Two years ago, Root Shoot Malting sold twice as much of its Genie pale two-row malt as it did its even paler pilsner. Today, that ratio has flipped.
“Low-colored malt is a big part of that,” says Todd Olander, fifth-generation farmer and owner of the craft maltings in Loveland, Colorado.
In recent years, Olander says, the team has heard from some brewers that the pale malts were a little too complex for their IPAs and other hop-forward beers. “They said that it’s taking over some of the hop character,” he says.
That’s one reason for a trend that has tracked with breweries and malt producers large and small. Another is the visual appeal of paler beers and how that translates to sales. However, there’s much more to this trend than a straw-pale appearance. Adjusting the malting process in different ways inevitably affects flavor, too, and it’s not always about providing “the blank slate.”