Brewery of the Month: Public Offering

We’ve got to start this brewery feature backwards.

Whenever we highlight breweries or distilleries here on the Root Shoot blog, we do our research: we look at every business’s website, we read local articles written about them. We surf their social media and check out their posts.

But we also send them a short list of questions to get their personal input. We want to hear the first-hand stories about opening a brewery, what it’s like to run one, and anecdotes from this crazy craft world we all work in. And the last question we always ask is a loaded one: What are your beer recommendations for a first-time visitor?

Asking a brewer or a brewery owner for their favorite beer is like asking a parent to pick their favorite child. But we do it anyway. We want to know! So, let’s cut to the chase:

There’s a new brewery in Denver! Public Offering Brewing Company, on South Broadway.

And their beer recommendation for folks checking them out for the first time?

Open Spaces Kölsch.

Okay, yes, we’ll admit it’s a Root Shoot beer (it uses Root Shoot Pilsner, Vienna, and Malted Wheat) but that’s not why we love it. Or at least not entirely why.

It’s Open Spaces. You all…if you don’t know that you’re following a farm and malthouse obsessed with both land conservation (open spaces) and community (open spaces!) you need to regroup and go spend some more time on our socials.

So our hearts kind of melted when we found out there was a Root Shoot beer at a new, Root Shoot-supporting brewery called Open Spaces. We tuned into a pile of happy, kölsch-drinking mush. Public Offering is our kind of brewery. And the owner, Cody Higgenbottom is our kind of people.

A hobby home brewer with a background in finance (Public Offering is partially a play on that previous profession) Cody decided to take his hobby pro…but he did his research first. He earned a brewing certificate from Regis University and interned at Station 26, another Root Shoot-supporting brewery. (Fun fact: our Genie Pale malt was developed specifically for Station 26’s Juicy Banger.)

It was, in fact, at Station 26 that Cody first become familiar with Root Shoot’s malt, and he continued using it in his home brews while developing recipes. When he made the leap to opening Public Offering, he stuck with us. “I wanted to focus on using as many local ingredients as possible,” he said. “I have always had great success with Root Shoot grains so it was a no-brainer to continue to partner with Root Shoot when we finally opened.”

Well, that just warms the corners of our little kölsch-loving hearts.

Cody and his crew began looking for a space to open their future brewery in the fall of 2019 but then - you know - COVID…and things were delayed. Eventually, however, they found their spot: an old Cadillac dealership turned auto body shop turned antique store and now, brewery. Remodeling a building with that many different past lives took some serious work, but you have it admit…it looks stunning.

In addition to a play of words from his finance career, Cody chose the name Public Offering as a representation of what he wants the brewery to be. “The entire concept of the brewery is trying to create a place where everyone not only feels a connection to the brewery but a part of it,” he told us. “Our goal is to make our guests and our community feel like our brewery is their brewery and create one big neighborhood of beer-loving friends. Public Offering is meant to reflect the concept that we're offering our beers and brewery to everyone.”

Open spaces.

See why we’re so excited about this place?

It’s early in the game - Public Offering just opened in mid-November, but already they’re feeling embraced by their neighborhood. “We've received a ton of positive feedback from guests about how comfortable, welcoming, and warm our taproom feels, and how friendly and inviting our staff is,” says Cody.

From our visits there to deliver malt (okayyyy, and to maybe have a few beers, too) we have to agree.

It’s inviting. It’s cozy. The beer is delicious, the company excellent and the business - from grain to glass - is local.

So, next time you’re cruising through South Broadway, go check them out. Order an Open Spaces that was grown just up the road on some (recently protected!) open spaces, and marvel at what community can do, when they choose to Save Farms (and open breweries) One Beer At a Time.

AMBA-itious

We know this may come as a real shock to some of you, but beer doesn’t grow on trees.

It’s a darn shame. Can you imagine what it would be like to have an IPA tree growing in your backyard? Or a stout shrub? A perennial pilsner plant, just out the back door in the garden?

