Running On Mother Nature's Time

Seeding barley

The best-laid plans…

Quick! Pop quiz!

How many of you can actually finish that saying? 10 kernels of our heritage Abenaki corn to anyone who can answer without Googling it. Got it?

“The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry.”

Mice? Planning mice? What kind of nut came up with that one?

Robert Burns, Scottish poet from the 18th century. It’s from his poem, To a Mouse and the actual line reads, The best-laid schemes o’ mice an ‘ men/ Gang aft agley

We were going to title this blog post Gang Aft Agley just for fun, but we were worried folks might think we’d been hitting some of that (delicious) Talnua whiskey a little too hard, so we went with something a little more understandable. Can’t speak for Poet Burns though. Maybe he just wrote funny because he lived in the 1700s. Or because he was Scottish. Or because he was a Scottish poet living the 1700s and hitting that Scottish Ale a little too hard. If he was talking to mice about planning, the latter seems a distinct possibility.

Regardless, the possibly-tipsy original version has been paraphrased and shortened to the more modern, yet cryptic “The best-laid plans…” that we know today, and while we have absolutely no idea how things are going for the mice in our fields, we can state with great confidence that our best-laid plans this season have most definitely gone awry. (Or have ganged aft agley??)

It is often said that farming is a lesson in patience, but sometimes it feels like a lesson in chaos. Or flexibility. Or creativity. Or, on some days quite simply a lesson in Not-Panicking.

We have software that lays out what we’ll plant in each field and calculates exact acreage. We have schedules for tractor maintenance and schedules for our farmhands. We put seed orders in months in advance and we plan our crop rotations years in advance. We can plot, plan, scheme, and schedule all we want.

But, as every farmer knows, we cannot control the weather.

The Front Range has not gotten an epic amount of snow this season by any means. We had a terribly dry fall followed by a few decent-though-not-impressive snows this winter and, most recently, several light snows in March.

With farming and moisture, however, it’s not just about quantity. It’s also timing.

Weather permitting, March 1st is when we start planting barley and we keep right on planting until it’s all in, ideally before the end of the month.

March

This year, the weather was definitely not permitting.

The March snows, though hardly blizzards, have meant that the ground has been too wet to plant (working wet soil is one of the biggest no-nos of growing as it can lead to compaction and other problems when it dries) and our planting schedule was kicked back by a week, then two weeks, then nearly a month.

Finally, however, we’ve gotten some good runs of decent weather, and we’re hoping to get back on track. We’ve changed plans before (by which we mean every single year) and we’ll certainly have to do it again. Corn is going in next, and it can be even more finicky than barley. It needs to be planted in the spring in order to have time to grow to maturity, but it also hates cold soil. It can tolerate some coolness, but really, it’s happiest in baking hot weather, gettin’ its sunbathing on with a sexy pair of shades and a margarita in hand.

Corn is kind of a diva.

We are definitely nowhere near sunbathing-and-margarita weather, but we’ll see how the rest of this month goes. (Rain? Snow? A two-foot blizzard? 90-degree days?) Regardless, we’ll just have to roll with it. There’s no choice when dealing with Mother Nature.

It’s a good reminder for life. We can plan and plot and believe we’re in control. But we’re not. None of us., We adjust to what comes and keep on, keepin’ on.

Even Robert Burns knew that. Turns out his whole To a Mouse poem is actually about a farmer apologizing to a mouse whose house he has destroyed when plowing his field and the impact that might have on her.

That’s kind of sweet.

Maybe Burns hadn’t imbibed as much ale as we thought.

Photo courtesy of Loveland Aleworks

So while we’re waiting for our fields to dry, maybe we’ll grab a McAllister’s Scottish Ale from Loveland Aleworks (Root Shoot malt, of course) and take a stroll through our fields to warn the mice that the tractors will be coming soon. Only seems fair to give them a little advance notice.

In the meantime, as you’re going through your daily lives and things don’t go according to plan, remember us scrambling in the fields to finish our barley planting late, and start our corn planting even later. It’s not how we planned it, it will probably be a little frantic, but farmers have been farming for thousands of years - through drought, floods, late snows, and early frosts and we’re still here, figuring it out.

You will, too.

Happy Spring.

—Olander Farms

"Take No Sh*t and Trust Your Gut" - Root Shoot's Women in Brewing

When Sandra Day O’Connor asks you to brew her an IPA, you brew the woman an IPA.

“That was our first, holy sh*t moment,” says Betsy Lay, co-founder of Lady Justice Brewing in Aurora, Colorado. “We got an email in 2015 from the son of the first woman Supreme Court Justice, Sandra Day O'Connor. He reached out to let us know that Justice O'Connor had heard about us (before we even opened!) and asked if we could brew her an IPA.”

Hell, yes, they could. A well-suited request for the female-owned, justice-themed establishment. The Sandra Day IPA now sells out of their taproom and to states all over the country via their beer shipping page. 

Lady Justice forms part of a minority of breweries that are female-owned. According to new statistics released by the Brewers Association at the Craft Brewers Conference in September of 2021, female-owned breweries make up 23.7% of all craft breweries. That’s not even a quarter of breweries in a country where women make up over half of the population.  

March 8th is International Women’s Day, and we wanted to take a minute to recognize some of the badass brewers and brewery owners in our Root Shoot community who also just happen to be female. And since we started with Lady Justice, let’s continue with Lady Justice. Please meet…

Photo courtesy of Lady Justice Brewing

Betsy Lay, Lady Justice Brewing

Role: Head Brewer, Co-Founder

Lady Justice is not your typical brewery.

When they say “community-focused” they don’t mean just taproom events and a welcoming atmosphere, though they have those in spades. 

