Barley Grower's Passion for Craft Beer Brews
Farm-sized Malting Business
M O N T A N A
TEXT BY SHANNON RUCKMAN PHOTOGRAPHY SARAH LANIER
F
ueled by a desire to invent and passion for cra beer, a
barley farmer created a value-added opportunity in malting.
"Brewing is an art," says malter Ryan Pfeifle, who farms with
his father, Phil Pfeifle, on the family's century-old wheat and
barley farm near Power, Mont.
While most people know beer is made from barley, they may
not know how. Beer is craed in three basic steps: harvest,
malting and brewing. Malting is the process of steeping,
germinating and kilning grain.
"In order to make alcohol, you need sugar," explains Pfeifle.
"You have to sprout the grain to trick it into breaking down its
starch to make more sugar, then dry it to give it to the brewer to
finish extracting the sugar."
Pfeifle saw the malting process as an opportunity to add value
to his family's farm and serve an industry need. According to
Montana State University's Barley, Malt and Brewing Quality
Lab, the malt dictates many aspects of the beer, including
alcohol content, flavor, color and mouth feel, or how the beer
feels in one's mouth.
Pfeifle's custom malting drum takes 162 seconds to
complete a rotation and turns 75 times per batch.
Ryan Pfeifle, a farmer-
engineer, inherited a
mechanical mind for
building and is grateful
to have grown up on a
farm that gave him the
space, materials, tools
and barley to bring his
dreams to fruition.
SiG
MT
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