Crisp Lager, Barleywine, and Porter, oh my!
If you’ve been paying attention to purveyors of better barley, you’ve likely heard the name Crisp Maltings. While this UK outfit steadily supplies some of the finest malts to brewers and distillers the world over, they also take on some truly unique one-of-a-kind projects with micromaltsters. In this case I’m talking about a Transatlantic Malt Collaboration, which was the first I’d ever seen. The collaboration was described by Admiral Maltings as an “international floor malting project” and the barley’s origin comes from the 1850s; a “bit of an ancient grain” according to Crisp.
The substance of this project was reviving an old Czech barley, Haná. This brought about the collaboration between the UK floor maltster Crisp, and US floor maltster, Admiral. Both maltsters practice the old art of traditional floor maltings. In June, the North American Guild of Beer Writers organized the zoom, Maltsters Without Borders: Admiral x Crisp’s Transatlantic Collab. The virtual happy hour was the tremendous effort of Jesse Bussard, owner of Cowpunch Creative and was a unique treat. The Guild’s webinar gave me a chance to try one of the beers brewed with the Hana, Headlands Brewing Haná Munich Helles.
I had thought after the virtual happy hour that that would be the last taste of a beer with UK-grown, California-floor-malted Haná. But Jared Prager, manager and buyer at Glover Park’s Hop, Cask & Barrel announced he was bringing beers from Vermont’s Mount Holly Beer and not just any beer, but a lager brewer with Admiral’s Haná. Also, lager with Admiral’s Butta 12 barley variety. Beers brewed with these barleys are hard enough to come by in DC and we’re thrilled these beers are making their debut in town.
The lager with Haná malt is called Can Service and as Mount Holly writes “Hana is the original Pilsner malt used to brew the first ever light lager in the Czech Republic by a chap named Josef Groll in 1842. This particular batch was grown in the U.K. On behalf of Crisp and floor malted in California by Admiral. This malt has a crazy amount of flavor. This beer is packed with mouthfeel and tasting notes of dried spearmint, nori and mature honey.” It will run you $4.99 a can or $18.99 for a four pack. The other lager from Mount Holly, Free Refill, a modern Pilsner with Butta 12 barley grown by Schaupp Farm in California, is priced the same. Can Service is 3.8% ABV and Free Refill is 5.2% ABV.
Jumping to another barley grown and floor malted by Crisp, is Chevallier. Full disclosure, I brewed Virginia’s Porter with Dynasty Brewing Company’s Favio Garcia and we used Crisp’s Chevalier Malt. In addition to Crisp, we also used Murphy and Rude products: 6-row, Blond Rye, Bakers Cocoa, Americano Roast, and Cimmerian Black malts. Chevallier has a robust and rich history and if you want to try the 5.8% ABV Porter you can find it in the Mount Vernon gift shop or at Dynasty.
Also utilizing Chevallier malt are barleywine(s) brewed by Sapwood Cellars and Jailbreak Brewing Company. The final collaboration blended beer, Turning Truth Tables, is an English barleywine brewed to a strength of 13.1% ABV. Turning Truth Tables is a blend of barleywines, with the Jailbreak thread coming out of Willet wheat bourbon casks whereas the Sapwood version came out of Weller wheated bourbon casks. Both Jailbreak and Sapwood beers featured similar recipes and were brewed using long boils. The resulting beer will be available at both Jailbreak and Sapwood, on tap now and in bottles Saturday.
It’s nice to have not one but three options to try some of the better barleys made the world over. And with Mount Holly’s Can Service you can have a beer that’s 3.8% ABV. With Virginia’s Porter, from Dynasty, you can try a porter brewed to 5.8% ABV strength. And finally, with Sapwood Cellar’s Turning Truth Tables, an English Barleywine at 13.1% ABV, you can enjoy the depth of Crisps’s Chevallier, perhaps by a cozy fire or in the company of good friends.
I am of course completely biased, but some of my favorite malt comes from the Ferdinand Malthouse in Czechia, Valley Malt, in Massachusetts, and of course Crisp Maltings in the UK who have been importing malt into the US since 1990. I had a chance to speak with Crisp’s Josh Wurzbacher “our man in the USA” as Crisp describes him, though his title is Technical Sales Manager, a few months ago. We will release that interview transcript in the coming months but I wanted to let you know that the bounty and goddess of Crisp is available around town right now.