They mean that they’ve donated over $20,000 to community causes and that giving is a core part of their business plan. 100% of the profits from their Community-Supported Beer (CSB) program go directly to their partner non-profits.

That’s not a shabby outcome for a brewery that Betsy describes as originating as “a tipsy idea with my two best friends.” Betsy and her best-friends-turned-business-partners, Kate Power and Jen Cuesta, began Lady Justice in 2014. Betsy took the reins as head brewer from 2016-2019, and again took on the role in January of 2021. We sat down with her (okay, no, we didn’t, we communicated virtually with her, but same-same) to pick her brain about being a Lady Brewer at Lady Justice.

ROOT SHOOT: (Settling in and trying not to be socially awkward at interviewing.) Tell us, Betsy, what’s your brewery superpower? What do you, personally, absolutely rock at in the craft beer world?

BL: I have two specialties: 1) Bringing social enterprise, philanthropy, and beer together and 2) I brew the best dang ESB you will ever have.

ROOT SHOOT: (Frantically scribbling note-to-self. “Try the ESB. Step up community game to be as Badass as Betsy. Send complimentary note to Sandra on her IPA.”) And what do you love about your brewery? What are you proud of there?

BL: Our community and our neighborhood. We have the best staff and the best customers. Our crowd cares deeply for others and loves to give back to its community.

ROOT SHOOT: (Pumps fist and raises roof, even though roof-raising dates us terribly.) Hell, yeah! You go! Lady J! Lady J! Lady J!  (Tries to settle down.) Do you have any words of wisdom for women new to the craft beer world?

BL: Take no shit and trust your gut.

ROOT SHOOT: Preach it, sister.

Trusting one’s gut sounds good in theory, but in the day-to-day of life, it can be absolutely terrifying. Starting a business is a leap of faith. Running a successful business is loads of work. Starting a business during a pandemic and then keeping it successfully running over the ensuring two years of insanity is…well, exactly what our next brewery owner did, following her own gut instincts. Meet…

Photo courtesy of Wah Gwaan Brewing Co

Harsha Maragh, Wah Gwaan Brewing Company

Role: Co-Owner, Co-Founder

Wah Gwaan Brewing Company in Denver is a happy place. Caribbean-themed, (Wah Gwaan means What’s up? in Jamaican Patois) the beers have hints of ingredients that feel scandalously exotic like hibiscus, jackfruit, and pomegranate. The entire building is decked out with Jamaican and Caribbean-themed art, the company is excellent, and the crowd is diverse.

“I am proud of how we have created a space that feels comfortable, inclusive, and welcoming to anyone that walks through our doors. It's beautiful to see the diversity we have in our taproom on any given day,” says Harsha Maragh, co-owner and co-founder along with her business and life partner, Jesse Brown.

A first-generation Jamaican-American, Harsha grew up in New York City, as the daughter of Jamaican immigrants. Upon moving to the Front Range, she found it hard to connect with other Jamaicans. She wanted a space where Caribbean immigrants and other first-generation Caribbean-Americans could get a taste of home. So, naturally…she opened a brewery. 

Now, that’s dedication. 

We’re not Jamaican or Caribbean, but we’re abso-freaking-lutely delighted to work with a brewery with a different vibe. You may have noticed that the Colorado beer scene has a lot of beards and flannel. We fully support flannel. (I mean, have you seen our own Todd Olander, lately?) but Wah Gwaan’s spirit and spice are a welcome breath of fresh, Caribbean air. Speaking of fresh air, you’d never guess Harsh’s background.

ROOT SHOOT: Tell us a little about your time and experience in the craft brewing world. What got you where you are today?

HM: I co-founded Wah Gwaan with Jesse, back in 2020. Prior to officially starting the brewery, we were homebrewers and avid beer lovers and learners for years. Like many others in Colorado, one of our favorite hobbies was to explore different breweries and sample any and all styles.

My background is in meteorology and sustainability planning and management. Although it doesn't seem like those fields relate to brewing, I am constantly using skills that I have developed in previous roles as a brewery owner. 

ROOT SHOOT: (Silently high-fiving ourselves for working in a breath of fresh air pun. Accidentally.) What’s one memorable brewing or brewery moment that comes to mind?

HM: Our opening weekend (June 19-20, 2021) will forever be one of my favorite memories. After countless days of planning, many late nights, and lots of hard work, it was indescribable to see Wah Gwaan come together and customers enjoying beer that we made. The support, love, and kind words that we received that weekend still make me emotional to this day.

ROOT SHOOT: (Dabbing eyes, and updating note-to-self. “Be as Badass as Betsy and as Heartfelt as Harsha.”) Do you have any words of wisdom for women new to the craft beer world?

HM: Be bold! Don't be afraid to be you and put yourself out there. You never know what you are truly capable of until you put your all into something.

ROOT SHOOT: Preach it, sister.

And so, we figured, it would be perfect to wrap up with a real-life example of what putting your all into something look like. Bring on…

Photo courtesy of Stodgy Brewing Company

Natalie Yoder, Stodgy Brewing Company

Role: Co-Owner, Co-Founder

Natalie does it all. 

Well, almost all. We’ll get to what she doesn’t do in a minute. But first…

Run farms? Natalie does it. Teach horticulture classes? Natalie does it. Operate heavy machinery? Also Natalie. Analyze supply chains to identify weak links and fix them before they’re an issue? Natalie. Run a hopping brewery in a spectacular location in Northwest Ft. Collins? Natalie-freaking-Yoder. 

Like Wah Gwaan, Stodgy Brewing made the stunningly bold decision to open during the first wave of the 2020 pandemic. Like Wah Gwaan, they’ve also beat the odds. Judging by the patio crowds and constant stream of customers through the taproom, they’ve managed to thrive despite all the COVID-inducted chaos of the last two years.

