Page 23 - Beverage Master December January 2020

Craft Beverage

The seal, created by the Craft Maltsters Guild, is a
packaging and the taproom, it creates a conversa- Columbia Boiler
tool to help breweries and distilleries tell that story
to their customers. By creating a seal to go into

tion piece for customers to engage with. What is
craft malt? Why does it matter? The Artisan’s Choice in

The odd stumbling block is that rather than cre- over 1500 Craft Breweries
ating a freely-available graphic to help breweries
raise craft malt’s profile, the Craft Maltsters Guild
has put a price on the use of the seal, charging and Distilleries
$150 per year to register as a faithful customer –
yet another cost, albeit a small one, on top of the Compatible with All Brewing Systems
premium cost of using the malt in the first place.

That is the hurdle that still needs to be cleared by
craft maltsters and their end users: how to sell the
story of increased cost to their customers in a way
that makes them care enough to part with their
money. Without the additional value proposition,
the story of craft malt becomes muddled into the
same gnarled discussion of what local means that
the entire craft beer industry wrestles with: What
does local really mean? How far away does some-
thing have to be to no longer be considered local?
Is it your local neighborhood, your city, or your
state? Is your beer still “local” if it uses malt from
another country? What about hops? Will the cus-
tomer pay a premium for “local” when it increases
the cost of the end product to well above regional
market norms?

With the uncertain answers to these questions
comes the unfortunate follow-up:

Why does any but the most enlightened end-cus-
tomer care?

The craft malt industry is an exciting new develop-
ment within the craft beer industry with reflections
of what the craft beer industry itself went through
40 years ago. In a modern marketplace focused
almost single-mindedly on hops as a key ingredient,
it faces a bevy of challenges that it may only get
through with the help of its most ardent customers.

COLUMBIA BOILER COMPANY

PROUDLY MADE IN THE USA
Phone (610) 323-2700

www.columbiaboiler.com

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