E-Malt.com News article: USA, ME: Floor malting Blue Ox Malthouse celebrates grand opening of expanded facility

Last week, Blue Ox Malthouse celebrated the grand opening of its expanded facility, now the largest of its kind in the world outside of Europe, Morning AgClips reported on October 18.

At 20,000 square feet with quadrupled floor malting capacity, Blue Ox Malthouse is an entirely floor malting-dedicated company that produces malted grains for the Northeast’s brewing, distilling, and baking industries since its start in 2013. This expansion significantly bolsters the region’s grain economy— creating jobs, investing into family farms across Maine and the Northeast, and adding value to products made with Blue Ox malt. It also augments Blue Ox’s ability to create more malt made with a diversity of grains (such as barley, wheat, rye, triticale, and oats), as well as organic, smoked, custom, and soon roasted products, for craft breweries and distilleries across the region and beyond.

Commissioner Amanda Beal of the Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry was among the speakers at the event. She commended the expansion in her remarks, stating, “This development creates an opportunity for the growth of our grain sector, offering farmers access to new markets while also benefiting from working with grains as rotational and cover crops to enhance soil health. Additionally, this expansion provides high-quality ingredients for businesses to create value-added products, expanding opportunities for growth on many levels.”

Town of Lisbon Council Chair Harry Moore Jr. also gave remarks, noting, “Projects like this one, which not only enhance traditional processes with modern equipment but also focus on sustainability and support for local farmers, are key to the development of communities throughout Maine.”

“This expansion matters because alcohol is an agricultural product, and alcoholic production can play a huge role in robust, resilient, vibrant local food systems,” added Blue Ox Malthouse Founder Joel Alex. “In order to realize this potential, we need value-added processes that build the infrastructure that connects this alcoholic production to high quality, local ingredients and farms. Food systems matter because people matter; and we all have such a personal, economic, and cultural connection to food. Food that is better for us is also almost always better for our community and the environment.”

Of more than 100 craft maltsters on the continent, Blue Ox is among a small fraction of them entirely dedicated to time-honored floor malting techniques— and now the largest of these committed producers. Floor malting is gentler on the grain, with less automation and more interaction with the process that beyond offering the market a more consistent, quality, and flavorful product, also builds good jobs in the state of Maine.


18 October, 2024