Part of the charm of Stodgy is due to their space. Previously a commercial building that sold fireplaces, Stody’s taproom has a log-cabin feel to it. One of our favorite Google reviews refers to it as “An incredible new brewery in Fort Collins, that has you feeling like you're a part of Davy Crockett’s world!” 

Accurate. And the log-cabin charm is bolstered by a beautifully planted outdoor patio space. It’s like no other patio we’ve ever seen. There’s Natalie’s advanced horticulture degree to thank for that. Previous to opening Stodgy with her partner, Tyler Olpin, Natalie worked for CSU in their specialty crops division. One of her primary focuses? Hops and hop farms. 

ROOT SHOOT: (Giggles self-consciously) A farming background and a soft spot for the beer industry? We might have a crush.) How long have you been into brewing? What got you where you are today?

NY: Before [CSU] I was a homebrewer,  I brewed my first batch of beer in 2009, Unicorn Sparkle Butt.  It was terrible. I kept brewing for a few years, created a few drinkable items, but moved away from homebrewing when I met Tyler, a homebrewer with a better knack for making tasty things.  I'm a big picture person. Meeting someone with a mind focused on details like Tyler was key to our success as a brewery.  Big picture and small details make for a great whole picture.  We couldn't have made it this far without the work ethics I learned from agriculture (or the power tool skills) and we wouldn't be the same without my tie to the land. I know where our beer comes from and how it came to be.  I know farming, I know soil, I know hops processing. I build things and I fix things, that's my superpower.

ROOT SHOOT: Unicorn Sparkle Butt?? This must come back. This has to come back. Please tell us that Stodgy will do a Unicorn Sparkle Butt Beer. (Breathes deep and focuses) What do you love about your brewery? What are you most proud of there? 

NY: I’m proud that we serve beer that is 100% local malts and that our beer is excellent.  Supporting your local agriculture economy does NOT mean you have to sacrifice quality and I think we're doing a great job of demonstrating that.  I'm also proud that most of our beers are 100% local hops too.  We chose to support regional ingredients as a principle when we first opened and we're sticking to it.

ROOT SHOOT: PREACH IT, SISTER! Ahem…we mean, good work! Do you have any words of wisdom for women new to the craft beer world?

NY: People get excited about the [female] brewers that start a brewery, but if you're the backbone of the business and a woman - I see you. Your work is really hard and not as glorified and you still think about your business at all hours of the day. Female brewers are awesome and exciting and I also want them to thrive and grow, but there are women in all parts of this business and I want to make sure they're all seen and heard. I was self-conscious about not being a brewer and owning a brewery. Was I advancing women if I wasn't a brewer? It was something I had to get over because big things can't be done alone.

Big things can’t be done alone. 

Not in brewing, not in malting. 

Not in farming, not in business. 

Not in life. 

Small business ownership is hard. it’s even harder as a minority. On this International Women’s Day, we hope you’ll take a minute, seek out a female-owned brewery and buy yourself a beer. Or buy them a beer. Buy everybody a beer and let’s work together to move this industry, and the women in it, ahead. 

Be bold. Don’t go it alone.

And whatever you do, take no shit and trust your gut.

You’ve got this ladies. We’re so proud to work with you.

Cheers,

— Your Admiring Root Shoot Team

Brewery of the Month: Station 26 Brewing Company

Both as a business and in our personal lives, we try to be good people doing good things. 

As we’ve grown, both as a business and as people, we’ve also noticed that being around other good people often helps us do even better things. 

Which is why this month, we have to give a big shout out to Station 26, a brewery whose influence on the malthouse can’t really be understated. They’re a brewery that has actually led us to learn more, do more, and make some really amazing malt.

But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. Hang on for a minute, while we pour a pint, settle into our armchairs, and tell a little brewery story.

Station 26 is a rockin’ craft brewery in the Park Hill neighborhood of Denver. Built in what was once the Station 26 firehouse for the Denver Fire Department, Station 26 (the brewery, not the firehouse) boasts a gorgeous brick building with a huge patio, and a seemingly endless supply of beer. They’ve maintained the old fire lockers and fire poles (no, you can’t slide down them anymore) and the firehoses from the building are the backdrop of the tapwall. 

It’s pretty amazing. And the old Station 26 firefighters aren’t even mad at losing their space. They got a new Station 26 in Stapleton. In fact, the patches adorning the Station 26 brewery are all from firefighters, police officers, and first responders who have had drinks in the taproom---an homage to what Station 26 was in the past, and what they currently are today. It’s an arrangement that worked out well for everyone: beer for the locals, new digs for the firefighters, and an inspiring craft malt relationship for us. 

We met Station 26 six years ago. We were a brand-new malthouse looking to establish our reputation. They were an established brewery looking for a local malt purveyor. Specifically, they were looking for a custom malt for Juicy Banger, their popular IPA. (What? You’ve heard of it? Right. Because it’s AH-mazing!) 

They wanted a light-colored base malt that didn’t have any “grassy” flavors. 

We wanted to make them something awesome. 

But awesome doesn’t come easy. 

We spent six months trialing malts, tweaking the recipes, brewing them into beer, tweaking them some more, adjusting again, until finally, we hit it on the nose. The end result? Our Genie Pale, a two-time winner in the Craft Malt Cup, and one of our most popular base malts across the board with our customers. 

This is what we mean by good people working with good people to end up with great things. Station 26 believes that beer, their beer at least, should take most of its ingredients from within Colorado’s state borders. By their own account, even though using local farms and ingredients can be more costly, it provides for a more personal experience with the beer. “One that feels like home.”

We couldn’t agree more.

