Craft Beer Drives Local Producers

Craft Beer Drives Local Producers. I’m Greg Martin with Lacy Gray for Colorado Ag Today.

Colorado has the third largest craft brewing industry in the nation behind California and Washington State and until recently one of the difficult things has been to make local beers truly local.

GRAY: The reason is that the majority of the hops used in beer making come from the Pacific Northwest or Europe. Now there are several small hop producers springing up in Colorado that will be able to supply a small portion of the industry. The biggest problem behind producing a local beer is the time it takes to establish and in some cases re-establish these ingredient crops.

MARTIN: Like barley. Some producers used to supply the industry giant, Coors, but got out of the barley business but now are reenergizing and replanting that part of their operations. The brewing industry in Colorado has been growing by leaps and bounds over the past several years and has easily doubled recently. That says a lot about the quality and the desire in the market for a quality craft brew.

GRAY: Malt is another aspect of the barley business that is seeing a giant push in the state. There are plusses and minuses to making completely local product. One minus is that many times the ingredients tend to be more expensive and harder to come by. But there is something about buying and consuming a product that you know is produced from the farmers down the street or in the next county. It’s about supporting your neighbors.

And that’s Colorado Ag Today. I’m Greg Martin, thanks for listening on the Ag Information Network of the West.