But, alas, it’s not that easy. Beer comes from barley and barley grows in fields ( a cereal plant from the grass family, not a tree.) It’s tended to by farmers like our own Olanders and it takes acres upon acres of these tiny little grains to power the craft beer businesses that you all know and love.

Growing any living thing - from crops to cows, from house plants to your own miniature humans - has its tricks and requires its own unique skill set. Barley is no exception.

A cool-weather plant, barley has been grown extensively in Colorado for generations. Traditionally, it likes the dry, often chilly Colorado weather, and it doesn’t mind altitude or short growing seasons. But it can also be a little finicky when it produces grain. Stressed barley plants can have protein content so elevated our brewers can’t use them, and numerous things can stress barley out: drought, high temps, dry windy days, hail…or just looking at it funny when it’s having “a day.”

We all have those days.

These stressors, however - all of them largely related to changing weather patterns - mean that growing barley here in Colorado is getting trickier. We’re having to stay on top of our game and even, at times, think outside the box. In a previous blog, we talked about how we’re trying two experimental barley varieties for our region, Thunder and Lightning. We’re working hard to up the soil health of our fields, with the belief that healthier soil will produce more resilient crops. We’re also trying to stay on the cutting edge of all thing well...barley! Which is why, this year, we kicked off 2023 by joining the American Malting Barley Association.

The American Malting Barley Association (AMBA) works to foster research to develop rock-solid barley varieties. They advocate for farmers in the industry, and they evaluate and recommend barley varieties to growers each season based on those evaluations.

In other words, in a world lacking beer trees, they do their darnedest to help us get good barley so you can get good beer, even if it is at your local craft brewery and not off of your own backyard pilsner plant

We’re excited to see what we learn. We’re excited to try new things. We’re happy to grow our community. We’re working - always - to try and stay on top of every good practice we can, to keep bringing you the killer craft malt (and nerdy Field Notes) that you’ve come to expect from us.

It’s an AMBA-itious goal, but we’re confident we can live up to it.

Sow, Grow, Malt, Deliver

Photo by Emily Sierra Photography

Traditionally, January is a time for resolutions

After the excess and the indulgence of the holidays, the country collectively pulls itself together, takes a deep breath, and commits to doing better. We sign up for gym memberships. We reduce our screen time. We swear we’ll figure out work/life balance, and we promise to stop eating so much junk food. A few dedicated souls even give up alcohol in the name of Dry January.

We tried that once.

It was a terrible idea.

For us, anyway. But you do you! We’ll still support you!

Whatever your take on resolutions (or Dry January, for that matter), it does seem natural to use the change of the year to re-evaluate: to check in with oneself (or, in our case, with one’s business) set some goals, make some commitments, and start the year off right, gosh darn it.

Photo by Emily Sierra Photography

We’ve been working on getting 2023 right for a few months, already.

As Root Shoot has grown past the “Argh, holy crap, what are we doing!” stage of starting a new business (all you brand-new business owners out there, we feel your pain!) to an established business at full capacity, we’ve actually had a chance to breathe. A chance to step back and ask ourselves what we’re really doing, and whether what we’re doing is precisely what we want to be doing, and how we want to be doing it. Sure, we’re making malt. But we also hope we’re supporting local businesses, being good stewards of our land, and growing community.

So, how do we wrap that all up in a neat package to keep us on track?

By nailing down our Mission and Vision, of course. Maybe a few Core Values as well.

And while the terms Mission and Vision can sometimes smack of corporate America and stuffy board rooms, at Root Shoot Stuff isn’t really how we roll.

In true craft malt spirit, our Mission and Vision were developed over a weekend retreat in Winter Park in between games of frisbee, visits to local breweries, and a few highly competitive card games.

Because if you don’t want your company to be stuffy, why have a stuffy process?

Photo by Emily Sierra Photography

Help save us from stuffiness.

