Alright brewing community need some help finding New York grown grains, hops, malts, for brewing. Me and my co brewer are going for the farm brewers license and need to have atheist 20% of the ingredients grown in new York excluding water been researching haven't had much luck so if anybody out there has a website or lives in ny and knows of anything please let me know would be very appreciative thanks and cheers
Need help for grains/NY
- Thread starter baflint
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william_shakes_beer
Well-Known Member
At heist ingredients are really hard to come by 
Check these out, may give you a place to start...
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/09/dining/hop-farmers-reviving-brewing-in-new-york-state.html
Foothillhops.com
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/09/dining/hop-farmers-reviving-brewing-in-new-york-state.html
Foothillhops.com
kingwood-kid
Well-Known Member
Is it 20% by price or weight? If it's price, local hops should do the trick. Valley Malt gets some of their malts from New York, and as small as they are, might be receptive to a New York specific production run. Otherwise, you could try adding enough local unmalted grains/fruits/honey to get you over the threshold.
It's 20% by weight so I'm thinking adding fruits and honey where we can but after time it's goes up to like 40% then eventually all the way up to 90% needs to be from ny going to be a pain without finding the grains thanks for the links I'll take a look at that and see anybody else have suggestions we want to get this rolling hoping to get the legals out of the way so we can enjoy the blood sweat and tears of brewing thanks for the info to all
boscobeans
Well-Known Member
I live in Schenectady NY and have seen a lot about the new brewing law that Schumer (ugh) has been talking about.
Aside from adjuncts (fruits and other things) the main ingredient by weight will always be grain.
Two ways of attacking this come to mind. First I have a question that may play some importance in the entire scheme of things.
Question: As far as percentages of ingredients goes, would out of state barley that was converted (malted) IN NEW YORK count as a NY product. Grain is not malt so MALTED BARLEY might fly as a NY produced product.
If the answer to the above is yes, great you can buy grain from out of state.
If the answer is no you would have to grow barley or have a local grow it for you. A decent yield of barley in New York would be about 100 to 150 bushels per acre..( 4,000 to 6,000 pounds) LOT OF BARLEY.
Since you are starting out and know or at least think the percentage of NY ingredients will go up, why not start by attacking the problem at the pre-brewing stage with the one ingredient that if produced in NY will almost always satisfy the legal issues, THE BASE MALT.
1. Grow or buy barley from a source that would satisfy the law.
2. Produce your own base malt, (not any exotic or special roasts to start) just plain 2 row base malt.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I have seen people malt 25 pounds of barley in the laundry room with nothing more than a tupperware container and a
few screens.
If you could start with a simple malting business (usng the malt yourself as well as selling locally produced malt) and let the profits go back into the brewing aspect you would have most of the legal aspects covered.
Big venture ? Yes, but so is the brewery idea... At first there will be a real learning curve but given a clean area with proper ventilation/heat, decent water, a few rakes and a lot of hands on learning you could knock out a thousand pounds of malt each week.
It might sound complex but might also be worth giving it some serious thought and doing some research.
OMO
bosco
Aside from adjuncts (fruits and other things) the main ingredient by weight will always be grain.
Two ways of attacking this come to mind. First I have a question that may play some importance in the entire scheme of things.
Question: As far as percentages of ingredients goes, would out of state barley that was converted (malted) IN NEW YORK count as a NY product. Grain is not malt so MALTED BARLEY might fly as a NY produced product.
If the answer to the above is yes, great you can buy grain from out of state.
If the answer is no you would have to grow barley or have a local grow it for you. A decent yield of barley in New York would be about 100 to 150 bushels per acre..( 4,000 to 6,000 pounds) LOT OF BARLEY.
Since you are starting out and know or at least think the percentage of NY ingredients will go up, why not start by attacking the problem at the pre-brewing stage with the one ingredient that if produced in NY will almost always satisfy the legal issues, THE BASE MALT.
1. Grow or buy barley from a source that would satisfy the law.
2. Produce your own base malt, (not any exotic or special roasts to start) just plain 2 row base malt.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I have seen people malt 25 pounds of barley in the laundry room with nothing more than a tupperware container and a
few screens.
