{"id":3025,"date":"2021-03-24T12:16:18","date_gmt":"2021-03-24T16:16:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/betsiecurrent.com\/?p=3025"},"modified":"2021-06-03T12:58:39","modified_gmt":"2021-06-03T16:58:39","slug":"malt-and-barley-empire-malting-company-alison-babb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/betsiecurrent.com\/index.php\/malt-and-barley-empire-malting-company-alison-babb\/","title":{"rendered":"Malt and Barley"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The terroir <\/strong>of Empire<\/em><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

By F. Josephine Arrowood
Current Contributor<\/strong>

It is a glorious autumn day at the Empire Malting Company farm. The century-old red barn, clad in modern aluminum, features hand-hewn posts and beams that shelter ancient agricultural practices that have been adapted to the 21st century. The spring barley, harvested months ago, is undergoing malting\u2014a process of soaking seeds into germination, then drying and kilning\u2014before being packed and sent to discerning breweries and distilleries throughout Northern Michigan and beyond.

Hops, with their dramatic vining habit\u2014up to 30 feet on poles and wires\u2014have received a lot of attention in the past dozen years in Northern Michigan. But their contribution to beer making is surprisingly small and relatively recent (think seasoning; think 16th-century Europe), compared to beer\u2019s foundational ingredient, malted barley. 

Barley is arguably the backbone of beer, like grapes are for wine. Barley must be malted before it can be used in beer, however, as the process initiates germination inside of the barley grain, which unlocks the enzymes and the sugars that are used in the brewing process.

\u201cMalting is so historical, an industry over 10,000 years old, while brewing has been going on for 13,000 years,\u201d says Alison Babb, co-founder and director of Empire Malting Company, which planted its first barley crop less than a decade ago.

Still, local brewers rave about the product coming out of Empire.

\u201cWe use Empire Pilsner for roughly 90 percent of the base malt in all of our beers,\u201d says Brian Confer, co-owner and head brewer for Stormcloud Brewing Company in Frankfort. \u201cAlison\u2019s passion for malting is unparalleled, and it\u2019s icing on the cake that she\u2019s just 40 minutes up the road from us.\u201d

Oliver Scott Roberts, co-founder and brewmaster for Five Shores Brewing in Beulah, agrees. He estimates that 75 percent of their malt comes from Empire; it is used in every beer that they make.

\u201cWe use Empire Malting Company, one: because of the quality, two: because it\u2019s local, and three: because Alison is the real deal, and being able to talk to your grower\u2014who is also your maltster\u2014is a very unique thing for a brewery to be able to have,\u201d Roberts explains. \u201cYou almost never find those three things together.\u201d

Hops, Barley, Malting<\/strong>
Zack Stanz (31) is a third-generation Burdickville native. His mother\u2019s family includes the Breys and the Johnsons, whose Case tractor dealership in Empire was a longtime staple of county farming into the 1970s. Stanz focuses on the family excavation and landscape business, and he co-owns the Empire Orchards. 

Meanwhile, Alison Babb (32) grew up in Gainesville, Florida, and earned a degree in agricultural management from the University of Florida in 2011. She credits her high school and college running background as preparation for a farming career\u2014developing physical stamina, as well as realizing that she is well  suited to an active, outdoor life.. 

Babb came to Michigan by way of a road trip, and she credits the state\u2019s beauty and beer as high among the reasons that she decided to stay. 

In 2013, Babb and Stanz established the Empire Malting Company, with the first summer\u2019s crop being grown on Stanz\u2019s family farmland. 

\u201cWe\u2019ve always been family owned and operated by a very tight group,\u201d Babb says. \u201cOur maltsters live beside the facility, which allows us to tend to the maltings as needed. Malting is a 24-hour job; we run 365 days a year and rarely shut-down. We have a small, three- to four-person crew that run the operations.  There is a rhythm to it, a sort of lifestyle.\u201d 

The first three years, they grew 60 to 120 acres of \u201camazing\u201d barley, before expanding operations to include malting. 

\u201cIn the immediate 15-mile area around here, we\u2019ll have 200 to 300 acres going, and half will be barley,\u201d Babb says. \u201cWe do grow it every year, and rotate with crops like sorghum. We have great neighbors and friends that we work with, other farms we share equipment with.\u201d

Just as it was in almost every sector, 2020 was a doozy of a year for Empire Malting Company.