We’re sharing our work here with you - our Mission, Vision, and Core Values - not because we think people really get their kicks from reading others’ internal documents, but because we want you to hold us to them. We want you to know the standards we expect of ourselves and to call us out if we fail to live up to them.

Better yet, if you catch one of our employees living up to them, well heck - send us that info, too, so we can give ‘em some love.

The Root Shoot Malting Mission:

We sow, we grow, we malt, we deliver

And the Vision:

To inspire exceptional beverages by connecting brewers and distillers to the land.

And the process to get there, our Core Values:

We are a team: 

We collaborate with our customers as partners and we partner with our colleagues as teammates. We work as one cohesive group to provide exceptional service and to continually move the malthouse forward. We are honest and straightforward in our interactions both with our customers and with our colleagues. We address issues clearly and directly when they arise and we work together to find solutions. We are, in all interactions, solution-oriented.

We are leaders: 

We innovate, and we pave our own path both as a farm and as a malthouse. We take leadership as an inherent responsibility and we play an active role in advocating for and educating about our industry. As an industry-leading organization, our staff is comprised of leaders: each of us, in every role, actively strives to find ways to innovate, to do better, to work better, and to serve as a role model in the greater craft malting and agricultural worlds.

We are consistent: 

We deliver consistency: with people, products, partners, and expectations. We provide the same quality of service to our smallest customers as we do to our largest, and our consistency of service for both never wavers. We provide a consistent product: the Root Shoot name is synonymous with quality. We maintain high expectations for all we do, and we work until those expectations are met.

We are professionals: 

We are capable, respectful, and professional at all times in all interactions whether they be with team members, customer partners, or other members of the industry. We comport ourselves in a manner that reflects Root Shoot’s good name in all scenarios. We exercise moderation in an alcohol-oriented industry. We are advocates for our customers, our industry, and all players in it, regardless of whether they are direct customers. We “go the extra acre” for everyone we work with and speak positively about businesses we do not serve. 

And you? Are you making New Year’s resolutions? Stepping up your 2023 game?

We’d love to hear about it. We’ll even cheer you on!

Because teamwork makes the dream work, and we consider all of you - our breweries and distilleries, our homebrewers, and all you craft drinkers - part of our team.

Wishing you good beer for the New Year,

— Your Root Shoot Malting Team

That's a Wrap! 2022 Field Notes from the Farm

‘Twas the night after harvest

And all through the farm, not a creature was stirring (except in the barn.)

The tractors were parked in the shop with great care

In hopes that their maintenance would this year be spare…

Alight. We’ll admit it. We’re better farmers than poets. But with the growing season over and the holiday cheer really kicking in, we wanted to take a stab at kicking off our Final Field Notes of 2022 with a little holiday inspiration. Though perhaps we’d do a little better sticking to some bourbon-spiked eggnog rather than rhyming verse. 

Duly noted.

Still, as 2022 rolls to a close, and as we take a rare, but welcome moment to sit back, kick up our boots, and sip on that eggnog, we can’t help but wax a little poetic.  Farming will do that to you. All the hard work, long hours, and crazy pace suddenly draw to a close and we look back and think, “Holy sh*t! We did it!” Another year in the books. 

And while this year wasn’t our all-time best year, it certainly wasn’t our worst year either. 2022 marks a solid year of agriculture. It wasn’t without its ups and downs, and things never, ever go 100% as planned in agriculture, but we had a decent harvest, we made some big changes to our farm plan, and - as the goal is every year - we got a little bit better at what we do. 

Of Note at Olander Farms

Our 2022 Year-in-Review

(It rhymes! Maybe we are poets!)

Harvest: 

This year’s farming by the numbers!

• Total acreage farmed: 1,797 acres

• Barley: 37,000 bushels of malt-quality barley

• Bourbon: (Okay…we don’t actually harvest bourbon…just future bourbon!) 30,000 bushels of non-GMO distillers’ corn.