They have a personal malting partner up the road, we have a killer beer producer down the road. We work hard to personalize their grain, they work hard to bring malt, specifically local malt, back to the front and center of the beer world. This is what the craft world should be: local businesses helping local businesses become bigger, better, badder versions of themselves…and producing some darn tasty beverages for the community in the process.

Speaking of Community, there’s a lot going on at Station 26. There’s no way we can cover it all here, so check them out on Insta, FB, or Twitter, for all the details, but here are our absolute favorite things about Station 26 that we just have to mention.

The Beer! 

Oh, the beer. SO MUCH good beer. With both their hoppin’ taproom (pun definitely intended) and a significant distributing operation, Station 26 produces an impressive amount of beer. The best part (at least for us NoCo folks who don’t live right around the corner) is that you can snag Station 26 at locations all over the Front Range. The Can Finder app will show you exactly where you can get it, and social media keeps you up on all their releases. Their most recent release, Toward the Fray, is a collaboration with…no, not another local brewery, but with The Infamous Stringdusters, a Grammy Winning jamgrass band. 

How unbelievably cool is that? Cool, but not surprising as Station 26 loves music. Specifically, bluegrass music, which brings us to our other favorite things about Station 26:

Bluegrass Brunch (and All the Other Events)

Every second Sunday of the month, Station 26 hosts a Bluegrass Brunch with live bluegrass music, food, and (of course) beer.  There might be no better way to win the weekend than with flying fiddles, a twangy banjo, and a Tangerine Cream Ale. 

But it’s not all just Bluegrass. Station 26 has a constant stream of events going on at the taproom, from food pairings, to trivia nights, to a vinyl club. Check out all the good times here. 

Then give us a ring so we can join you!

As we dive into this month of March which, just for kicks, we’ve deemed “Malt Madness” (we’re totally into malt more than basketball) we’re waxing nostalgic about the beginnings of our malting adventure and feeling admittedly a little proud of how far we’ve come.

Honestly, we have Station 26 to thank for a big part of that. Without them, Genie Pale wouldn’t be Genie Pale and…who can imagine a Root Shoot without that flagship malt?

Today, Station 26, we raise our Emotional Support Beer to you (really, that’s what it’s called, a 5.5% ABV Brown Ale) for all the support, emotional and otherwise, that you’ve given us over the years.

Cheers!

—Root Shoot Malting

We Did It Again!

This past month, on February 19th the Craft Maltsters Guild hosted the 4th annual Craft Malt Cup. 

Originally, this year’s Malt Cup was scheduled for Maine. We were super excited about joining because we wanted to see what winter is like in a place with actual humidity. We’ve heard it’s cold! We even bought new wool long johns for the trip and researched, “How to look like you belong in Maine.” According to Google, we had a good start by being from Colorado. We own plenty of flannel. We just had to buy some flap-eared hats and LL Bean boots to go with it. But then…you know…COVID. So the Maine trip was canceled, we set aside the long johns for the inevitable spring snowstorm that will hit us (probably in May, just to make life difficult) and instead, put on our best Colorado flannels, jumped in our Subarus, and headed over to Stodgy Brewing to watch the competition virtually with a few of our customers, brewers, and friends.

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 New Jersey, and Colorado (ahem…) to Australia. Australia! Now that’s cool. When the Craft Malt Conference is held in Australia, we’ll definitely go. Not sure if they wear flannel there but we can buy some dungarees, or whatever!

And so, this year, nestled in at Stodgy Brewing, Imperial Stouts and IPAs in hand, we found out that we earned our 4th Craft Malt Cup medal. Our English Pale Ale took a bronze! Our previous wins include a gold medal for Genie Pale in 2019, a bronze for Munich 10 in 2020, and a bronze for Genie Pale in 2021. 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. Thanks in part to the Craft Maltsers Guild as well as a lot of hard-working farmers, maltsters, and supportive craft breweries and distilleries, we’re seeing a steady increase in the influence of local malthouses and the grain-to-glass movement. 

Grain to glass, field to firken, barley to beer - whatever you want to call it, we’re determined, as always, to use our malthouse to continue saving farms, one beer at a time. We’re excited to see so many malthouses doing the same. In fact, while you’re at it, check out this list of all the Malt Cup winners.

Finally, (oh, don’t you think we forgot it) recognition of this win wouldn’t be complete without a huge shout-out to Mike Myers, our Malthouse Manager, lead Shenanigan Starter, and overall Master of Awesomeness. Mike has been our head maltster for the last four years and is responsible for more than 350 of our nearly 400 malt batches produced since we opened, as well as 98% of all malthouse shenanigans. It’s a tough job, but this guy is killing it.

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

Pour a glass, raise a toast, and while you’re sipping, you can watch our acceptance video below. As you’ll see, Todd wore his very best flannel for the occasion. We’re not really sure about the long johns, though. There are things you just don’t ask your boss.

Thank you for following us all these years! 

Cheers,

—Your Root Shoot Team

Farm Notes: Malt Madness - Bring on the Barley

And just like that, winter is over.

A barley plant. Photo by Emily Taylor Photography.

Well, technically, it’s not over quite yet. We have a few more weeks until the March equinox, which marks the “official” end of winter. And anyone who’s lived in Colorado for any amount of time know that winter never actually ends in March. In fact, often Father Winter is just biding his time until March, waiting for the birds to sing, the sun to warm a little bit, and folks to get excited about getting outside and then BLAMMO, a foot of snow dropped right before a Monday morning commute and on the first day of your kids’ spring break. He’s mean like that, Father Winter. But we don’t mind him all that much. We rely on those winter/spring snows for moisture for both our fall-planted crops, and our early-spring planted crops - like barley.

No barley, no beer, so every March first we dust off the tractors, roll out the seed drill, and get planting.

And we are planting a lot of barley this year.

