Seattleites think they know a lot about beer. We can tell the fruity aroma of Citra hops from the piney pop of Simcoe. We know the yeasty difference between a spicy Belgian pale ale and a crisp German lager. But what about barley? Can we tell barley varietals apart like we can hops?
I recently went to Skagit Valley Malting, where CEO Dave Green placed three small glasses of beer in front of me, each made with a different variety of locally grown barley.
The beers were strikingly different, but it was like they were speaking a language I had never heard before. I was tasting the terroir of local barley, something that is incredibly rare to find in beer.
Local breweries buy their grains from either massive North American corporate malting companies or European specialty maltsters. That makes it effectively impossible to brew beer with locally grown grains. Unless, of course, the brewer is in business with Skagit Valley Malting.
