The beer's Full Pint malt from Mecca Grade Estate Malt in Madras, Oregon, and its organic Gargoyle hops from Hops-Meister in Clearlake make it unique — and extremely limited in quantity.
Mad Fritz beer is usually only for sale at the brewery in St. Helena and is available by exclusive membership. Needless to say, the wait list is long.
Does barley matter for beer flavor? That’s one of the main questions OSU’s barley researchers are seeking to answer. One of the school’s grad students is currently involved in a flavor project. Besides breeding barley for flavors specifically requested by craft and microbrewers, other desirable traits include cold tolerance and disease resistance.
As craft brewing continues to grow, barley production is rising in Oregon to meet the increasing demand for local ingredients. With the influx of some new funding, OSU will soon have a lab for malting small, experimental varieties.
He talked a bit about Central Oregon malt terroir and how locally sourced ingredients could create a regionalized drinking area. Aside from a couple of breweries, no one is really brewing with Full Pint yet, but there are some that are pretty excited to try, especially those who are passionate about using local ingredients (e.g. Paul from The Ale Apothecary who brews in the historic way). But in this case it’s not just about growing the ingredients, but malting them here too!