• Silage Corn (food for cows!) 2,200 tons

• Alfalfa: (also food for cows and other critters!) 3,300 tons  (4,400 3'x4'x8' Bales)

• Barley straw: 500 Bales 

• Corn stalks: 600 Bales

• Grass hay: 300 Bales

• Heritage Abenaki Corn: 200 bushels
  

Heritage:

If you haven’t heard us rambling on yet about our experiments with Abenaki Corn and Oland Wheat (both heritage grains) well…then…you probably need to follow our socials a little more! This year in the “How-the-Heck-do-we-do-Heritage” we’ve made some gains, placed a few bets, and, of course, ran into a few hiccups.

We’ve upped our acreage of Abenaki corn from one acre to ten. While it’s a beautiful corn with a unique flavor, it’s not without its challenges. So far, we’ve had pretty poor yield results and a significant problem with corn smut, but we’re aiming to take measures to improve those issues. In the meantime, we’re taking a little break to turn what we’ve harvested into bourbon!

With the wheat shortage this year, we made the decision to lower our pricing on our heritage Oland wheat to make it more accessible to our brewers and distillers. If you’re looking to support patent-free, open-source seed, consider using Oland in your next batch of beverage goodness!

Cows:

The bovine ladies are an integral part of our soil plan…and our weekly menus!

Regenerative farming is about networks that support healthy food, and as we have our hands a bit full with the malthouse and the farm (and a small herd of cows ourselves) we’ve been working with other farmers and ranchers to bring some cows to the cover crops. This helps us reduce our workload while still improving our fields, and it provides fresh forage for other farmers to feed their cattle. Win for us, win for the farmers, win for some hungry cattle!

• Webb Cattle have 186 cows that will graze about 200 acres at our Bacon Lake farm 

• Battle Creek Ranch has 122 Yearlings that will graze 80 acres at the Mazza farm

• 150 pairs of Mom and Calf graze 180 acres at the Larson East farm. 

• Olander Farms has 18 Cow Pairs (and Billy the Bull) that graze 40 Acres on our home property.

Whew. By our count, that’s 477 rather large animals chewing (and pooping!) on our fields. With that much going on, We’ve also ended up with more beef than we have sold in previous years. We have halves and quarters available and, for the first time, smaller beef packages for folks who don’t have the freezer space for more. Interested? Check out this order form for December orders or email team@rootshootmalting.com for details.

Collaboration:

Regeneration takes collaboration! This year, we’ve been thrilled to work with old and new partners alike, all in an effort to improve our last, reduce our carbon footprint, and grow healthy, local food (and beverages) for our community.

• We’re partnering with Zero Foodprint - a program that works with chefs, restaurants, farmers, and even the Department of Agriculture to reduce the carbon footprint in ag and increase soil health, both of which are causes close to our hearts!

• Locus Agricultural Solutions is helping us implement microbial soil solutions and improve our farming practices to (yet again) reduce our carbon footprint and grow healthier food.

• The Natural Resources Conservation Service is providing assistance with our cover crop seed, planting, and rotation!

• The Colorado Department of Agriculture gave us a grant to help fund work with Turn It Up Media so we can revamp all our sales materials and website and make some sexy marketing material to spread about all the good things going on!

Conservation:

When talking land conservation in the Front Range, it’s always a mixed bag of news. 

We lost acreage to development this year: 195 acres of land (and in 2021 we lost another 160.) While that always gets us down, there’s good news on the conservation front as well.

First of all, we’re keeping our fingers crossed but we’re hoping to finalize the conservation easement on our own 112 acres at Olander farms by early 2023. (Please send us all the good farm mojo you have!)

Additionally, one of our favorite leased farms, Waggener Farm - a high-yield, strategically located series of fields - is nearly completely conserved! 160 Acres went under conservation in 2021, another 160 was conserved this year, and the last 160 will be conserved in 2023.

These glimmers of progress make us feel like all the work we’ve done one day might just pay off…

And Then, of course, there’s…

Barley!

