Education

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.

Meet Root Shoot’s Vienna malt: gold medal winner in the 2023 Craft Malt Cup and Root Shoot malthouse rebel.

After three years of remote Craft Malt Conferences, we (and everyone else we met) were thrilled to be able to meet with our craft malt community in person again. Friends and colleagues, handshakes and hugs, beer and whiskey in glass-clinking toasts were a welcome change from the COVID shadows of the last few years.

Distillery 291 ranks high among these locally-focused, artisanal producers. Nestled in the stunning foothills of Colorado Springs, Distillery 291 is a globally-acclaimed, yet locally-focused small-batch distillery. 

This is Green Mountain Beer Company. A small brewery in the western suburbs of Denver, Green Mountain Beer Co emanates Colorado soul. Founded by those rock climbing buddies (and longtime friends) that we mentioned Cassidy Hill and Brian Milhaupt, have worked hard to create a space that serves up craft brews inspired by traditional methods but that cater specifically to the tastes and desires of the Colorado community.

That’s right. We built an entire malthouse before we even knew how to make malt. That’s kind of shocking, even to us. It gives us serious anxiety in retrospect if we think about it too long. Luckily, despite our rather non-traditional timeline of doing things, it all seems to have worked out in the end.

Root Shoot’s alternative to the traditional Maris Otter malt, English Pale Ale may not have the long and storied history of Maris Otter, but it is a malt through which we have begun to tell our own story…and the story of so many spectacular local beers.

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.

We wanted to explore the world of flavor beyond our traditional Malted White Wheat.  So, we took our malted white wheat, germinated it as usual, and sent it to the kiln with an entirely different kilning profile. We made sure the grain was full of moisture, then blasted it with high heat, applying the same kilning process that creates all the rich, complex flavors in our Munich 10 malted barley.

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’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.

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. 

November is typically when we finish up harvest here at Olander Farms. By this time of year, we’ve spent nine months planting, cultivating, watering, and growing. From barley planting in March to corn harvest in November, we’ve been busily working away, growing your future beer and soon-to-be spirits.

When you land on Bruz Beers website, you know immediately what you’ve gotten yourself into. Right there, in gold-colored text set against a black background, front-and-center on the homepage, Bruz lays it all on the line. Badass Belgian Beers.

It’s an understatement to say that barley is our cash crop. Sure, we grow some wheat and rye and corn. We dabble in heritage grains. But barley, as most craft enthusiasts know, is the backbone of beer (and it’s often used in spirits, too!) so running a malthouse means bringing in the barley - and lots of it.

The prize for the brewery in the furthest reaches of our glorious state has to go to Wild Edge Brewing Collective in Cortez, Colorado. Owned by Tucker Robinson and partners, Wild Edge sits in a remodeled warehouse in downtown Cortez and specializes in craft beers with an emphasis on sours - both kettle and barrel-aged. They also serve up some mean IPAs, Saisons, and Belgians.

Need a drink? Wanna support Root Shoot? Into saving family farms? We made a graphic for you! Save this pic in your phone, mark it as one of your faves, and use it to pick your next brewery or distillery adventure!

We work some amazingly beautiful properties. We get to spend our days in sunny fields with the Rocky Mountains as our backdrop. We’ve got bright green rows of crops under bright blue skies. We use some sexy looking tractors and some handsome vintage trucks.

Specializing in authentic Belgian beers, Barquentine draws its recipes from tradition, but their beer - and location - are definitely up to par for the modern-day Colorado beer nerd. Located in the trendy Edgewater Public Market, a beer-drinker can find plenty to explore for an afternoon, or even well into the evening.

It’s barley season, and the barley is coming in strong, something for which we are always thankful since it is the heart and soul of our entire operation. At last check, it has reached its full height, the seed heads are looking solid, and soon we’ll be cutting off irrigation.