In the spring of 2023, we reported that Skagit Valley Malting was closing and filing for bankruptcy. It’s always sad to see a business go down like that, but some breweries relied on Skagit Valley Malting more than others. In fact, some breweries used its malt exclusively. As of June 2023, that was no longer an option.
Today, we are happy to report that new ownership will bring Skagit Valley Malting back to life. Go Skagit reports that the company could begin producing its malted barley as soon as April or May.
Evan Turner, the new operator of Skagit Valley Malt, told Go Skagit that during the lengthy bankruptcy proceedings he attended malting school to learn the trade. He said that he wouldn’t be the maltster but wanted to understand the business.
“We have generally laid out a plan that says we have to have grain move within a month,” he told Go Skagit. “So, March, we have to have some machines and equipment that are clean … and then we should be malting come April or May. We should be able to be making great malt, if only one batch at a time.”
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Turner said that he intends to keep Skagit Valley Malting small, focusing on supplying grain to brewers who know and appreciate the nature of the Skagit Valley.
Skagit Valley Malting emerged in 2012 as a small-scale, boutique maltster. There were not a lot of those at the time. The Washington-brewed beer you enjoy in Seattle may very well use barley grown on huge farms in Montana, Alberta, or even Germany. For instance, Canada provides the U.S. market with as much as 300 million metric tons of barley annually. Malted barley is big business. Skagit Valley Malting is not.
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There’s nothing wrong with using barley from one of the large maltsters, but it is nice that boutique maltsters like Skagit Valley Malting and Eastern Washington’s Linc Malt provide an option. Because they are small, they can often work with different types of grains that are grown on a smaller scale. It’s all about options.
In the past decade, boutique maltsters have become more common, but they still produce just a tiny fraction of the overall malted barley used by the world’s breweries. The return of Skagit Valley Malting is very much a feel-good story, but it sounds like the company is not looking to shake things up. It will produce small-batch, locally grown grain for the region’s brewers who are interested in using it. That’s a good thing.