In combination with the annual 900 acres of barley we plant annually to keep those malt drums running, we’ve also planted 34 acres of two experimental fall-planted barley varieties, Thunder and Lightning. Read more about that project here!

Now, as we roll into winter things on the farm front will slow down a bit. We’ll do our annual equipment maintenance and care for the cattle. We’ll plan out spring plantings and keep an eye on the malthouse silos.

But we’ll also relax, at least a little bit. Visit the breweries and distilleries we supply. Spend time with friends and family. Take a day (heck, maybe several days!) off and go skiing.

Life - and farming - is made of seasons, and winter is the season of rest. Of recuperation. Of taking the time to sleep in - or to stay up late having drinks with friends. It’s the season for reading books in front of a fire and having snowball fights with kids. It’s for sipping on a bourbon and dreaming about the future. We have lots of dreams for the future, and in January we’ll resume the hard work of making those happen. But for now, this holiday season, we wish you rest and relaxation. Time for yourself, and recuperation. The space you need to regenerate. Because regeneration isn’t just for agriculture.

It’s for us all.

Wishing you the Happiest of Holiday Seasons,

—Olander Farms

Stellar Staff: Highlights, Happenin's (and a few Insider Tips!)

A Shout Out to Our Employees

We couldn’t do what we do without the hard work of our dedicated team. And so, as we wrap up this calendar year, we asked them to reflect a bit on 2022 at Root Shoot Malting. Read their reflections (posted in no particular order!) to see what stood out to everyone - and pick up a few favorite beer and spirit tips in the process!

Photo by Emily Sierra Photography

Team Member: Mike Myers

Position: Malthouse Manager aka The Barley Sherpa

Malthouse Tagline: “I came here to dominate!” “There’s Genie up in that, yo!”

What are you proud of in your position at Root Shoot this year? Establishing transparent sales sheets with published parameters. Also, our high success rate of malting batches this year. We continue to be a leader in the marketplace. Everything. I am proud of everything: where we came from to where we are now.

What was your personal Root Shoot Highlight of the Year? There are so many this year! Winning 4th craft malt cup award, certainly. We filled our first silo at Funkwerks which was awesome. Upslope’s Oatmeal Stout also counts as a highlight. It’s got that English Pale malt in it! One of the GABF pro-am award-winners used our malt. I got to visit Riverbend Malthouse in North Carolina and Grouse Malt House here in Colorado. And, of course, the Root Shoot whiskey project. 

If you were a Root Shoot malt, which would you be and why? Light Munich. It’s genie pale dialed up to 11. Flavor, depth, and complexity without the color. It is the most overlooked malt we offer. Pilsners, pales, ipa, dark beers. Is there anything this would not be good in? No. It would rock them all. 

What is the beer or spirit you just can’t get enough of this year? Family Jones Earl Grey Gin. Jessup Farms’ Train Delay Tequila Barrel. Stodgy English Porter.  Avant Garde French Pilsner.  

What would you like to say to Root Shoot’s breweries, distilleries, and the community at the end of this 2022 year? Keep making the products that inspire the team and me.

Photo by Emily Sierra Photography

team Member: Alex Moss

Position: Packaging Specialist

Malthouse Tagline: I’m not sure what I say, but I’m definitely the only one in the malthouse with giant headphones with an antenna that makes me look like an alien communicating with my mothership

What are you proud of in your position at Root Shoot this year? Being able to keep up with 3 drums of malt each week and still find places to store it all.

What was your personal Root Shoot Highlight of the Year? Taking Mondays off and coming in on Saturdays to check malt

If you were a Root Shoot malt, which would you be and why? English Pale because it has a hint of darkness and sweetness.

What is the beer or spirit you just can’t get enough of this year? Leopold gin and lemonade

What would you like to say to Root Shoot’s breweries, distilleries, and the community at the end of this 2022 year? Keep the beer flowing!

