Brewing local

[Edward's Beer Cellar]

As homebrewers we faced with making decisions about what beers we want to brew and selecting the ingredients needed. There are hundreds (thousands?) of options for beer style, grains, yeast, hops and the other stuff we can add to our beer. I suppose there are a lot of ways that brewers narrow their focus. Select one or two particular styles, use only ingredients available at your LHBS, have a house yeast, use the latest sexy new hops, or make clones of commercial beers that you favor.

I have embarked on a quest to limit my brewing to ingredients that I can source locally, or are grown nearby. (Define local or nearby as you wish). And will design my recipes around what I can source.

I am in Northeast Ohio, and for the past couple of years I have been using base malts from Ohio maltsters. And I have two small hop farms in my area and will limit my hops to varieties that they grow. Both malsters are beginning to market other roasted and kilned grains that I plan to incorporate into my recipies. I'm torn about the yeast though. Should I ask a local brewpub for some of theirs (does that count?)or wild yeast capture (an option that I plan to explore).

Has anyone else tried to "go local"? What are your experiences and tips?

TLDR/ Homebrewers want to make beer from ingredients sourced locally.

 

[kevin58]

I did that about three years ago. I used Pilot House Malt made from grain grown and malted (by Pilot House themselves) in Michigan and hops sourced from the Michigan Hops Alliance.

The only pitfall I encountered is: A) the consistency of malting was erratic. Some batches performed better or worse than others and: B) the big one... they stopped shipping to small homebrew stores.

Fortunately for anyone wishing to continue using Michigan sourced grain/malt there is another maltster called Great Lakes Malting that can be found at most Michigan LHBStores but my experiment had run its course by the time these malts became available so I can't speak to their quality. The reality I found is that while it is great to support the local economy, sometimes things like English or European malt is essential to achieve the final result you are after.

Hops are easy in my state. There are growers all over the place now and they are easy to find.

 

[Robert65]

I'm in NE Ohio too, and I've used local malts and hops, but never attempted to go local on the yeast. I've heard that there's a lab in Columbus (not exactly what I'd call local, but at least in state) that is isolating and culturing wild yeasts, I think from various places around Ohio. I don't have details, but somebody could probably point you in their direction of you ask around the brewing community. It is an intriguing idea to go all in on the terroir.