean, occasionally, though, just to keep him honest. 

Most importantly, however, we have built a dedicated community of craft malt lovers who believe in us and believe in what we’re doing.

You have no idea how reassuring that is.

We have so much to be grateful for. We also know we still have so much to do. Root Shoot Malting (and Root Shoot Sprits) are entirely dependent on our farming operation and Colorado farms are facing very real challenges right now, both from a changing climate and the accelerating loss of farmland to development. If the road behind us hasn’t been easy, the road ahead looks just as rocky…with one very important difference. 

We have you. 

We’re launching into our next seven years (and hopefully many more!) with a strong community of brewers, distillers, fellow maltsters, and craft beverage drinkers who have shown that craft malt can work. So, really, our story doesn’t end in the alfalfa field of this year’s Field Day. It just moves into the next phase, one in which we’re not scrambling to make it alone but rather working with all of our wonderful partners as a cohesive community showing that it is possible to save farms…one beer (and whiskey) at a time. 

Our heartfelt thanks for joining us on this journey.

Your RSM Team










Field Notes: Oh, the Irony

Well…we tried.

Last fall, we shared a post about two experimental varieties of fall-planted barley that we were testing. The hope was that these varieties, Thunder and Lightning, might prove to be viable alternatives to spring-planted barley, giving us a leg up by allowing it some of the winter moisture in the form of snow.

And they still might be. But the results of any tests we run on this year’s harvest are going to be skewed because Thunder and Lightning got nailed by…well…Thunder and Lightning (and their devil spawn, Hail.) Both of our 16-acre trial fields got hammered, resulting in significant damage.

For a while, it was looking like they both might be a total loss. In fact, we planned to harvest it all out to prevent disease from taking hold in the damaged plants and perhaps even the soil, but then (because, you know, Mother Nature) it never stopped raining long enough for us to do that. So, we left it much longer than intended, and then (plot twist!) the damaged plants bounced back enough gumption that it looks like maybe (just maybe) we’ll be able to harvest enough to run at least one malting test batch of each. That is if we can make it another few weeks without any more hail, disease, marauding elk herds, or malfunctioning pivots.

Easy peasy, right?

We often try to focus on the upbeat side of farming, but the reality of it is this: sometimes things go wrong. Sometimes they go very wrong, making this whole farming venture occasionally feel like nothing more than minimally controlled chaos. Fields get flattened by hail, entire wheat crops are lost to drought, everything breaks, all the time.

So perhaps we’re getting off easy this year losing only most of our trial Thunder and Lightning fields. On the brighter side, those spring storms and the moisture they brought did wonders for the rest of our plants. The rye crop is going gangbusters, the Genie barley is coming in right on time, and the corn is looking so good…almost as good as this here farmer who farms it.

This is farming, pull and push, rain and hail, sunshine, and storms.

Harvest starts in less than a month.

We’re certain it will be glorious.

But even in the years it’s not, we’re still here, working through it all, knowing that sometimes it takes a little thunder and lightning to grow into the kind of resilient operation we aspire to be.

Although, if anyone could point us in the direction of experimental barley varieties named Sunshine, Rainbows, and Really Stinking Good Yields, we might rather give those a try…

Cheers,

—Olander Farms

Brewery of the Month: Blue Spruce

You’re going to need a tissue for this one.

What does being a community brewery look like?

It looks like a loyal German Shepherd pup and protective gear for K-9s. It looks like a handler’s best friend and a memorial for best friends lost.

Graffit was a Jefferson County K-9 killed in the line of duty in February of this year.  The German Shephard was shot by a suspect on the run. His handler, Deputy Zachary Oliver lost his best friend and his working partner. Blue Spruce Brewing Company in Littleton, Colorado got wind of the ordeal and decided to step in. They brewed a new beer in memory of Graffit, 

Graffit’s Ale of Honor and, at the charity launch event, they raised enough money not only to get Deputy Oliver and the Sheriff’s Unit a new K-9, but also to build a memorial statue for Graffit and purchase protective gear for future K-9s to prevent future tragedies like Graffit’s.

All of this came from what started as a dream and a garage. Blue Spruce owners, Rick and Theresa Kane, were inspired by the vibrant craft beer scene that defines Colorado and decided to retire from teaching to pursue their passion of brewing great beer. They opened their first location in Centennial and, outgrowing that with the help of a dedicated and supportive beer-drinking community, opened their second location in Littleton which allowed them to drastically increase the brewing operation.

As they’ve grown, so has their impact on the community. 

They pride their brewery and beer on being a catalyst for sharing stories and building lasting friendships. 

At the helm of the brewing operation is Nate Nicklas, a brewer who received his first Mister Beer brewing kit from his grandmother as a Christmas gift in 2009. Good on granny, because that one gift has led to an entire career of brewing, from being the first graduate from the MSU Denver brewing program to brewing for Tivoli (Nate commissioned their brewery at DIA), Sleeping Giant, and Blue Spruce as well as teaching classes in MSU’s brewing program.

Nate, Rick and Theresa have always strived to use the best quality ingredients in their beers. As Nate indicates, “It’s even better if those high-quality ingredients are also locally grown. The malt must have a consistent flavor, consistent protein and sugar composition, have traceability and transparency, a reputation of community support, sustainable practices and just good people. Root Shoot hits all the marks and goes above and beyond.”