Photo by Emily Sierra Photography

team Member: Heyward Gualandi

Position: Accounts manager

Malthouse Tagline: “Cheers!” Also, I’m the one in the malthouse always loving on the malthouse cats.

What are you proud of in your position at Root Shoot this year? I’m proud of Root Shoot for continuing to push on regenerative ag and closing our consumption loops. For example, using solar power to offset energy use, sending our steeping water back to the farm fields, and feeding malting by-products to the cows.

What was your personal Root Shoot Highlight of the Year? I moved into a full-time role!

If you were a Root Shoot malt, which would you be and why? White wheat malt; plays well with others, comfortable in a lot of situations, rarely the star of the show but helps others shine.

What is the beer or spirit you just can’t get enough of this year? Oh, that’s a hard one! But probably Hello Brew’s Side Pour Pils

What would you like to say to Root Shoot’s breweries, distilleries, and the community at the end of this 2022 year? I am so humbled and honored to be working with such great producers. The science, art, and creativity that our partners consistently bring to the market is inspiring. To be able to engage professionally with such a talented group and have an inside look at their creative process is awesome!

Photo by Emily Sierra Photography

team Member: Todd Olander

Position: Farmer, Founder, Occasional Maltster, Frequent Farm Mechanic, Bluetick Coonhound Dad

Malthouse Tagline: We’re not sure, because we can never hear him over Thompson’s bellowing

What are you proud of in your position at Root Shoot this year? I’m really proud of everyone involved in growing our company and what we've accomplished. It's pretty amazing to see how far we've come with such a small team. 

What was your personal Root Shoot Highlight of the Year? Definitely the installation of our 3rd (and final!) drum! After so many years of building, it’s amazing to actually have run our 3rd drum at its full capacity for 8 months straight. Huge accomplishment! 

If you were a Root Shoot malt, which would you be and why? Light Munich. It's underrated and flies under the radar. Or English Pale Malt - because it blows away Maris Otter. 

What is the beer or spirit you just can’t get enough of this year? Leopold Three Chamber Rye Whiskey. And maybeeee I’ve been sneaking bottles of Root Shoot’s Single Malt Whiskey. Which is fantastic, by the way. (Or so I’ve heard.)

What would you like to say to Root Shoot’s breweries, distilleries, and community at the end of this 2022 year? It's pretty simple, but we can't thank our customers enough for choosing to partner with Root Shoot.

Photo by Emily Sierra Photography

team Member: LeeAnne Sanders

Position: Communications

Malthouse Tagline: “Are you sure you don’t want to turn that into a TikTok?”

What are you proud of in your position at Root Shoot this year? The consistent work we’ve done to tell Root Shoot’s story in an accessible and engaging way. It always makes my day/month/year when folks come up and tell me what they’ve learned from Field Notes for Farm Nerds, or comment on our blog!

What was your personal Root Shoot Highlight of the Year? Attending the Root Shoot Rendezvous! Since I work remotely and only get to see the crew about once a month at the malthouse, getting to spend a whole weekend with them drinking beer and plotting Root Shoot’s future was a real blast. Also, filming the Michael Myers Halloween videos was one of the better days at work in my career. Seriously. Who pays me to do this?

If you were a Root Shoot malt, which would you be and why? Double Honey. It’s good at what it does, but isn’t the most well-known of our malts.

What is the beer or spirit you just can’t get enough of this year? NSFW from Jessup Farm Barrel House (Rye whiskey barrel-aged red ale with Ethiopian coffee) and pretty much any whiskey cocktail from Abbott and Wallace.

What would you like to say to Root Shoot’s breweries, distilleries, and the community at the end of this 2022 year? We love sharing the love, so please reach out anytime with ways we can help promote you!

Photo by Emily Sierra Photography

team Member: Emily Olander

Position: Co-founder, Unofficial Operations Director, Chief Communicator, Cheerleader, Todd-Wrangler

Malthouse Tagline: “Heyo!” and “Awww, you guys!”

