Malt of the Month: Munich 10

Sometimes, good things come out of hard times.

Munich 10 malt was our silver lining of the 2020 pandemic. Or, perhaps more adequately, our bronze lining. A malt that we had been developing and refining, trying to make just right, finally hit its stride, winning a bronze medal in that year’s Craft Malt Cup, and giving us a bit of a bright spot in what was otherwise a strange and difficult time.

Or perhaps it was the isolation and solitude of the pandemic that made us creative, working to perfect this malt and the malting process until we hit the nail on the head, a task that served to both keep our minds busy and feel like we were creating something positive out of an uncertain situation.

Whatever it was, that 2020 batch of Munich 10 came out of the drum swingin,’ ready to flex its thick bread crust flavors and honey and brown sugar aromas in a wide variety of beers. 

Produced via a slightly warmer germination phase to increase the modification level, Munich 10 also receives a touch higher moisture in the kiln which promotes the melanoidin reaction, resulting in excellent color and flavor development, Munich 10’s strongest traits. 

This malt excels as an added extra layer that ups a beer’s game. Our personal favorite uses include employing it as a flavor and color enhancer for West Coast IPAs, or adding it to increase complexity in “roasty-toasty” beers. The caramel, honey, and brown sugar aromas, along with the light orange color from the wort also make this an excellent choice of malt for Oktoberfest season.

This year’s gold medal win in the Craft Malt Cup shows us that Munich 10 has continued to mature. It’s consistent, it’s high-quality, it’s predictable in its ability to elevate the brews it’s blended into.

It is, most definitely, a malt that you should add to your next pallet.

No regrets.

Brewery of the Month: Salt Road Brewing, Fort Collins

Scott Ficarra is clear about his mission in the craft brewing world:

“I’m on a quest to brew world beer styles with all Colorado ingredients.”

So it comes as a bit of a surprise to learn that a man dead-set on “making Northern Colorado become a world-renown location for beer and beer ingredients,” wasn’t always aboard the local train. 

Why the change in heart? 

The good influence of good friends.

Scott began homebrewing two decades ago while working for the steel industry in a job that took him all over the United States. “I have an engineer’s mind, but I’m also artistic,” he said. “Beer seemed like a good fit for a hobby as it has elements of both.”

When his job finally landed him in the craft beer mecca that is Colorado, Scott was sourcing most of his brewing supplies from online. One day, however, he noticed that a new homebrew supply shop, Elevated Fermentations, had opened. He went to check it out and…voila!…he was so impressed that he immediately converted to everything local.

Okay - perhaps we’re exaggerating a bit. But Elevated Fermentations, owned by John and Kristen Gawthrop, was, indeed, the beginning of Scott's (and Salt Road”s) local journey. The Gawthrops introduced him to Colorado Hop Company, Inland Island Yeast, Troubador Maltings and, of course, us!

Slowly, Scott began to reconsider his recipes and his position on local sourcing. “I don’t know how the hell they got me to change my mind,” he said. “I’m usually pretty set in my ways. But they did it…and now I’m on my quest to brew all-Colorado beers.”

As his homebrewing progressed, Scott and his wife Kelly, started talking about opening a brewery. In an objective and wisely pragmatic move, rather than jumping in blind, they figured that maybe Scott should enter some homebrewing competitions first. Why open a brewery if the greater public doesn’t love your beer?

More than 100 awards in 27 different categories later, they decided to go for it. But there was just one problem: they needed help, and the help they wanted - the Gawthrops, from Elevated Fermentations - had closed the brew store and moved out of state. 

Then they got a phone call. The Gawthrops were moving again. Scott invited them to Colorado to help open the brewery he had in mind. They thought it over and accepted.

Salt Road Brewing opened on April 22nd of this year, with Scott and Kelly as co-founders (and brewer and president, respectively) and John and Kristen as brewer and taproom manager. They’ve got a solid crew of taproom employees, and Scott is working hard at creating an “untypical work environment.” 

“We want to let people be themselves,” he said. “It’s a different world now, and people need flexibility. We want to give them that flexibility and let them work to their strengths.” 

Case in point? They don’t have a head brewer. Scott and John share the beer menu equally, each creating beers and styles that speak to them.

