Our Maine Street's Aroostook Issue 33 : Summer 2017 | Page 50

Shipyard Brewing Adds Aroostook Produced Malt to its Original Flagship Beer

With contributions from Marty Jones and the Buck Family .
Nearly 25 years after creating it , Shipyard Brewing is making a homegrown adjustment to its very first beer . Shipyard ’ s Export Ale is now brewed with an addition of locally grown malted barley from Maine Malt House .
“ Export is a beer that stands for Maine and our state ’ s nautical heritage ,” says Bruce Forsley , Shipyard ’ s vice president of sales & marketing . “ The beer ’ s fans are largely New Englanders who love the beer ’ s malt-forward balance , subtle dryness and supreme drinkability . We think these beer lovers will appreciate the locally grown malt in the beer , and using it allows us to boost our longstanding efforts to support Maine farmers and New England entrepreneurs .”
Maine Malt House is the malting arm of the third-generation , family run Buck Farms in Mapleton , Maine . The company grows its Mapleton Pale two-row barley on a quarter of its 1,000 acres and malts the barley by hand in floor-malt fashion .
“ We ’ re excited to be working with a larger and well-established brewery like Shipyard ,” says Jacob Buck , Maine Malt House co-founder . “ It gives us a great deal of legitimacy and credibility and will prove to be very beneficial for our business .”
Shipyard has used the company ’ s malts for smallbatch beers in the past . “ We ‘ ve been wanting to use Jacob ’ s malts in one of our packaged beers ,” says Shipyard founder Fred Forsley . “ But we weren ’ t sure if he could provide us with enough malt to do that .”
Buck says Maine Malt House is in the midst of an expansion that allows his family ’ s company to seize the opportunity with Shipyard . “ We are working to increase our capacity by 500 %,” Buck says , “ and this arrangement allows us to quickly put that effort to use .”
This year Shipyard expects to buy about 30,000 pounds of the company ’ s malt . About 25 other local breweries use the malt in their beers .
Such locally produced beer ingredients are an asset to Shipyard and its craft beer peers . “ Logistically , Maine brewers are handicapped ,” Fred Forsley says . “ We ’ re at the end of the road here and things have to come a long way to get to us . We support companies like Maine Malt House because the more things brewers can get locally , the more efficient we can all be . That support also helps to create more local companies and jobs .”
48 SUMMER 2017