What are you proud of in your position at Root Shoot this year? I’m most proud of our entire team! There has been a ton of change at both the malthouse and the farm this year: tolerating construction projects, implementing regenerative agriculture, and adapting new farm practices. Everyone is open-minded, eager to learn, and works pretty independently as a whole.

What was your personal Root Shoot Highlight of the Year? Creating that amazingly adaptable team! We have lots of new roles and new team members at both Olander Farms and Root Shoot. It’s all really coming together and making for a high-functioning (and fun!) staff. 

If you were a Root Shoot malt, which would you be and why? Honey malt! It just tastes good. Pro Tip: Throw it into cookies and yogurt :)

What is the beer or spirit you just can’t get enough of this year? Funkwerks Kriek (Barrel-Aged Belgian-Style Sour with Cherries)

What would you like to say to Root Shoot’s breweries, distilleries, and the community at the end of this 2022 year? I always like this saying: We believe the ultimate goal of farming is not the growing of crops, but the cultivation and perfection of human beings. The people behind the malt, farm, beer, and spirits, are pretty incredible. We’re thankful to be working with like-minded business folks who believe in and are proud of what we’re doing.

Photo by Emily Sierra Photography

team Member: Craig Miller

Position: Production/Account Manager

Malthouse Tagline: Oh gosh. I don’t know if I have one. Mikey’s full of them. I just do puns. 

What are you proud of in your position at Root Shoot this year? I’m proud that I’ve taken on some of the sales responsibilities this year. I’ve enjoyed helping bring the malt house up to full production capacity this year. I’m also hoping to be elected to the Craft Malt Guild BOD. I am helping the Brewing Science program at Auburn University (my alma mater) as a content contributor/subject matter expert for the brewing supply chain.  Super excited that I can share Root Shoot’s story with the future brewing professionals coming from Auburn as we write this new class. 

What was your personal Root Shoot Highlight of the Year? Root Shoot Retreat was fun! 

If you were a Root Shoot malt, which would you be and why? Pilsner malt! Ha. Not only because it’s my current favorite beer style, but it’s very versatile. Good on its own but also works well when combined with others! 

What is the beer or spirit you just can’t get enough of this year? All the Pilsners. Specifically, I’d say Verboten’s, Over Yonder’s, Ursula’s. 

What would you like to say to Root Shoot’s breweries, distilleries, and the community at the end of this 2022 year? Please keep supporting your local breweries and distilleries! It’s so important to the fabric of our communities. It goes beyond a place to grab a good beer or cocktail. And be nice to your bartenders.

Malt to the Max

For the love of all things barley, it’s been a year.

We’re always busy at the malthouse - crafting some of the best dang malt in the country is a full-time job, after all - but this year, we achieved some major milestones. Maltstones, you might call them. Goals that have been long in the dreaming and years in the making. And the honest truth of it? 

We’ve had a blast in the process. Turns out this whole craft malt community is pretty amazing. We’re honored to be a part of it. We’re also dedicated to promoting it - to growing this craft community that has helped us arrive at where we are today, and which, through so many amazing malthouses, farms, breweries, and distilleries, continually promotes healthy land and amazing artisanal beverages.

Cheers to craft…and cheers to our amazing team for reaching so many milestones with such an amazing heart. 

The Root Shoot Crew 2022 Year-in-Review

Photo by Emily Sierra Photography

Cranking out malt at full capacity!

Root Shoot Malting is finally at capacity! Building a malthouse is no small feat, and after six years of continual growth, 2022 marks the first time we will max out our infrastructure to make the most malt we can. 

How much malt is that, you ask?

• We’ll produce about 130 batches this year. The input for that? Roughly 2.5 million pounds of grain.

• We will make around 53 batches of Genie Pale malt, our biggest seller and most decorated malt with two malt cup wins. 53 batches =  over a million pounds of that genial Genie goodness.

