By Liam Colford, Regional Craft Manager – North America
Where Are We Headed: Metaphorically?
Recent data (January 2025) found in The Beer Purchasers’ Index from the National Beer Wholesalers Association continues to show the craft segment contracting year-over-year with wholesalers, even as the Brewers Association reports that there are approximately 10,000 craft breweries operating within the United States.
The challenges facing craft brewers have never been greater and the competition has never been fiercer. But as an industry, we’ve never been shy to rise up to a challenge and tackle it head on. Nevertheless, many craft brewers are left asking themselves some very relevant questions:
How can I differentiate my beer in a crowded and hyper competitive marketplace?
How can I appeal to a new generation of drinkers and to more drinkers in general?
How can I maximize the value I get from my suppliers & industry partners?
Where Are We Headed: Literally?
In a few weeks, thousands of craft brewers will descend on Indianapolis for 3 days of education, networking, camaraderie and fun at Craft Brewers Conference 2025.
The culmination of Craft Brewers Conference is the World Beer Cup, where individual beers are celebrated and awarded for being the best of the best.
In short, CBC is both physically and metaphorically a collaborative and competitive space, a microcosm of the craft beer industry at large.
So as you think about your ever-increasing to-do list: gaining market share, appealing to new demographics in a crowded marketplace, launching a new brand, winning World Beer Cup medals and rising above the tide of negative forces affecting the alcohol industry as a whole, you may be left wondering how you might garner some support to help you make sense of it all.
One question you’d be wise to ask yourself is: Am I maximizing value from my maltster?
Choosing a malt supplier shouldn’t feel like a purely transactional exchange. While on the most basic level you may view purchasing malt as simple as: “I give you money, you give me extract,” but the truth is that maltsters have much more to offer beyond sweet, sweet fermentable sugar in malted barley form.
Who is Prairie Malt?
Prairie Malt celebrated its 50 year anniversary in 2024. We’re located in the premiere barley growing region of North America, in a small town called Biggar, Saskatchewan, where barley is synonymous with the local economy and culture. We have deep roots (no pun intended) in barley and agronomy and we’re always eager to communicate on this subject with customers.
We produce a total of 13 unique malts at our maltings in Biggar, including our PRISTINE PILSNER MALTS like Prairie Pilsner and Prairie Select.
As proud members of Boortmalt, one of the world’s largest malting companies with 27 malt plants on 5 continents, we offer a wide selection of imported malts from our network of innovative and historic maltings around the globe.
Unlike other suppliers, who may procure their imported malts from third-parties, Boortmalt’s global footprint allows us to import and distribute a wide selection of malts from overseas from within our own intra-company network.
With a streamlined supply chain, deep insights into region specific information like regional barley harvests, ocean freight rates from Europe, coupled with our network of bagged malt warehouses and bulk malt transloads across North America, we provide significant value to our customers because of our global scale and far-reaching footprint.
As a supplier, transparency is key, but it doesn’t just mean sharing generalized, one-message-fits-all information with a broad audience. Your unique brewery surely has unique needs, and we’re equipped to help you find the best solutions for your unique circumstances.
Here are some thought provoking ideas on how you can make more with your maltster.
To learn more about us, we encourage you to visit our booth (#1509) at Craft Brewers Conference.
Tastemaking
For the last decade, the Brewers Association has been conducting a Harris Poll where they ask self-described “craft drinkers” whether they consumed more or less craft beer during the current year versus the previous one.
2024 was the first year on record where a higher percentage of people responded “less” instead of “more.”
Perhaps more worrisome is the fact that among self-described non-craft drinkers, the #1 answer given to the question: “Why don’t you drink craft beer at all/more often?” was “I don’t like the taste.” This answer was even more popular (50% of respondents) among respondents aged 21 – 34.
While most brewers have been clamoring for a Lager renaissance since forever ago, India Pale Ale remains a dominant juggernaut of a style group in scan data, and the top 1-3 individual styles remain India Pale Ale, Imperial/Double/Triple IPA, and Hazy India Pale Ale.
