Barley, Malt & Brewing Quality Lab
MSU Malt Quality Lab offers testing services world wide: US, Canada and beyond!!
States and Provinces colored in MSU Blue are now receiving analysis from the MSU Barley Quality Lab
"We received our results in timely fashion and staff was great to work with. Results were in-line with what we've seen from Hartwick."
Riverbend Malt House, North Carolina
"All good reviews from us, appreciate the quick turnarounds and it's nice having someone close and reliable!"
Intelligent Malt, North Dakota
"Thanks for all the work you guys do for us, I can't stress how helpful it is that we can send samples and get our analysis back in the same week."
Maltwerks, Minnesota
Research accepted for publication by the Journal of the American Society of Brewing Chemists (ASBC):
The Effect of Steeping Regime on Barley Malt Quality and its Impact on Breeding Program Selection
Hannah M. Turner, Liz Elmore, Jason Walling, Jennifer Lachowiec, Dylan Mangel, Andreas Fischer, and Jamie Sherman
This research evaluates the effect of three different steep regimes (Multi-Steep, Flush, and Immersion) to determine what impacts they have on malt hydration and the final malt quality.
Malt Quality Lab Hosts the Pink Boots Society
Lady brewers (aka brewsters) attended the Pink Boots Winter Workshop held at MSU and got a chance to learn about malt quality analysis and tour the MSU Lab.
Malt Quality Lab assists the Craft Maltsters Guild in the first ever Malt Cup!
21 Malthouses from around the country submitted Pale Malts to be considered for the win. Samples were first evaluated for quality by the MSU lab, those fitting the style guidelines were then evaluated by a sensory panel. The three winning malthouses - 1st: Root Shoot, 2nd: Mainstem Malt, and 3rd: Carolina Malt House - walk away with huge bragging rights as this competition shapes up to be a regular event of the Craft Maltster Guild's yearly conference.
Bridger Brewing releases their annual wet hop IPA - Ascensionist - making use of local malt from Gallatin Valley Malt!
Lab Director Hannah Turner elected to serve a second term on the Craft Maltster's Guild Board of Directors!
College of Agriculture article about the MSU Barley, Malt & Brewing Lab!
MSU Malt Quality Lab provides barley malt quality analysis for craft beer and food industries
Beehive Basin Brewery recently toured the Malt Quality Lab to learn about the testing process and current breeding program projects!
The MSU Barley and Malt Quality Lab is a resource for Montana growers, maltsters, and brewers which supports the region through research, education, and outreach.
Research
Montana State University’s innovative Barley and Malt Quality Lab supports the Barley Breeding Program by enabling selection of improved barley lines. The state of the art lab allows for malting in early generations and performing full scale evaluation including all of the American Malting Barley Association (AMBA) recommended tests. With the ability to assess these aspects in early generations and providing as many as 9200 data points a year the MSU Barley Program is at a distinctly unique advantage for producing barley lines that will benefit the state economy through our regional growers, maltsters, and brewers. In addition to quality, the lab also supports the breeding program through Innovative techniques such as genetically dissecting traits important to barley as a malt, feed, food, and forage.
Education
The barley program is committed to education and supports both graduate and undergraduate students in their pursuits to expand our knowledge of barley in many areas such as the impact of head morphology on malt quality, developing new methods to advance selection of high quality forage and feed barley, assessing the impact of nematode populations on barley stands, and gaining better understanding of the genetics behind malt hydration.
Outreach
Montanan’s grow more barley acres than any other state and there is a growing collection of Montana Maltsters who use this barley to create a value added product in malt and support our healthy population of Montana Brewers. In recognition of these economies the MSU Barley and Malt Quality Lab provides a service testing malt samples and offers tours to those wanting to learn more about what is involved in making and evaluating malted barley. To date the lab has hosted nearly two dozen tours for local entrepreneurs, students, peer programs, and other interested parties. If your group is interested in learning more please contact us to set up a tour!