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Hi! Alyssa and Phil here with a couple pre-harvest shots from our Friday (8/12) evening, up at one of the malting barley fields that Mainstem contracted this year: The 2022 Freewater Genie, grown with care by HT Rea Farming.
While our teammates and grain growers are both distributed around the Pacific Northwest, the Walla Walla Valley is the grain & grape paradise we call home. We've been working toward having Mainstem's own malt house here since 2015 and with the Reas as growers since 2016... so these backyard harvests really mean a lot to us.
Spoiler alert: This Salmon-Safe certified crop was harvested Tuesday and Wednesday this week, with record breaking yields and our in-house quality assessment pointing to great malting quality. Phil got to spend a bunch of time harvesting it with the Reas on Tuesday, and so we'll have some really fun content to share with you over the next few days.
Thanks so much for following along, friends.
Cheers!
We kicked off our 2021 Salmon-Safe malting barley harvest on Saturday Rea Farming!
With all of the uncertainty surrounding drought, heat, and fire, it feels sooooo good to be getting our farmers' hard earned grains into cozy storage bins. Yields and % plump kernels are down, but initial data is pointing to malt-worthy quality in most of the fields we've contracted.
All of the barley should be in within 2-3 weeks. We'll share more on quality once results are back from the independent grain & malt quality labs: MSU Barley and Malt Quality Lab & Hartwick College Center for Craft Food and Beverage.
These two drone photos were taken in Walla Walla's Blue Mountain foothills alongside a tributary to Russell Creek. The H.T. Rea harvest crew spent two days cutting, hauling off, and storing two different 2-row barley varieties: Palmer () and Genie ().
The maturing riparian conservation project in the background was implemented by our local Conservation District. It's a fantastic example of what's possible when farmers and landowners are incentivized to go above what the commodity markets require. Supporting this kind of conservation ethic and projects like these has been a key part of Mainstem's inspiration since getting started in 2015.
No crop year comes and goes without some kind of excitement, but 2021 has us on the edge of our seats for months now. It’s by far the worst springtime drought since we started contracting for malting grains back in 2016.
These shots were taken on 6/14 with a very long awaited storm rolling in, above what we’re rooting for as our 2021 Walla Walla Genie & Palmer 2-row malting barley.
The crop is planted to a field called the Maxson, owned and managed by the Rea family on the WA side of the Walla Walla Valley. The lands are ancestral to the Cayuse, Walla Walla, and Umatilla tribes. The water flows to Russell Creek. HT Rea Farming // Confederated Tribes of The Umatilla Indian Reservation // Salmon-Safe
100% of the grains we’ve ever sourced have been grown on dryland farms in the Pacific Northwest, meaning we’re at the mercy of Mother Nature. In most years, our barley gets planted in March or April once the fields are dry enough for fieldwork and the soil temperatures hit 50 degrees F. The seed sits 1 to 2 inches below the surface, surrounded by rich, silt loam soils. The seed germinates and we hope for periodic rain to nurse the crop until sometime in the month of June, when the Pacific Northwest enters a characteristic summertime drought and the seed heads dry down for harvest.
This year, the April and May rains never came.
For this field, Mother Nature still has time to deliver some rain, go easy on the heat, and keep the barley happy through its grain fill stage. The crop could also get too stressed and mature early, producing a high protein, thin-kerneled crop that’s only marketable as livestock feed. So we’re happy to be rooting for a number of fields.
With any luck, we’ll get more moisture. In any case, this drought is a good reminder to assess what we’ve done right with our supply chain management, what things we can tighten up right now, and the things we’ll just have to do better with next year’s crop.
We find comfort in strong partners and a growing community, always.
Following up on that last post about our new malts in progress...
Mainstem and our partners have been pretty darn busy working on these production runs since fall, shuffling quite a few truckloads of barley and wheat around the Northwest. Grains go from our farmers' bins, to one of several nearby seed cleaners in Washington and Oregon, and on to Montana Craft Malt for malting in ~33 ton batches. From there, samples are sent of to MSU Barley and Malt Quality Lab to ensure quality and inform decisions on blending across batches. The various lots of finished malt remain in bulk storage, then get blended out into our spiffy new 50 # bags, supersacks, or bulk outbound.