2021 was marked by a drastic decline in barley production resulting in shortage conditions and a rising concern on the part of malthouses and breweries who depend on the crop for their livelihood. Some of the decline was due to drought, some of it to farmers choosing not to plant barley (for a wide variety of reasons) but overall the harvest was down 270,000 acres nationally, or 40%. 

Forty percent! That’s a lot! Imagine if your salary dropped by 40%. Or worse, yet, imagine if you were told that your beer consumption had to drop by 40% because there was so little malt. 

That would make weekends very boring, indeed.

Barley fields.

As a malthouse, we are lucky that we are also a farm. It insulates us to some degree from these types of market fluctuations. We grow all our own barley, so if we come up short one year, that’s largely on us (or on Mother Nature’s propensity for hail damage.) We had a great barely harvest last year, and this year we are stepping up our game. Big time. Like, doubling our game. Last year, we planted 500 acres of barely. This year, we’re upping that to 980. Figuring a 100-bushel harvest per acre, we’re hoping for 98,000 bushel of barley, which is roughly 2,130 tons of barley, which, doing the math, comes out to approximately a Whole Lot of Beer.

For us (and hopefully for you beer drinkers, too) this is a real-life example of the benefits of “keeping it local.” Using the local farmland to produce barley for the malthouse down the road that then sells to breweries in your neighborhood, creates a supply chain that is harder to upset than one dependent on shipping barley in from the midwest or even from big, overseas producers of malt. By being able to plan for and produce our own crop, we’ve also been able to shield our business from some of the skyrocketing prices. It’s true that some of our input costs have gone up, fuel, fertilizer, and seed most notably, but as the farmers, we have the ability to adjust both our practices and our annual plan to try and mitigate those costs increases: something we couldn’t do if we were just purchasing barley. The slow shift to regenerative agriculture that we have been doing plays into this plan as well: healthier soil produces healthier crops with less inputs.

See how it all ties together? How everything’s related?

Thompson the Farm Dog on quality control.

All the heady, big-picture thinking aside, we get excited for springtime just like everyone else, so this month we’ll be babbling on about barley on the farm. Do you know what the difference between 2-row and 6-row barley is? How about the quality specifications required of malting barley? Or why it can be so dang hard to meet those quality specifications some years? Or what a seed drill is and why we choose to plant with it?

Follow the hashtag #maltmadness on our social media accounts (FB, Insta, and Twitter!) to follow along. 

And this month, as you’re cruising along the highway, wave to Todd on his tractor! He’s busy planting your future beer. Actually, wave even if it’s not Todd. Farmers like waves (polite waves, not the one-finger salute, heaven forbid) and then go buy yourself a beer. Make sure it’s local. It’s an easy way to give back to the farmers who give so much.

Wishing you a Very Merry Month of Malt Madness!

—Olander Farms

Distillery of the Month: The Family Jones

When we started this whole Root Shoot Malting project, we knew that one of our most important priorities as a business would be developing strong relationships with our customers.

What we didn’t know was that some of those customers would become family.

Chosen family.

The Family Jones.

Yes, it’s a play on words, but no, we’re not really exaggerating.

The Family Jones is a Colorado-based distilling company that puts farmers first. At least, that’s how it seems on our end. With a spirit house in Denver and another production facility in Loveland, The Family Jones had the fortuitous(?) luck to have their Loveland location just a few miles from the malthouse during those early years when we were out pounding the pavement, trying to rustle up our first few customers.

Todd swung by with samples of grains. He swung by again to check in. Then again, with more grain. Essentially, The Family Jones couldn’t get rid of Todd, so they finally decided it would probably just be easier to start buying from us. Thus began a long…and spirited…relationship.

Perhaps The Family Jones wouldn’t tell the story in quite the same manner, (they’re always so nice!) but regardless - if you are looking to support a local business that supports local farmers, this distillery has agriculture and family farms at its core.

Led by head distiller and co-owner Rob Masters, The Family Jones produces a wide variety of spirits, including vodka, rum, whiskey, bourbon, and more. They also produce a line of Automatic Jones: ready to pour cocktails for those of us a little too lazy (or not very good) at mixing our own drinks.

In everything they create, they consider the origin. In Distiller Rob’s words, “Everything starts on the farm. Finding the farmer that makes the right decisions for the benefit of the farm and the whiskey is the important element of this step.” The Family Jones was the first organization we worked with that brought their entire team - everyone from bartenders to investors to distributors - to the farm to show them where their grain comes from. They wanted the entire team to meet their farmers and shake their hands.

The grain in the Family Jones spirits is not just from local farms, it’s a tangible manner of supporting crop diversity and food sovereignty. A quick, simplified history lesson: over the last few generations of farming, as technology and massive corporations have infiltrated the world of seed production, seeds have become patented property, a privately owned commodity. Farmers who use seeds belonging to private companies - which is the vast majority of the seeds available - are not allowed to save back their own seed year to year. They must purchase it new, every year, even if they’re capable of growing their own. Additionally, the reliance on large companies for seed sources has vastly reduced the variety of seeds available. The diversity of food crops in the U.S. and the world over, is entering a bottleneck. The variety is declining, which puts the world at greater risk of a food crisis. Think of the Irish potato famine: when your food source is too reliant on too few things, the risk of one mishap causing a catastrophe increases.

As our small part in trying to support crop diversity, we have begun experimenting with heritage seeds: seeds that are not patented, that anyone can grow, save back each season, and replant. A number of years ago, we began growing an heirloom wheat variety called Oland, and this past year, we planted our first experimental crop of an old, Native American corn variety called Abenaki.

However, planting heirloom seeds isn’t enough: we need to have buyers for them. It’s scary for brewers and especially distillers to try out new grain. They don’t know its flavor profile, or how it will perform. Using it takes time and experimentation and patience. An experimental barrel of spirits needs to sit for years before the distiller will even know if the choices (s)he made were good ones. New grain carries a very real element of risk.