\u201cIt\u2019s always a challenge to make sure you have enough barley coming in[to the malting process], but this year has been one of the most challenging,\u201d she explains. \u201cWe buy barley from other growers\u2014I want to be accurate about that\u2014and we also grew our own. It\u2019s beautiful barley, but we just didn\u2019t have the yields this year that we\u2019ve seen in the past. That\u2019s weather and the nature of farming.\u201d 

Like most who work the land, however, she takes the long view. 

\u201cSo we\u2019re getting better and stronger, and it\u2019s good to build relationships with other farms, support the community,\u201d Babb says. 

This cooperative spirit is an integral part of Babb and Stanz\u2019s vision for the sustainability of their businesses. They have grown six varieties of barley, and they are working with the Michigan State University (MSU) Agricultural Extension.

\u201cWe\u2019re growing winter and spring varieties. Winter barley is planted in the fall, similar to rye, and ripens a little earlier. There\u2019s a trial plot that the university is doing to test different varieties; which varieties can live through the winter here and our cold temperatures,\u201d Babb explains. \u201cWe\u2019ve had a lot of success with spring barleys; that\u2019s our mainstay. Unfortunately, there\u2019s no such thing as \u2018heritage\u2019 barley any more. They\u2019ve been bred so many times over the years with different varieties. There\u2019s land-race studies to try to determine which species have roots in certain locales, where the dominant, most healthy seeds outcompete the others.\u201d

Farmerette<\/strong>
The English language has no one word for a \u201cwoman farmer:\u201d at least not one that should be used in the 21st century. A quick Google search renders: \u201cfarm-girl,\u201d \u201cfarm wife,\u201d \u201cfarm maid,\u201d and, yes, even the diminutive \u201cfarmerette,\u201d with the first known usage in 1901, according to Miriam Webster Dictionary. This could be both good and bad, since the word \u201cfarmer\u201d is\u2014seemingly\u2014genderless, though historical connotation leaves something to be desired.

According to an article on this subject on Thrive<\/a>\u2014a blog by CGIAR (formerly the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research)\u2014\u201cprevailing scientific and policy languages used to make sense of farming and agriculture are particularly ill-suited for representing women or gender, because these languages rely on and make use of spatial and ideological imageries that have particularly strong gender connotations.\u201d In other words: talking about agriculture as dominated by men makes it dominated by men.

But that is shifting, some.

In the United States, just over one-third of all farmers are women\u2014up from only five percent in 1978<\/a>\u2014but they control only seven percent of U.S. farmland, since women-controlled farms tend to be smaller, on average. Of these women farmers, only 10 percent farm grains and oil seed crops, according to the 2012 USDA Census of Agriculture<\/a>. 

Additionally, according to the Brewer\u2019s Association, women comprise 25 percent of all craft beer drinkers, and a study by Auburn University indicates that women represent 29 percent of all brewery workers. To that end, much has been written on how the alcohol industry as a whole could benefit from some diversity.

But Babb is an example of how 21st-century women are bucking the trends and getting back to the roots of fermentation, which was originally women\u2019s work<\/a>.

Like most farmers, Babb must wear many hats: farmer, researcher, and marketer are just a few. An accomplished artist, she designed the logo and other graphics for the company. She also picked up welding as a skill when she needed custom hoppers, trays, and drying kilns for the grain. Moreover, Babb now oversees every aspect of the Empire Malting Company\u2019s operations\u2014the work is labor intensive, often solitary, and vulnerable to trends of culture, as well as climate. 

A self-taught maltster, she says: 

\u201cI traveled around Canada, worked with experts, picked up every book I could find\u2014technical, historical, new. A lot of trial and error, for years, went into figuring out how we would actually make the malt. But you still have to adapt to local grains and climate. There\u2019s always tweaks we do to make sure everything\u2019s coming out right.

And though many brewers may use ingredients like chocolate, coffee, and other flavors, there are four foundational elements to beer: water, barley, hops, and yeast. Without the process of malting, barley cannot create the fermentation that is so necessary to the brewer\u2019s art. 