The taproom - Prost’s previous old town location, had been remodeled, re-worked, and boasts plenty of indoor seating, a large outdoor patio, and a small front patio right on the sidewalk. “It was so nerve-wracking opening a brewery just half a mile from New Belgium,” said Scott. “I mean, there I am, just a homebrewer, right in the middle of the big-leagues. I couldn’t mess this up.” So he didn’t. He and John worked around the clock to get a selection of really solid beers on tap. Kristen recruited a stellar taproom staff, and now, just a month and a half in, it’s really happening.

“I still haven’t even grasped that it’s actually open,” says Scott. “Maybe it’s just sheer exhaustion.”

But open they are, and they are cranking out all kinds of good beer!

Scott believes that a good American Pale Ale defines a brewery and how good the rest of its menu is going show. “When you do an American Pale very well people expect the rest of your beer to be done just as well.” Salt Road’s 555 Pale Ale is their take on this key style, and the rest of their menu lives up to the high expectation set by it: there are multiple IPAs (must try: Foggy Rather Groggy DIPA, but be warned - it’s a big 9%ABV.) The Melon Dream - fruited American wheat with honeydew melon is a summery beer meant for patio drinking. And Arrogant Sellout, an American Strong Ale that serves as a new brewery’s stab at Stone Brewing’s sellout last year after years of protesting (ad nauseam, in fact) that they would never do such a thing.

And along with all this good beer, Salt Road also takes some time to do some good. Each month, the brewery selects a charity to donate to, and patrons have the chance to round up their tab to contribute to those donations. The brewery also hosts rotating art by local artists.

They’ve got a lot going on for a business that’s only been open a month and a half…but they love it all.

“I’m trying to take time off,” Scott says. “I’m supposed to take off Monday and Tuesdays, but I often end up coming in anyway. Not because I don’t trust our staff. I just…love being here.”

And we love having them in the craft beer community.

So, if you’re looking for a new place to check out, if you’re big into supporting local, if you want to visit an up and coming brewery, or if you just want to have a craft pint on a comfortable old town patio…

..swing by Salt Road. And tell ‘em Root Shoot sent you. 

Brewery of the Month: Avant Garde Aleworks, Estes Park

Pop Quiz: 

What do you do when you finish a long, hard hike?

If the answer is, “find the nearest brewery and grab a craft beer,” then we should be friends. And as friends, we feel we should let you know that you can do both of these things (hike and craft-beer-it-up, that is,) in Estes Park. 

Long famous for the epic scenery in Rocky Mountain National Park, Estes is a fantastic destination for all things outdoorsy…but what do you do post-adventuring? When you’re all sweaty and have bug bites, and drank all your water, and just want to sit down and give those hiking boots a break?

Swing over to Avant Garde Aleworks, of course!

A sweet little brewery located just outside of downtown, Avant Garde was founded by the rarest of rare humans in that tiny tourist town: an Estes Park (and therefore Colorado) native! 

Owner Christian Newendorp founded Avant Garde with the goal of making all the beer he wanted to drink, but could never find in Estes. For the most part, this included Saisons, Belgian Abbey Styles, and older and less popular European beers. A longtime homebrewer, Christian worked with these styles of beer, gave them his own unique twist, and finally, on July 4th, 2019 he made the leap to commercial brewing, opening Avant Garde with the help of family members. Before doing so, however, he did his commercial brewing homework, shadowing and learning from well-established brewers including Jim McCann from Tommyknocker, Charlie Hoxmeier from Gilded Goat, and Shaun Salyards, who is now with Snowbank Brewing. 

The best part about it? The other brewers were welcoming and encouraging, something that only reinforced Christian’s belief that he had made the right decision in joining the craft brewing industry.

It’s this tight-knit craft community that we, here at Root Shoot, have to thank for sending Avant Garde our way! Industry friends, including another local Estes Park craft beverage producer, Elkins Distilling, recommended Root Shoot to Christian, he tried us out, and the rest is happy, beer-drinking history. We go hike, mountain bike, and explore RMNP, then we swing by Avant Garde to rest our weary legs and enjoy a Farmhouse Saison…made with local malt that we produced before bailing on all of our work duties to go hike, bike, and have fun.