Despite all of this, The Family Jones has been all-in on all our heritage grains. They’ve been making whiskey with our Oland wheat for years, and just last month, we got to “help” (let’s be honest, we weren’t much help) fill the first barrel of an experimental Abenaki/Oland bourbon. The importance of businesses willing to use these old grains cannot be overstated.

Still, working with The Family Jones is not all just serious business. It’s often simply…fun. When we asked them if they would like to be the first distillery to participate in our annual Field Day, they took the invitation to the next level. They mixed specialty cocktails for the event. Paul Tamburello, The Family Jones CEO and co-owner and, coincidentally the man behind Little Man Ice Cream, drove up a party bus in which he and Derek Guilin, Marketing Coordinator, stuffed - we kid you not - the entire Little Man bouncy castle so they could bring it to the event. It took them hours to load the castle through the tiny bus exit door and required bribing random passers-by on the Denver streets to help. We have no idea how they did it. At the farm after the event, it took seven people to accomplish the same task.

It is this sort of dedication, camaraderie, and, well, shenanigans, that makes The Family Jones feel, actually, like family.

Or perhaps it simply feels like community. Because in the end, that’s what community is, isn’t it? Multiple people, multiple organizations working together for mutual benefit. And maybe - just maybe - a little bit of spirit. Or spirits. This crew has both, in spades. We wish them nothing but success.

You can check out more about The Family Jones distilling process (and even get a glimpse of our farm) on this video made by Distiller Rob about the process. Or better yet, visit their Spirit House in the Denver Highlands district. Be sure to check out their mind-bogglingly beautiful still, a stunning centerpiece for their location.

Support local. Support farmers. Support good people and good community.

Cheers, Family Jones. This whiskey’s for…or rather, from…you!

Cow Patties

It’s February on the farm, but don’t think for a minute that that means we’re over here sippin’ on stouts with our boots kicked up reading candy heart messages to the cows.

Well, maybe the stout part is true. Who doesn’t celebrate stout month?

And we do like saying nice things to the girls grazing the fields, but we don’t dare pass them candy hearts. Billy the Bull has a nasty jealous streak in him, and he’s an awfully big dude. You ever been chased by a bull? No?

We do not recommend it. If you think cardio workouts at the gym are bad, you should try cardio workouts in a pasture dodging bovine land mines while being pursued by a beast that weighs as much as a brick outhouse.

Not a good time.

Billy aside, (he’s really quite docile as long as you don’t flirt with his ladies) cattle play an integral part of our work here on the farm. They produce beef, certainly. We’ll harvest around 20 cows this calendar year, which we’ll sell in bulk (quarters or halves) to folks interested in purchasing local, humanely raised meat. More than simply viewing cattle as a commodity, however, we see them as a key player in our small farm ecosystem, an important piece of the agricultural puzzle, as well as living breathing beings that also deserve a good life.

So this year, we gave them something better than any candy heart message we could have come up with. (Plus, our messaging attempts were failing miserably. Will you be my heifer? I cow-not live without you!)

We put them in expansive, thick fields of forage.

In return, they trampled on the ground and left us some….natural compost. Digested grass.

Cow patties.

Agriculture is always evolving. From the first humans who decided to save some wild seed and try replanting it themselves, to tractors today that have Bluetooth, GPS systems, and lasers, agricultural workers are always refining their craft, always learning, trying to find a better way to do work that has been done for millennia. As of late, for us, tour focus has been on regenerative agriculture and - as part of that - incorporating cattle as an important part of a healthy system. So if January brought you some posts about water, this February we’re going to focus on our cattle: and what raising cattle for regenerative agriculture looks like, as opposed to the much-demonized feedlot system.

Here’s a quick (though admittedly simplified) overview:

Before the western expansion, the plains used to be populated by massive herds of bison. These bison would graze on the grasslands, slowly moving through. Their hoofs (millions of them!) would puncture and aerate the soil. Their bison patties (millions of them!) would leave behind fertilizer, and then, once the bison had eaten all they could in an area, they would mosey off to new lands. The grasslands they had passed through would regenerate, stronger and healthier for having had these huge beasts come through.

Regenerative ag is trying to recapture these principles of a beneficial symbiosis. One of the first steps we took in the regenerative process was to never leave our fields bare. When a crop is harvested, the stubble is left behind. Future crops are planted via seed drills, directly into the detritus. This provides constant protection of the soil from the elements. The second step we have taken is beginning to plant cover crops after a harvest crop. A cover crop is a crop planted purely for regenerative purposes, not for human consumption. The cover crop is either left in the soil to die back in the winter and serve as organic matter, or we bring Billy and his ladies in and let them do their thing: trample the earth, aerate a bit, fertilize and, most importantly, chow down. It’s the bovine equivalent of being dropped into a smorgasbord of ice cream and dark chocolate where the ice cream and dark chocolate are also good for you.

Because we’re planting for the cattle, and because we’re constantly monitoring their progress through the fields, we can also prevent over-grazing, another common complaint about cattle-rearing on delicate grasslands.

Whew. That’s a lot to digest. (Ha! See what we did there?) And it’s admittedly only scratching the surface of a very complicated subject that we’re still learning about ourselves.

But join us in the learning adventure this month by following #cowpattiesandcattle (bet you never had that in your hashtag list!) and see what we’re up to.

And if you’re interested in some local, humanely raised beef, we’ll have a limited quantity available throughout the course of this year. Please email team@rootshootmalting.com to request more info!

Wishing you a Fabulous February, a Spectacular Stout Month, and a Happy Valentine’s Day…or is it Valen-BOVINE’s day?

Cheers!