We'll be storing enough of each product in 50 # bags for customers' quick-ship needs, and offering deep discounts for those looking to plan further ahead with us.
For sales info:
www.mainstemmalt.com/malt-sales. And don't hesitate to reach out directly at
[email protected].
Many thanks to the farmers making these particular malts possible: HT Rea Farming, Horlacher Farms, Warren Farms, Diamond-S Farms, Inc., and Clearwater Farms. To the truckers moving all of the grain around in the snow: GTS Trucking, Farm Supply Distributors, and Nelson Brothers. To the seed cleaners: Pendleton Grain Growers, Pottratz Processing, and Uniontown Co-Op. The MSU Barley Program for providing a full service grain/malt/beer quality lab much closer to home. And of course to Montana Craft Malt for being fantastic partners in craft malting. Craft Maltsters Guild.
Had a really lovely time catching up with head brewer Nate Sherrod at Crossbuck Brewing.
We sat down to taste through 5 different brews made with Mainstem malts (yum!) and the conversation took an interesting twist. I was thrilled to learn that chef Stephen Paulson is now using our naked Pilsner malt in a variety of dishes. 1 unique barley, inspiring beer and food uses under the same roof. SO COOL.
Our dream for working with HT Rea Farming on growing the Clear naked spring barley varietal was inspired by Barley World's project. These folks are working to create naked barleys that can be farmed with sustainable methods while also meeting spec for malting, brewing, baking, and culinary uses. The diversity of market opportunities for a malt-worthy grain allows farmers and maltsters to ensure an adequate supply, while mitigating risks associated with any one market outlet. A very worthwhile cause. So we got a hold of some seed from this pioneering Canadian-bred varietal and grew it out on a gorgeous ridgetop in Milton-Freewater, Oregon.
Momentum is building. Last week we even sent 2 pallets of this Pilsner malt out to and Industrial Arts Brewing Company in Upstate New York, to mill and run some tests through IA's mash filter (a tool used to brew with hulless grains). More to come on that project.
Do let us know if you'd like to give our naked Pilsner malt a try. Find it on the Mainstem website as 2019 Freewater Clear Pilsner.
The award-winning Lavender Wit is back at Crossbuck Brewing!
In pre-quarantine times (enter Morgan Freeman voice), we teamed up with Crossbuck and brewed the finest local ingredients into one crushingly refreshing spring flower of a beer. Built on a foundation of Athena-grown Pilsner barley malt from Johns Ranch and Walla Walla-grown light Munich red wheat malt from HT Rea Farming. Hopped with Perle from the rock stars at Walla Walla Hops. And featuring a subtle addition of lavender from Blue Mountain Lavender Farm.
This beer took home a gold medal in 2019 at the Washington Beer Awards for best agricultural product inspired beer and its sales support local conservation through the Blue Mountain Land Trust.
Head on over and stock up on a beer that celebrates place-based flavor, conservation, and the folks making it happen around the Walla Walla Valley. You'll also find a bunch of other exciting beers on tap.
Heads up, Portland & Vancouver! A collaboration steam beer (aka- California common) is dropping this week at Fortside Brewing Company and Upright Brewing. It's called Batch 1000 and features our cherished light Munich wheat malt made with hard red winter wheat from HT Rea Farming. The beer will be released to-go at both breweries by Saturday, so please do pay them a visit while running your essential errands this weekend.
Call it terroir or call it provenance... we couldn't be more excited about this place-based brew! With Walla Walla local grapes, local malt AND local hops, it's a righteous exploration of our hometown's agricultural bounty.
This 100% natural fermentation farmhouse beer from Fortside Brewing Company combines 2019 Les Collines Vineyard Tempranillo grapes, our 2018 Walla Walla Genie Pale malt and 2016 Walla Walla Hard Red Light Munich wheat malt grown by HT Rea Farming , and landrace hops from Walla Walla Hops. Did we mention the mircoflora for fermentation is from Walla Walla as well? Stay tuned for this special collab release in spring 2020.
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