• Our largest growth in malt this year has come from English Pale. We have moved almost 100% more than last year! English Pale is another one of our award-winning malts, so if you don’t have it in your mash tun, yet, give us a ring, and we’ll hook you up!

• Outside of Genie and English Pale, we’re also showing growth in the majority of the rest of our malt and grains! As of November…

  • Light Munich malt is up 17%

  • Munich 10 is up 25%

  • Pilsner is up 22%

  • Sales of raw corn and barley are up 43% and 68%

• Speaking of corn…a total of 1.5 million lbs of corn will have left the building. By our calculations, that’s equivalent to…a lot.. of bourbon whiskey!

Next year, we anticipate upping our numbers even more, as we’ll be running at full capacity from January 1. It’s so exciting to see so many years of work paying off!

Award-winning malt, four years in a row:

In January, we won our 4th consecutive Malt Cup award with a Bronze Medal for our English Pale malt. This means we’ve medaled in every Malt Cup to date. Our 2022 English Pale Bronze medalist joins Genie Pale, the 2019 Gold and 2021 Bronze medalist, and our 2021 Bronze Medal for Light Munich!

We hope to continue our medaling trend next year! Malt samples have been shipped off for the 2023 competition coming next March. 

Hittin’ those Homebrewers

This year, we’ve made excellent progress in making our malt more accessible to homebrewers!

We are thrilled to have worked out a partnership with Northern Brewer to make our malt available to homebrewers nationwide! Our partnership with Northern Brewer, also means we’re available in their sister companies,  Adventures in Homebrewing, Austin Homebrew Supply, and Midwest Supplies.

Locally, we also added our malt to Black and Blues Music and Brews, and Quirky Homebrew Supply who joined the amazing crew of homebrew shops that have carried our malt for years: The Brew Hut,  Altitude Homebrew Supply, Boulder Fermentation Supply, and The Bald Brewer!

Growing Our Community

In addition to expanding our homebrewing options, we’re pleased to have added more members to our Craft Malt Certified community! A warm welcome to Green Mountain Beer Company, Sunroom Brewing, Public Offering Brewing Company, and, of course, the Boulder favorite Upslope Brewing! These companies (along with all of our Craft Malt Certified businesses) have signed up and committed to making a difference in their local economies with grain-to-glass support!

Root Shoot Rendezvous-ing

As we settle into our groove at full capacity, we’re backed by a talented team of folks who truly have Root Shoot’s best interest at heart. We believe that good employees are a company’s most valuable asset and we’re working hard to invest in our employees as much as they are invested in us. This year, we hosted our first “Root Shoot Rendezvous,” spending a weekend in Winter Park as a team. Our main goal: craft a formal Mission and Vision for our company and back it with a short list of our most core values. 

We’re pleased to share that after much thoughtful discussion, and several working drafts, we have finally developed a Mission, Vision, and a guiding set of Core Values that will drive all decisions our company makes moving forward. We’ll be kicking off the new year next month by sharing these with you!

Next year, we’re upping the Root Shoot Rendezvous game.

In February, we’ll be taking our entire staff to Germany for a week of continuing education. We’ll be touring Kaspar Schulz, the manufacturer of our world-class malting drums, we’ll visit the legendary Weyermann Specialty Malts and get to do a brew day with them. We’ll venture out to hop farms, explore biergartens and breweries, and dive headfirst into the amazing history and culture that is the German beer scene.

Feeling the Love

Every month, we have business partners and community members who come to tour the malthouse. We have folks inquiring as to how our push to conserve farmland is progressing. Breweries leave us boxes of beer at the malthouse door, and distilleries send us bottles of spirits from as far away as Texas (thanks, Bendt!) 

We’ve said it many times before, and we’ll say it many times again: you, our Root Shoot community is the reason that we do what we do. You keep us learning, keep us improving, you’re our best cheerleaders, and our biggest supporters. So as we wrap up 2022 we are, and always will be…

…grateful for you.

Wishing you the happiest of holiday seasons,

-–Root Shoot Malting