Education

The clean, crisp, golden backbone of beer. Most brewers know it, love it, and order it without much debate. But here’s a hot take: if you’re only thinking about COA specs (protein, color, extract) you’re missing out on an entire dimension of creative brewing.

Harvest 2025 is wrapped, and wow, what a ride! We’re officially in the books with around 3 million pounds of barley safely tucked in storage bins, enough to fuel about a year and a half of malting magic here at Root Shoot. But beyond the numbers, this season felt like a big step forward in mastering winter barley, pushing regenerative practices, and learning the fine art of farming without a manual (because Mother Nature likes to keep us on our toes).

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!

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.)

We’ll run you through some of the numbers that created that craft cocktail you’re enjoying.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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!