If you could start with a simple malting business (usng the malt yourself as well as selling locally produced malt) and let the profits go back into the brewing aspect you would have most of the legal aspects covered.
Big venture ? Yes, but so is the brewery idea... At first there will be a real learning curve but given a clean area with proper ventilation/heat, decent water, a few rakes and a lot of hands on learning you could knock out a thousand pounds of malt each week.
It might sound complex but might also be worth giving it some serious thought and doing some research.
OMO
bosco
longlakebrew
New Member
I think for hops the best place to look might be http://nehopalliance.org/
A number of the new hop growers in the state are very small, and you might have a hard time finding them on your own, so either the website above could work or try the Madison County Cornell Cooperative Extension (a lot of the hops are going in the ground in Madison County) or try contacting Steve Miller, recently hired as the New York State hops specialist. Here's an article about him and hops. http://thebrewsherpa.com/tag/hops-n...xtension-beer-craftbeer-farming-pennsylvania/
Basically hops production has quadrupled in NYS each of the past 2 years, and with the passage of the farm brewery bill, could be posed to continue doing so for quite a while. I would try locking up some of this years harvest now, dry it, and store it for when you can officially open your doors next year. Otherwise, this years entire crop might be bought up, and you'll be stuck until next falls harvest.
When it comes to barley things are a bit trickier. A couple suggestions other that those above. Currently there is some barley production in New York, however, most of it is not brewing barley. Forming a contract with a current barley producer to switch over to a different type might be doable. You may have to pay a bit of a premium, however, framing the discussion around the idea that the grower will be getting in on the ground floor of an entire new industry (farm breweries) might work. Another suggestion would be to contract with a farmer producing wheat (if you can't find one growing barley). The equipment used is similar, and using the ground floor argument you could convince someone to grow barley (of course, you could always always make wheat beers, or explore adjuncts such as corn, maybe rye? I have no idea if anyone grows rye in NY).
Anyway, those are some of the thoughts I've had on the topic, as I would love to start a farm brewery, but don't really have the time or money to do so.
Good luck!
A number of the new hop growers in the state are very small, and you might have a hard time finding them on your own, so either the website above could work or try the Madison County Cornell Cooperative Extension (a lot of the hops are going in the ground in Madison County) or try contacting Steve Miller, recently hired as the New York State hops specialist. Here's an article about him and hops. http://thebrewsherpa.com/tag/hops-n...xtension-beer-craftbeer-farming-pennsylvania/
Basically hops production has quadrupled in NYS each of the past 2 years, and with the passage of the farm brewery bill, could be posed to continue doing so for quite a while. I would try locking up some of this years harvest now, dry it, and store it for when you can officially open your doors next year. Otherwise, this years entire crop might be bought up, and you'll be stuck until next falls harvest.
When it comes to barley things are a bit trickier. A couple suggestions other that those above. Currently there is some barley production in New York, however, most of it is not brewing barley. Forming a contract with a current barley producer to switch over to a different type might be doable. You may have to pay a bit of a premium, however, framing the discussion around the idea that the grower will be getting in on the ground floor of an entire new industry (farm breweries) might work. Another suggestion would be to contract with a farmer producing wheat (if you can't find one growing barley). The equipment used is similar, and using the ground floor argument you could convince someone to grow barley (of course, you could always always make wheat beers, or explore adjuncts such as corn, maybe rye? I have no idea if anyone grows rye in NY).
Anyway, those are some of the thoughts I've had on the topic, as I would love to start a farm brewery, but don't really have the time or money to do so.
Good luck!
I was looking at that farm brewery licence. I think there are a few workarounds. Feed corn can be had very cheaply. I know I have gotten it for $5 for a 50lb sack. Don't crush it just put it in a sack in the mash. It can constitute your ny portion, I doubt it would add any flavor or fementables. Not only that you can pull it out and use it for your next mash to save $. Also it wouldn't work for all beer styles, you might want to look into isomerized alpha extract. If you use that instead of bittering hops you wouldn't have to add any ny hops since 20% of 0 hops added is 0.
boscobeans
Well-Known Member
Flavor each batch with a fifty pound hunk of hickory. Flavoring ingredient?? LOL
bosco
bosco
