"Jason O’Donnell described Mecca Grade’s malt as “peanutty,” and I definitely agree. This is a surprisingly rich spirit for its young age. While it won’t fool you into thinking that it’s a 10-year-old Scotch, for fans of the American Single Malt category, this is an interesting release and a fascinating window into the new world of craft malting."

Allagash Founder, Rob Tod, and Head Brewer, Jason Perkins flew out to Bend to meet Veronica and our Bend Pub Head Brewer, Robin Johnson, to create a test batch of “Sparkling Pale.” This beer uses Pilsner malts from Mecca Grade Estate Malt from Madras, Oregon, and Pale 2-row malts from Buck Farms in Mapleton, Maine. In addition, we’re adding dried Crystal, Cascade and Sterling Hops from Oregon and a rustic farmhouse yeast strain for a light bodied, delicate malt forward beer. Veronica adds, “it’s gonna be bubbly!”

"So, for the finale of the series, we're going to do something that I personally feel is a special opportunity; we will brew a beer strictly using ingredients from our profiled growers.  Every ingredient going into this beer was grown in Oregon, within 125 miles of my home brewery in Beaverton. The end result will be a truly local beer."

At the end of a long dirt road against a backdrop of Central Oregon farmland, Seth Klann is unlocking the door to what he calls, "The Area 51 of Craft Malt."  This is not the place you would expect to find a super secret rebel base designed for a craft malt revolution.  Most of the farms out here are known for growing for food, feed and seed. That's exactly Klann's family has done on their land for over 100 years.  But a love of homebrewing led Seth to find a way to marry his pastime with his family legacy in creating Mecca Grade Estate Malt.

It’s no secret that here in the Northwest, we take “local” very seriously. It seems like every distiller I know is focused on maximizing their use of local ingredients, from that world-famous Bull Run water in Oregon to locally sourced fruits and botanicals. But one distillery in the Portland area is taking local to a new level with the impending December release of its new Oregon Single Malt American Whiskey, a Scotch-style whiskey made by Tualatin Valley Distilling from barley bred, grown, and malted right here in our backyard.

Brewing isn't particularly technical, right? If one can make soup, one can make beer; just acquire the needed ingredients, follow the instructions and in a matter of weeks, ta­da … beer! But if one takes a closer look at the process, from the viewpoint of a researcher focusing on a single ingredient, there's more than meets the eye. Pat Hayes, a barley researcher at Oregon State University (OSU), is one of the people who is diving well below the surface of currently available barley and influencing the future of barley, thanks in large part to technology that did not exist even a decade ago.

Towering over the farm are four shiny new silos, each capable of holding a million pounds of grain. “We have two years of barley waiting to be malted, so in case of crop failure, we can still supply our customers,” Seth Klann explained. Besides barley, the farm grows rye and wheat.

Water is important to their operation, too. But Brad Klann noted, “We are on the end of the canal system, so we often don’t have to order water; we use captured water. We have eight ponds on the farm, and each holds enough water to run a pivot for 18 hours.”

Those on the tour got to sample some of the one-batch craft beers made with the estate malt by Seth Klann and head maltster Chris McMillen.