Aww, thanks friend!

From our end, it’s this combination of high-quality malt and personal relationships with brewers and owners that we most value. Nate, like so many of our brewers, has served us beers, visited our farm, and attended our Field Days. Heck, he’s even ridden in our combine! 

We are, as Nate puts it craft beer family.

If you’re convinced you should give them a visit, Nate recommends the Honey Kolsch for first-time visitors. A gem of an easy-drinking beer with a clean and crisp profile, it offers a delightful balance of flavors attractive to experienced beer connoisseurs or newbies to the craft beer scene.

Snag some food while you’re there, too! They’ve got a full menu daily, happy hour specials from 3-5 pm, and happy hour all day Sunday! Mug clubs, private event hosting, live music on Saturdays…Blue Spruce has it all, served up with amazing beer and an open invitation to join their community. 



Field Notes: Digging Deeper on Kernza

A few weeks ago, we did a post on the newest grain trial we’ve got growing on the farm: a small, seven-acre patch of Kernza, an exciting grain project from The Land Institute out of Kansas. 

Now that the seed is sprouting and things are greening up, we wanted to take a bit of a deeper dive into these trial acres we’ve planted. What the heck is Kernza anyway, and why bother trying something that’s still just in the development phases?

What is Kernza, anyway?

Kernza is the trademark name for the grain from an intermediate wheatgrass being developed by The Land Institute out of Kansas.

That’s a real mouthful. And if you’re thinking, “Well, what the heck is an intermediate wheatgrass, anyway?” we’ve got you covered.

It’s a perennial, sod-forming grass. And grasses - even the sod in your lawn, if not mowed - produce seed. The goal with Kernza is to produce a seed large enough to be used as a common grain, just like wheat, barley, or corn. The real key with Kernza though, is its perennial nature. Once planted, it comes back on its own year after year which, potentially, could provide a whole host of benefits for farmers, ranchers, and the environment.

Let’s start with soil…

Back in the pre-western expansion days of the prairie, before the land was tilled up to become the “breadbasket of America,” a complex system of grasses and some shrubs dug their deep roots into the soil. This provided a rich ecological environment in what, at first glance, might appear to be an open, almost barren (except for those grasses) expanse. Those deep roots prevented erosion, encouraged rich soil microbiology, and provided resilience for the prairies after a fire. We also now know they pulled carbon into the soil. Above ground, they fostered grasslands teeming with critters and wildlife including, of course, millions of buffalo.

When those perennial grasslands were tilled up to plant annual grains, all sorts of unintended consequences followed: soil exposure to the elements, erosion, the release of large amounts of carbon into the atmosphere, decreased plant diversity, and decreased wildlife diversity to name only a few.

But what if we could change that, even a little?

By working to develop a perennial grain that could be viable from a commodity standpoint, what if we could turn back some of the unintended consequences? And what if it could benefit farmers? A perennial grain could…

  • Reduce, or even eliminate tillage, which not only reduces carbon released into the atmosphere, but also the amount of fuel, labor, and expense for farmers. 

  • Reduce the need for farmers to purchase new seed annually. Once a field were planted, it would produce indefinitely.

  • Serve multiple functions: in addition to producing grain, Kernza stems and leaves can be grazed by cattle, allowing for pastured beef and hooves on the fields, a symbiotic relationship of perennial grass and grazing animals that goes back millennia.

Just this short list of changes could have great impact, and there exists even more possibility: Kernza produces more seeds than wheat, it’s lower in gluten than wheat, and high in antioxidants, and fiber. It’s quite healthy.

But it’s not there, yet.

As great as it all sounds, developing a new grain isn’t easy. For it to be truly viable, it needs to have crop yields similar to those of other grains - and there’s a whole host of factors that farmers have to consider that most folks just munching on a loaf of bread wouldn’t realize goes into that loaf. Grains have to resist lodging (falling over) so that they can be harvested. The seed size has to work for farm equipment, the seed heads can’t shatter too easily, or too much grain is lost, and the grain quality has to be consistent. 

It’s a tricky process, for sure.

But difficult things are often the things most worth doing, and to have any hope of getting them done, sometimes you just have to…

…try.

So we’ve planted this initial seven acres of Kernza and we’re going to see what comes of it. Certainly, we will learn a lot. Possibly, we’ll get some really unique grain out of it.

And ideally - hopefully - we’ll be able to do a little good. 

Cheers to difficult things.








🥇🥈🥈🥉This past weekend, on March 1st, 2025 the Craft Maltsters Guild hosted the 7th annual Malt Cup and Root Shoot continued its winning streak! 💪 🇺🇲If malt had an Olympic team, we’d be waving a flag right now. For the seventh straight y
🏆 Malt Cup Champions Incoming! 🏆 🏀MALT MADNESS: MUNICH WHEAT You heard the news, right? 🙌 We took home FOUR medals at this year's @craftmalting Malt Cup, with Munich Wheat, Cara Ruby, and Light Munich 4 making their award-winning debuts, while
Michael Myers: 7 Years, 7 Malt Cups, 0 Horror Movies. 🎃 🔪Our Michael Myers has officially been at Root Shoot for seven years—and in that time, he’s managed to rack up seven years of Malt Cup wins (that's 15 medals!). Coincidence? Pure