\u201cYou build your beer recipe around your malt, in fact; it\u2019s considered the heart, or the meat on the plate, while hops are like the seasoning or spice,\u201d Babb says. \u201cYour taste and your malt are the drivers of what your beer outcome is. There was a time when beer was brewed with fruits, or herbs, to add the bittering agent, while hops is more recent. The more I work with malts, the more I see what we can do, and the more interest I have in making new flavors, taking new directions. It\u2019s an exciting time for malt, as people have started to take notice. Once you start to pay attention to the malt, it helps you understand beer styles more. It adds deeper layers to local beverages and the farming that\u2019s happening, and small businesses working together.\u201d

All steps in the process are a series of judgment calls by the maltster, Babb explains. Malting is elemental, she says. They use air, water, temperature, and time to develop natural flavors and color compounds in the grains. 

\u201cSo you\u2019re using these elements, figuring out what combinations bring out different colors and flavors,\u201d she says. \u201cThe real story, I think, is how we are a small-batch production. Terroir<\/em> is a very important concept. It describes soils, sun, land, water characteristics\u2014literally, the \u2018home field advantage\u2019 of a particular malting house. The air here is phenomenal, probably the most driving factor for why I wanted to do this here, in Empire. This air and water, this climate, is so delicious, so this would be a great place to work with barley. And with the malting, we do make Empire Malt really about the terroir<\/em> of Empire. We start by cleaning the grain, with this vintage machine of hardwood and iron. I like the concept of a mechanical malt house, instead of completely automated.\u201d

Terroir<\/em> is a French word that means \u201cearth\u201d or \u201csoil.\u201d When using the term in reference to crops, Babb is talking about how the environmental factors\u2014air, water, climate\u2014play a part in the taste of the crop. So, yes, this place is important to how Babb\u2019s barley turns out: but equally as important is her malting process.

The Process<\/strong>
A look into one room in the red barn shows a giant steel soaking vat that Babb designed, with advice and fabrication assistance from a neighboring cherry processor. 

\u201cThe grain is soaked for 48 hours,\u201d she says. \u201cEssentially, I look at checkpoints: bubbling the water to keep it oxygenated, enough water to germinate in the next stage. You also want to make sure your water is so delicious; the barley\u2019s taking on almost 50 percent water, so that has a big effect on its flavor… There\u2019s a lot of debate about where the flavor comes from when you\u2019re making a malt. Does it come from the barley or the malt house? There\u2019s no actual right answer. I think there\u2019s a little bit of both. We\u2019re small-batch, so we\u2019re very heavy on the art side of malting. It\u2019s a combination of art and science, so we like to embrace the artfulness of it, with flexibility and careful intention.\u201d

In the sprouting room, augurs rotate the grains on large, flat trays called a Saladin Box. The idea of small-batch malting is a relative term. 

\u201cWe do six-ton batches,\u201d Babb says. \u201cWe start with about seven-and-a-half-ton batches, but it loses quite a bit of weight, so we\u2019ll end up with six tons of finished malt.\u201d 
This is in contrast to industrial-scale malting, which processes 30 tons or more at a time, mostly by automation.

Babb holds up a kernel and says: 

\u201cThese are the little rootlets emerging. You\u2019re converting carbohydrates and starch, increasing the sugar. There\u2019s a lot of biology behind it. We take numerous measurements; we\u2019re not entirely sensory. It\u2019s a responsibility to make sure your product performs. If you take people\u2019s money, you have to make sure you have some quality guarantees. We get great customer feedback, and we\u2019re very attentive. That\u2019s really what small batch should be.\u201d 

The room has a heady aroma of carbon dioxide, brought about by the respiration of the grain. Until last April, Babb was hand shoveling and stirring for about four hours a day. 

\u201cI had a hard time keeping help, getting enough air, or even taking on enough calories,\u201d she says. \u201cIt was very tiring! It was critical to overcome this part.\u201d 

The grain is dried and finished next, and here is where her maltster\u2019s skills really come into play. 