Avant Garde is so invested in learning about their local ingredients that they brought the whole staff to the malthouse and it’s been a mutually beneficial and educational experience. We’re able to show them how we grow grain and turn it into malt, all just 45 minutes from their brewery, and they have helped us grow (as so many of our brewers and distillers do) by working with them to refine and re-think recipes with our malt. 

And the recipes are coming out killer! Their French Pilner ranks among Malthouse Manager Mike’s favorite beers of the year (a designation that Christian lists as one of his “proudest moments so far.” Maltster Mike knows beer!) That French Pilsner is also one of Christian’s favorite beers (we love it when brewers actually admit to having favorites!) along with the Altbier currently on tap. But they’ve got it all: light, dark, hoppy, saison-y - try a few of your standard types…then maybe branch out and try them all.

You just finished a hardcore hike.

You’ve earned a good beer in good company.

Cheers!

Field Notes: Starting Spring Right

We’ve had so much going on at the malthouse and the farm (a staff trip to Germany! Multiple malt medals!) that we haven’t kept up with Field Notes on our farmwork. Rest assured, however, that we have most definitely kept up with the fieldwork itself. Those beers you’re sipping aren’t going to grow themselves!

It’s May and we’re off to a great start to the farming season! All of our grain except for corn is in the ground, and with the moisture we got this past winter, everything is looking happy and healthy. Plus (as always!) we’re up some experimental shenanigans and busily taking notes on how it’s going. Here’s our spring roundup:

900 Acres of Future Beer is in the Ground!

900 acres is the minimum amount it takes annually to keep our malting drums busy. In an ideal world, we’d love to produce even more, so that we can hedge against weather events and stock up our silos for the tougher growing years. If you’ve got a line on available farmland in the area, by all means - give us a call!

And Don’t Forget the Rye Whiskey…

We’re not just all about the beer! We’re hoping some of that barley will become whiskey as well, and for those special batches of rye we planted 60 acres of Guardian Rye seed as well. It’s a new-to-us variety that we selected due to its spicy flavor, and based on a study from Michigan State University. Even if we’re rolling into summer, we know that winter will come, and we’ll need some warming tumblers of something tasty by the fire.

Lightning and Thunder Survived!

Last fall, we shared a post about planting Lightning and Thunder, two experimental barley varieties. Here’s the recap: in Colorado, most barley is planted in the spring. Typically, it can’t take our winter weather and would die if planted in the fall, unlike winter wheat, for example, which requires fall planting and cold weather to thrive in the spring. However, experimental varieties of fall-planted barley are in development with the hope that if we can find a barley that will withstand Colorado winters, it might be a way of providing more moisture to the plants: they could benefit from the winter snows to balance out our springs, which have become warmer and drier.

So we popped two varieties of this barley in the ground last fall and…they survived! Which is exceptionally good news, since this winter was much colder than those in recent years. If they made it through this past cold season, they stand a good chance of making it through future ones.

There’s still a lot of information to be gathered, however. All we can say for certain is that the plants survived and look happy. We still need to test for yield, quality, protein content and more. Stay tuned as we update you throughout the season!

Contemplating Kernza

If you follow our socials, you may have seen a post a couple weeks ago about Kernza. Part of our latest grain experiments, Kernza is a perennial grain developed by The Land Institute out of Kansas. The potential impact of a successful perennial grain is exciting: it could allow farms to have healthier soil biology, and it would reduce the need for tilling and replanting. It could promote carbon sequestration and reduce carbon released into the air from agriculture. There’s still a lot to learn - but no better time to start than now, so we’ve planted seven acres as a start, and we’ll see where it goes!

Corn is Coming and the Wheat is Wonderful!

The last crop that we plant every year, corn needs the weather to be a little warmer than all the others for planting, but we’ve had such a great spring that we managed to get it all in the ground this past week! And the winter wheat - oh, the wheat! With the moisture we had this past winter, the wheat is looking so much better than last spring.

We’re hoping it shapes up to be one heck of a year for harvests. Until that time, we’ll be here, growing your beer!

—Cheers!