Don’t get it twisted, we’re huge fans of well-executed IPAs and there is something to be said about how grain bills can impact the longevity of them.
For example, Prairie Loxless malt is made with a unique, proprietary barley varietal called Gold Star, which lacks lipoxygenase – an enzyme found in malt that is responsible for the development of trans-2-nonenal, the cardboard off-flavor, in packaged beer.
Loxless Malt aside, while it’s clear that while there are obvious reasons for trying to make your IPA #1 in your market, there are undoubtedly opportunities for exploration when it comes to brewing craft beer styles and flavors that appeal to a broader, previously unengaged audience.
The route to reach them doesn’t necessarily have to include Triple IPAs, sugar-based seltzers or RTDs.
The Difference Is In The Details
If you were to look at the certificates of analysis for a variety of different pale malts from different brands, you might see little evidence of variability between them and rationally conclude that they are ostensibly the same.
Maybe you choose the one you’ve been using since you were a home brewer, or maybe you revert to provenance based logic for choosing a malt. These are all logical choices, but relying on habit or happenstance (“this is what I have available”) doesn’t allow much room for exploration and in turn, may preclude you from unlocking the maximum value from your maltster.
Here’s an example. At Prairie Malt, we have a total of 9 different Pilsner malts in our catalog.
While the mathematical variability between the COAs for each malt may be minimal, the point remains that each malt is made with different barley varietals, grown in different countries under different meteorological circumstances. Each is then malted in a different malt plant under different conditions.
Although these differences may not dramatically alter the crux of what you’re trying to achieve with your recipe (there is no pilsner malt that smells like grapefruit…yet), there are undoubtedly subtleties in flavor, aroma and performance with each pilsner malt that can have an impact on a finished beer.
Thinking along these lines shouldn’t be earth shattering or controversial; terroir is a concept that holds tremendous importance in the wine world, but rarely do we discuss or explore it in beer, especially within the context of barley and malt.
We frequently receive feedback from customers that using Prairie Select to brew Pilsner in lieu of some German equivalents adds crispness without the grassiness typically found in German malts.
We hear that our Jehanne d’Arc Pilsen from Les Maltiers adds a certain delicateness, dare I say a je ne sa quoi, to Lager and that a whole host of other substitutions using Prairie malts in favor of more ubiquitously found malts yields both an unexpectedly pleasant and decidedly identifiable distinction in flavor in finished beer, especially in Pilsners and Light Lagers.
So as you scratch your head thinking about ways to reach a consumer who says they don’t like craft beer because “I don’t like the taste,” ask yourself whether you’re utilizing every tool available to you to change that perception and whether you’re swimming with the current or against it.
The difference, as is often the case, is in the details.
Malt as a Marketing Tool
We’ve all heard the popular refrain that it’s easier to sell a product when there is a “story” behind it. This is undoubtedly the case when selling craft beer to consumers.
In a cooler with hundreds of offerings, why should a customer pick yours? A local bar has twenty craft beers on tap, what can draw that thirsty patron to your beer versus the other 19?
Apart from the obvious answers like quality and brand recognition, the story behind the ingredients used in your recipe can often help your beer stand out from the crowd. We all know someone who jumps at the chance to taste the latest IPA made with a hop with a very palatable name like HB14902 (this is a made up hop name, I think?), so why not try to foster the same level of intrigue with one of your other 3 core ingredients?
Ask yourself, what would you be more likely to gravitate to on a tap list:
Irish Red Ale – 5.5% – Brewed with Irish pale malt
Or
Irish Red Ale – 5.5% – Brewed with Hunter Pale malt – an Irish heritage malt dating back to 1959 – from Ireland’s largest and oldest maltster: Minch Malt
Your use of innovative malts, heritage malts, hyper-specific terroir style malts, or sustainably produced malts are all likely to resonate with your customers in ways that other malts simply cannot.
In Conclusion
Your malt supplier can provide significant value beyond offering you high extract malt that is delivered in spec and on time. The creative use of grain bills in developing, and especially in marketing your recipes, offers you a unique way to harness flavors and tell compelling stories that accompany your great beers.
Ask more from your maltster! They will be inclined to deliver.