\u201cThe driving message with malt is that color and flavor correlate; everything is connected in the grains\u201d she says. \u201cA skilled or very competent brewer\u2014and we have so many in Michigan\u2014can crunch it and tell if the finished malt is of high quality.\u201d

Even with some automation in place, she has plenty of heavy lifting to do. Her wiry frame and rock-hard muscles reflect the labor intensity associated with malting. She laughs:

\u201cThe packaging is also very laborious, filling 50-pound bags continuously. It\u2019s certainly not a business for the weak of heart. But it\u2019s fulfilling in a strange way. You have to be a unique person to enjoy it truly, but I really do.\u201d

She adds:

\u201cIt\u2019s very clear that craft beer is a conversational thing; it\u2019s a way that people can have time talking together in communities. It\u2019s really cool to see malt finally being a part of it.\u201d

Brian Confer of Stormcloud agrees:

\u201cCraft brewing is truly a \u2018rising-tide-lifts-all-ships\u2019 industry, and that tide starts with quality raw ingredients. Alison\u2019s commitment to quality and service for craft brewers means, well, it means we\u2019d be crazy not to use Empire malt.\u201d

Empire Malting Company has worked with more than a half-dozen Northern Michigan breweries, including Five Shores Brewing in Beulah, Lake Ann Brewing Company in Lake Ann, Stormcloud Brewing Company in Frankfort, Short\u2019s Brewing Company in Bellaire, The Filling Station Microbrewery and Middle Coast Brewing Company in Traverse City. They also ship malt to several brewers around the state in Kalamazoo, Grand Rapids, and Detroit; recently, they have begun to work with distillers, as well. Check them out at \u201cEmpire Malting Company\u201d on Facebook<\/a> or EmpireMalting.com<\/a> online. Email EmpireMalting@yahoo.com<\/a> or call 231-499-3520 for more information.

A version of this article first published in the Glen Arbor Sun<\/strong>,<\/a> a Leelanau County-based semi-sister publication to The Betsie Current.<\/strong><\/em>

Featured Photo Caption: <\/strong>Although many brewers may use ingredients like chocolate, coffee, and other flavors, there are four foundational elements to beer: water, barley, hops, and yeast. Barley must be malted before it can be used in beer, however, as the process initiates germination inside of the barley grain, which unlocks the enzymes and the sugars that are used in the brewing process. Photo courtesy of the Glen Arbor Sun<\/em>.

———————-

SIDEBAR<\/strong>
Using local ingredients\u2014and showcasing them on the menu\u2014is something that many local breweries are doing, in large part just because they now are able to do so. A decade ago, that meant mostly fruits, berries, herbs, spices and sugar sources like honey or maple syrup. Whereas these items are used in relatively small quantities for beer making, ingredients like local hops and malted barley can make up a much larger percentage of the total ingredients. (Not to mention the locally sourced water, says Scott Graham of the Michigan Brewers Guild, which is by far the biggest ingredient in beer.)

\u201cTen years ago, there weren\u2019t any local hops or malts, or at least there were very little,\u201d Graham told The Betsie Current<\/em> editor Aubrey Ann Parker back in 2018. \u201cYou could get malt from Michigan Malt, probably, but in small quantities. It was about 10 years ago that a few people started planting hops in Michigan, and that has grown substantially. And as availability has grown, so has the quality and the selection.\u201d

Michigan was the fourth-largest hop-producing state in the country in 2018. Meanwhile, the production of local malted barley is a resurgence from 30 years ago.

\u201cThis was going on in the 1980s for larger breweries at a larger capacity, but it ended in the 1980s, when Stroh\u2019s Brewery closed operations in Detroit,\u201d Graham said in 2018, estimating that there were around 12 Michigan companies and quite a number of local farmers who were growing barley for malting. \u201cIt\u2019s not at the stage that Michigan-produced hops are at yet, but the industry is definitely growing and gaining interest, thanks in large part to the educational support of the MSU Extension, which has made information available and has provided guidance to farmers for both hops and malted barley.\u201d

MSU Extension published an article in 2014 stating that this has not always been the case: during the first half of the 20th century, Michigan often harvested 100,000 acres of barley annually, sometimes as much as 300,000 acres. However, during the second half of the century, barley acreage declined; by the early 2010s, Michigan was averaging 10,000 acres annually. 

Furthermore, brewers struggled to get their hands on Michigan malt, because there were not many malt-processing operations as of the mid-2010s. Fortunately, Empire Malting Company\u2014which began in 2013\u2014has quickly filled a niche for local brewers.

And there is hope for even more local ingredients to come: Graham mentioned in 2018 that there is also a yeast lab in Michigan that has isolated a native yeast strain and propagates this for local breweries to use.

Much of this sidebar was originally published in <\/em>Edible Grande Traverse<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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