—Olander Farms

Root Shoot Malts My Heart: A Beer Package for Lovers

It’s Heart Time in the Land of Love!

Every Valentine’s day, Loveland decorates its streets with Valentine’s Day conversation hearts as a fundraiser for the Thompson Valley Rotary Club.

This year, like every year, Root Shoot has purchased a heart and we’re running a competition around finding it. BUT we’re switching things up a little! Previously, we used to make you find the heart, snap a photo, and tag us. This year we’re telling you where it is: Northbound on Lincoln between 5th and 6th streets.

Find Root Shoot’s heart, snap a photo of it, tag us, and post it on socials with the hashtag #rootshootmaltsmyheart. Photos that include you (yes, your pretty little face!) with the heart are worth a double entry.

In addition to changing the rules a little, we’ve also upped the prize ante.

We’ll collect all entries and hold a drawing on February 28th. The winner receives a beer-centric gift package for lovers including two Root Shoot beanies, a gift certificate and four-pack from Loveland Aleworks, and a four-pack of Verboten Brewing’s brand new Monster Cookie Stout that’s being released on the 11th!

It’s a package too good to miss, and since you already know where the heart is, all it takes is a little field trip to the Land of Love!

So go get it! We’ll look for your photo on the socials!

—Your Root Shoot Team

Dry January

Our plan for January? focusing on water for a while.

We even started a light-hearted introduction to it as our social media focus for January. Wouldn’t Dry January be an ironic theme for a business that depends on the beer and spirit industry? We could make a clever link between the sober (beer-less) Dry January that many participate in and the sobering drought that we are facing this January as farmers. We would approach a serious theme with an optimistic take and show our community what we’re doing to tackle water issues with creativity, hard work, and an occasional Dry January pun.

Then, days before we launched our posts, wildfires tore through suburban Boulder County, destroying hundreds of homes, displacing countless people, and leveling entire neighborhoods, all in areas that should never have been prone to wildfires in the first place. The fires were started by downed power lines landing in tinderbox-dry grasses and then fanned by record-high winds.

Suddenly, a lighthearted intro to drought seemed inappropriate. 

We scrapped our planned intro and pulled this one together. We need to tell it how it is. We need to face the situation in the Front Range, in Colorado, in the entire expanse of the Western US, head-on.

We don’t have enough water.

This past fall of 2021 was the first official autumn with no snow for the Denver area. It was also the driest and warmest summer and fall combined on the record books. As farmers, we are very much feeling the impacts of the bone-dry weather in our fields.

Winter wheat, which we grow annually both for distiller’s grain and to malt, is planted in the fall and relies on winter snows as precipitation in order to germinate. This year, the ground is so dry, that the winter wheat fields are way behind schedule. They may not make it at all if we don’t get significant precipitation. Additionally, for any field growing any crop, a base level of moisture is required to keep the soil healthy and “living.” Without it, microbes die off, and soil fertility plummets, affecting both current and future plantings negatively. Soil is life, and life cannot happen without water.

While climate change is a term almost casually tossed around by politicians, activists, and the general public alike, for farmers it is a very real force to be contended with, and during this dry summer and fall, long before these fires, we have been acutely aware of the looming water crisis in the west. This year, the Colorado River reached its lowest level since the 1930s, leading the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to declare a shortage, resulting in water supply cuts to Arizona farmers. Those were labeled as “Tier 1” cuts. Tier 2 cuts are expected by 2023.

Colorado is, as one might guess by the name, inextricably tied to the Colorado River with the Front Range pulling between 30% and 50% of its water from the Western Slope in areas that would otherwise drain into the Colorado River. If you’re truly interested in learning about where our water comes from and the complicated system that provides it this article is a great start.

However, our intent this month is not so much to post and repost heady academic articles and policy declarations. Rather, we hope to show you what farming during a drought looks like with one’s boots on the ground, and how we’re trying to make our land (and your craft malt) more resilient in the face of a changing climate. So, be on the lookout for water-related posts on our social media sites this month, or just follow the hashtag #rootshootsdryjanuary to see what we’re up to.

In the meantime, hug your neighbor, donate to fire relief, toast to being part of the solution, and then follow through on your word. As a business and as community members, we’ll be looking for ways to do our part as well.

We’re glad you’re with us for this journey and all the challenges…and the successes that it brings.

Be well. Stay safe. Support local.

— Root Shoot Malting

Cursing at Buildings and Other Winter Adventures on the Farm

You see that tent?

Actually, it’s not really a tent. It’s a steel-framed storage structure with vinyl walls, but it looks like a tent, and as the saying goes, “If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it’s probably a…tent.”

Or something like that.

Regardless, that tent represents a significant chunk of our winter work on the farm, as well as the cause for much hair-pulling and (we admit it) a fair amount of adult language.

Running a farm requires an impressive amount of stuff. We have tractors and seed drills and combines. Irrigation pipes, air compressors, and skid steers. Piles of hay, piles of storage sacks, piles of tools. Fencing, fuel, and fertilizer.

Winter on the farm is when we deal with a lot of the “stuff” of farming. The tractors all get oil changes, the trailers all get their annual maintenance. Fences are mended, new ones are built and magical storage tents sprout out of the earth just like the vine in Jack and the Beanstalk.

If only it were that easy.

Building a steel-framed tent (specifically one you might, maybe, have purchased at an auction without assembly instructions) is sort of like trying to assemble Ikea furniture after one too many whiskeys, only you get all the frustration of trying to assemble Ikea furniture and none of the joy of having had whiskey. (We have a strict no-whisky-while-operating-heavy-equipment rule on the farm, because 1) it’s illegal and 2) It’s a good way to stay alive.)

