Our family comes from a long, unbroken line of agriculturists, reaching back to the original Luelling \loo·ell·ing\ family: Quaker plantation owners who were farming in North Carolina before the Revolutionary War. They also happened to be staunch abolitionists, which didn't set well with their slave-owning neighbors.
Experimental Brewing Podcast - Purge Your Beer of Boring Malt
Denny sits down with craft maltser (and sponsor of the show), Seth Klann of Mecca Grade Estate Malt. They talk Seth's long family connections, the challenges of growing barley and just why would you decide to add the complication of malting on top of it? Find out about liquid nitrogen, barley varieties and the future of craft malt.
The Curious Lost History of Ah Bing and His Namesake Cherry
Drew Beechum (Experimental Brewing) Taste Tests Mecca Grade Malt
Artisanal Malt, the Next Big Thing in Craft Beer
Jeff and Patrick discuss the next big thing in craft beer ingredients, artisanal malts. They discuss the techniques, the artistry, the beer and the economics of artisal malts and interview Seth Klann of Mecca Grade Estate Malts in Madras, Oregon.
Barley, Malt, Beer and Flavor
By: Dr. Patrick Hayes for the April 2017 Oregon Wheat Magazine
"In companion experiments, sensory panels at the Canadian Malting Barley Technical Center, Deschutes Brewing, and New Glarus Brewing assessed a range of beers. In addition to the genetic component of flavor, Dustin identified an “environment” component. The growing environment can affect flavor – a phenomenon known as terroir and a feature that Mecca Grade Estate Malt is capitalizing on. All of this work constitutes part of a PhD thesis for Dustin Herb, but it is only the beginning."
Malt is the New Hops
By: Parker Hall, Willamette Week
That's what it takes to stand out in today's market. And Mecca Grade doesn't come cheap. It costs more than twice the wholesale price of malts typically used in Oregon beer.
"At the end of the day," Klann says, "it has to be something special for the brewer to want to take a chance on it."
For people like Conrad Andrus of Portland's Culmination Brewing, Mecca Grade malt is something he tends to order for particularly important batches, like a recent collaboration beer with the Commons.
"We definitely try to use them whenever we're going after something special," Andrus says. "They are one of the best maltsters in the United States."
Malt: The Meat in your Beer
By: Nicole Vulcan
"If hops were salt and pepper, malt would be the steak."
In case you were curious about the relative importance of each ingredient in your beer, that quote from Madras resident Seth Klann should set some things straight. Here's another way of putting it: Barley–and its resultant product, malt–is the bulk that makes up most of your beloved pint.