Your Olander Farms Team

Malt of the Month: Vienna

Meet Root Shoot’s Vienna malt: gold medal winner in the 2023 Craft Malt Cup and Root Shoot malthouse rebel. Our Vienna is a malt that pushes the boundaries of flavor and color, a malt that turns up the heat where others might hesitate, a malt that is so spectacular at what it does, it fills brewhouses with aromatics that leave an impression for days. With flavors of warm, toasted bread and grains that burst with nuttiness, Vienna is anything but bland and boring. Even the hop steep from it stands out: its bright orange color and fresh pretzel aroma make brewers instantly long for Oktoberfest.

The secret to our Vienna’s success lies in high kiln temps that toast it to perfection. We finish it at 220 degrees - higher than our Munich 10, even - and the application of dry heat is where the magic takes place. 

But magic doesn’t come easily. One of the most labor-intensive malts we produce, Vienna always finishes in the late, dark hours of the night. More than once, we’ve stumbled out of bed at ungodly hours to drive to the malthouse and check on a batch. We’re rewarded by the warm-grain scents when we open the drum door, and the pleasure of watching raw grain turn into something exceptional. 

And Vienna truly is exceptional. Extremely functional as a base it can serve as a go-to malt, but when used in layers it creates amazing complexity in finished products. 

Want to taste what we’re talking about? We have suggestions. Stodgy’s Vienna Lager is a shining example, of what Vienna can do.  Best West Quest IPA at Tightknit Brewing in Greeley is another Vienna beer, and one on our personal list for one of the best beers of the year so far. Cellar West’s Wingra Pale Ale is both damn tasty and demonstrates the awesome color that Vienna produces.

Go on, give these beers (and Vienna malt) a try. After years of work and refinement in our production, we’re proud of where it has landed.

And we’re confident that you will be proud of what you and Vienna create.

Malt of the Month: Pilsner

531.

That’s how many times we’ve pulled this stunner of a malt out of our drums. Bright grain, perfect color and flavor, with an extract that always comes in exactly on point. 

Our pilsner kiln profile hasn't changed much over the years. Pilsner is consistent.  It’s the under-appreciated workhorse of the malthouse: not too flashy, just the right amount of hay and straw character to give it the perfect profile for delicate beers.  It lagers bright, the foam it leaves behind has it’s own je ne sais quoi with lacing for days.

The clean characteristics of our Pilsner are precisely those you expect of classic German malts. This is, after all, made from Genie barley, a European variety processed with European malting equipment.  It stays true to its classic tradition.

For the last couple of years, we have seen a shift to Pilsner malt for hazy IPA production, but now it seems the pendulum is starting to swing back: Root Shoot Pilsner lagers are popping up all over the place. Why might that be? Recently, at a sensory evaluation at one of our partner breweries, we put our Pilsner up against that of a large industry competitor. The unanimous results?

This majestic malt didn't win a gold medal and Best of Show for no reason. It lagers with the best of them!

If you’re looking to try some local beers made with our Pilsner before committing to a pallet yourself, we’ve got recommendations! Some of our favorite Pilsner-boasting beers currently on tap include:

Low Flow Pils at Gilded Goat. Photo courtesy of Gilded Goat.

Start’n’ Early from Woods Boss, an American Light Lager with beautiful color and a crisp profile.  Also, the Kellerman Pilsner from Green Mountain Beer Company which garnered lots of praise from the malthouse crew when they brought us a taste (or several.) Verboten's Pilsner is what dreams are made of, and we would be remiss if we didn't mention Barquentine’s Table Saison that won a silver at the World Beer Cup.  Oh! And what about Gilded Goat’s Low Flow Pils? Amazing. If you’ve had any Funkwerks beer lately...that's also our pilsner malt shining through.  

And shine it does. In fact, as of the Malt Cup just a few weeks ago, we can now say that our Pilsner malt is now a gold standard.  That's a hell of a statement. 

We are hell of proud of it.

We can’t wait to see what you dream up of this malt. Please let us know what you do. 

We’d love to come join you in toasting to lacing lagers, sexy saisons, and practically perfect pilsners.

Cheers, 

–Your Root Shoot team