Viability of a GF malt supplier

bernerbrau · 03-08-2011, 08:46 PM

Has anyone thought seriously about the possibility of becoming a GF homebrew vendor? Obviously there's a need, as GF brewing appears to be a largely uncharted territory.

Now, most HBSes offer Sorghum and Rice extracts. If we want to get any more complicated than that, it looks like we're stuck doing home malting.

Bear in mind that I'm just thinking out loud here, as I've only just started to get into GF brewing.

Would there be a viable business model in setting up shop to manufacture and sell GF malts? Products could include:

base malts from quinoa, buckwheat, millet, sorghum, amaranth, etc.
specialty malts (caramel, crystal, roast) from quinoa, buckwheat, millet, sorghum, amaranth, etc.
dry malt extracts from quinoa, buckwheat, millet, sorghum, amaranth, etc.
liquid malt extracts from quinoa, buckwheat, millet, sorghum, amaranth, etc.
Gluten free liquid yeast**

My thinking is the business would start by taking individual orders and charging a premium for labor on top of the cost of the grain, and just malting to order. Then as reputation builds and product moves faster, start malting in bulk and shipping to order. Then whenever assets permit, obtain the hardware necessary to reduce GF wort down to extract, and package the extract.

**I put it on there as a potential product since it could save customers time, but selling gluten free liquid yeast would be a little trickier as it's not going to be as simple as diluting commercially available yeast and re-selling it. That would probably be inviting some trouble.

I'm not suggesting this wouldn't be an uphill battle. I'm just thinking there's a need for it, so why not investigate the cost versus the benefits of taking up the initiative to fill that need? What do people think of that possibility?

KevinM · 03-08-2011, 10:40 PM

I'd purchase malted gluten free grain from someone if they wanted to go through the time and effort to do that much of it. Situationally though, I'm still trying to encourage people around here to even consider gluten free brewing with sorghum extract. Even the homebrew stores I've spoken to in my area has said that the demand has not been high for the sorghum extract.
They get one or two occasional people, and then there's me who does the bulk of the buying (and that's maybe one 7 pounder per month).

It's definately worth looking into but demand will be slow for a while, until more gluten free brewers try it out. So to begin with, it could be about seeing among us, who would be willing to buy malted grain from another one of us and slowly building up interest.

Start small and unofficial until it's time to be a business perhaps. There's a gluten free baker who did that recently, and finally with enough demand she started baking and selling at the farmer's market.

spaced · 03-08-2011, 11:45 PM

In America I think the market would be large enough. Over here in oz, it is too small a market. I actually love sorghum based beer, I find all sorghum has carbed up in the bottle quicker for me as well.

KevinM · 03-09-2011, 01:48 AM

Overall, on a country wide basis, I think yes, it would be large enough, but then you have to consider a lot more vs a local sales level. If we were all concentrated in a single brewing community, it'd be a definate yes.

As it is right now, even malted, isn't the mash different for our gluten free grains than barley, causing it to be more complicated? (gelatinzation temperatures and all). I've been searching around my local town in both the gluten free group and the brewing group and have found a total of 4 other potential gluten free brewers out of several hundred people. Two of which started their first gluten free brew last month.

It'll definately get there, but I don't know the timeframe. (Also, factor in that many gluten free people don't drink and don't drink beer in any case so don't have the want of it. They're still young enough not to drink anything).

I think the main costs aren't in the production factor at the moment. Find a gluten free supplier and self malt, which many of us are doing. But rather the licensing, shipping and so on. Advertising can almost take care of itself I think with the internet since you wouldn't really be fighting other producers right now.

I wonder what kind of goods this counts as by the way. Health code stuff would be more complicated.

**ravensbrew** · 03-09-2011, 02:18 AM

colorado malting company is doing something like this with malting locally grown millet. They seem to be doing this as a feasibility test in the colorado market. If it's successful I imagine it will become a regular offering.

KevinM · 03-09-2011, 02:49 AM

Ooh, that looks promising, particularly if they manage to keep separate malting facilities.

bernerbrau · 03-09-2011, 03:50 PM

Hmm. Well, my first shot at malting quinoa may be a failure, as I may have accidentally overcooked it. Still, I'm going to try getting wort out of it. It also raises a big question of how do I efficiently dry 2, 10, 50 or even 100 pounds of the stuff in an oven so that the germination stops and I don't burn the darn things??

If I do manage to get a solid malting process down, I'd be more than happy to take orders from members of the GF forum for cost of grains + cost of labor + cost of shipping. Nothing beyond 10 lbs at first though, I think, and it will be a couple weeks between ordering and delivery.

If I wanted to set up a serious operation, though, I'd want at least 1 or 2 dedicated partners from the GF forum to help even out the production load.

Since the mash process is more complicated, if there's a lot of interest in GF malt extract, I may look into a vacuum evaporator, so I could ship GF LME in large mason jars. But those are thousands of dollars so I'd want to make sure I can recoup the expense.

Doing a gelatinization rest before drying out the grains may make the GF mash process easier, but at that point proteins are being leached out into the water, so I'd have to evaporate off the liquid before drying, too.

Though I think the goal here would be to get recognition for Quinoa, Amaranth, Millet, Buckwheat, Sorghum etc. as brewing grains in their own right.

DKershner · 03-09-2011, 04:16 PM

Well, there is a few things at play here, and I just want to note something right out of the gate:

If it were a viable business, someone else would probably have already done it.

Now, every entrepreneur deals with that, so before you even venture down the road of learning to malt, take a look at people's attempts. I guarantee you there is some millet farmer who has tried to malt the grain and sell it or something that you could learn from.

As for the market, you are looking at 1% of the population of the United States being gluten free, this number is growing. For homebrew, you are looking at less than 1% of the beer market. For All grain homebrew, you are looking at around 5-10% of the barley homebrew market, so probably a little less for GF since it is much more difficult.

When these numbers combine, I am not sure the market is much bigger than the people you talk to in this forum. The only way the numbers may be different is if you can get a brewery on board to brew a beer using your ingredients and sell to a mass market. Your key in getting past a very small business is going to be selling commercially imo.

Now, keep in mind this is all just conjecture from a marketer, but there's my 2 cents!

DKershner · 03-09-2011, 04:22 PM

Might I add that if you can make extract from this stuff that is 75% fermentable, I will be your first customer.

bernerbrau · 03-09-2011, 05:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DKershner

If it were a viable business, someone else would probably have already done it.

Now, every entrepreneur deals with that, so before you even venture down the road of learning to malt, take a look at people's attempts. I guarantee you there is some millet farmer who has tried to malt the grain and sell it or something that you could learn from.

Unfortunately my google-fu is not turning up a lot. I guess my question is, since the market for GF stuff in general is rising, is now a good time to try and get into the market on GF homebrew grains?

Quote:

Originally Posted by DKershner

Might I add that if you can make extract from this stuff that is 75% fermentable, I will be your first customer.

Yeah, like I said, once I've got wort, I'd probably need a vacuum evaporator, which runs for thousands of dollars used, and a place to put it in my house, neither of which I really have. Can't boil it down to syrup without caramelizing it.

Or, I need connections to someone who has one and will let me use it.