Still, after a dozen attempts and another dozen adjustments, our new storage structure is up, and we’re excited to be moving some of our tractors into this space and out of the harsh Colorado weather.

Now, off to install some new electric fencing and to make sure the cows’ watering troughs haven’t frozen over.

And a quick pro tip: If, after this holiday season, you do find yourself trying to assemble an Ikea dresser gifted to you by your Great Aunt Thelma, we recommend doing it with a glass of The Family Jones Rock & Rye in hand. Those warming spices will smooth out the discomfort of realizing that even if you weren’t having whiskey, you still wouldn’t be able to figure out how it all works.

May your winter be cozy, your storage tents waterproof, your whiskey local.

Cheers!

—Olander Farms

Brewery of the Month: City Star Brewing

Nestled right in the middle of Mountain Avenue in downtown Berthoud, City Star Brewing is the kind of place that feels welcoming before you even walk in the doors.

Constructed in an old, rehabbed brick building that once upon a time was the City Star Livery (thus the name and the logo) its floor to ceiling windows, sidewalk patio, and small-town vibe make a person stop and think, “Maybe we should step inside here for a beer.”

Indeed you should.

Now in its 9th year of operation, City Star has become a Berthoud mainstay, a gathering place not just for a craft brew after work, but for a whole laundry list of community events ranging from an annual Winter Solstice celebration to a summer Flapjack Day extravaganza, complete with a ladies-only eating contest and breakfast-themed beer flights. (As a note, the 4-time reigning Flapjack Queen can down five flapjacks with butter and syrup in less than 45 seconds.) The brewery regularly hosts community meetups for hobby groups as well as workshops via partnerships with small businesses. There’s live music on the weekends and good company on a daily basis.

A husband-and-wife duo, John and Whitney Way own and manage City Star, backed by a stellar team of brewers and beer slingers. When asked what sets City Star apart, Whitney replies without hesitation that it’s the staff. “City Star is known for its super-friendly beer slingers,” she says. “Good people, good beer, and good community.”

The Ways’ commitment to their local community is what ties them to us here at Root Shoot and that commitment runs through every beer they pour. Almost six years ago, when Root Shoot was just beginning and Todd and Emily were pounding the pavement seeking out craft breweries to try our malts, City Star was the first to sign on. Today, City Star is Craft Malt Certified and uses Root Shoot as the base malt for all of their ales.

“Working with Root Shoot is incredibly special,” says Whitney. “Not only are we able to have both local ingredients and a great economic impact on our immediate region, but we have also developed an amazing partnership and long-lasting friendships. The Olanders are truly some of the finest folk in Northern Colorado.”

Aww, we’re blushing!

This summer, City Star will celebrate its 10th year in operation, and if you haven’t made it to NoCo to check them out yet, we highly recommend that you do.

We’ve even made a little cheat sheet to help you.

Brewery:

City Star Brewing

321 Mountain Ave, Berthoud Colorado

Beers to Try:

All of their ales made with Root Shoot, obviously!

But in the Get It Before Its Gone category, hustle in and get the Winter Solstice release of Widow Maker, an imperial stout that comes in three variants: vanilla, orange, and original.

Also check out Sweater Weather, a dunkel made with Root Shoot’s M-10 malt. And be sure to ask to see the label artwork on the Sweater Weather cans. It’s killer!

While You’re There:

Check out the details of the space, one of the prettiest around! Of special note: the whiskey barrel chandelier hand-crafted by John Way, and the stunning mural on the back patio by artist Gamma Acosta.

Looking ahead:

Follow City Star on social media to make sure you get updates for some of their best events of the year!

March: Lucky Charms! Taste the Rainbow Beer Flights and all things Irish!

May: City Star’s 10-year anniversary Hootenanny! Wear your best sh*t kickers!

September: Flapjack Day: a 1950s flapjack-themed party, complete with breakfast-inspired beer flights and a flapjack eating contest

December: Winter Solstice celebration and the annual release of Widow Maker.

Cheers, fellow beer lovers! We’ll see you in Berthoud!

All photos provided courtesy of City Star Brewing.

Beer Can Appreciation Day Contest

In the world of major U.S. holidays, January 24th has never ranked very high on the list.

We aim to change that.

January 24th is National Beer Can Appreciation Day, a day for which all beer drinkers and craft masters should be endlessly grateful.

What would life be like without that shiny, silvery, compact cylinder of deliciousness? How else would we fill our coolers for camping? Nobody wants to take a growler on a backpacking trip. And bringing a six-pack of kegs to a dinner party seems like a slightly unreasonable contribution.

So to celebrate this great invention, we’re holding a contest. Appreciate your favorite beer can, win Root Shoot schwag. And have a little fun in the process.

Here’s the skinny:

WHAT: Beer Can Appreciation Day Contest

WHEN: Submission accepted through January 23rd, 2022

HOW TO PLAY: Take a picture of you “appreciating” your favorite craft beer can and email it to us at team@rootshootmalting.com. Beer cans MUST be craft beer, and cans that include beer made with Root Shoot malts may earn up to a bazillion extra points in judging.

Submissions will be accepted through January 23rd. On January 24th the top five photos will be posted for a public vote. The winner will be notified on January 25th.

WHAT YOU WIN: A Root Shoot schwag item of your choice (t-shirt or hat,) a four-pack of beer from City Star Brewing, our undying respect, and bragging rights to the first official Beer Can Appreciation Day Contest.

DISCLAIMERS: All photo submissions are subject to being posted on our social media sites. By sending us a photo, you are agreeing to allow us to use it as part of this contest.

Rules, dates, and deadlines are subject to change. Shenanigans are probable. We will be conducting record-keeping and photo-judging while “appreciating” beer cans of our own so mistakes and uncontrollable giggles are almost guaranteed.

Have fun. Drink beer. Support Local.