Local investors from Montana plan to build a new 10,000 ton malting facility to serve the local craft beer industry with malt from locally grown barley. Ron Ueland, currently consultant for Northern Seed LLC, which provides seeds, seed treatments and services to growers, will serve as president of the venture Montana Craft Malt. The plant will be located in or near Butte/Montana in a region which has “the best growing environment in the world for barley -- a wealth of sophisticated growers, strong logistics infrastructure, and abundant quality water supply,” according to Ueland.
The malt plant will be designed for smaller batches to produce different varieties of malt for the local craft brewing industry. The planned yearly capacity of 10,000 tons will be twice the amount which is needed to serve Montana’s craft brewing industry. A team of local investors will raise the projected cost of $15 million. After the site is selected within the next couple of weeks, construction of the new malthouse is scheduled to start still in 2017 with completion planned in 2018.
