For the Colorado Malting Company, a 300-acre, fourth-generation family farm on the outskirts of Alamosa, Colo., innovation isn’t just a hobby—it’s a livelihood.
Since converting their former dairy farm into a malthouse in 2008, the Cody family has turned ingenuity into business by repurposing old dairy machinery into equipment for malting the barley grown on the farm. But the end of 2017 will mark one of the farm’s biggest innovations to date: the addition of a 5-barrel brewhouse, making The Colorado Farm Brewery the first venture of its kind in the state. By making the new space available to their brewing clientele, the Cody family hopes it will inspire them to return farmhouse ales to the farm.
“Farmhouse beers have kind of become defined by some funky yeast, and that’s not the style,” says Jason Cody, CEO and president of Colorado Malting Company, who runs the business with his brothers, Josh and Bobby, and their father, Wayne.
Created as an educational tool and extension of the farm’s experimental nature, The Colorado Farm Brewery, built in what was the former shop, will be available for use starting in December for the company’s long list of large and small customers including New Belgium, Casey Brewing and Blending, and AC Golden Brewing Co.And breweries have been lining up to get on the calendar at the remote brewhouse, where they’ll have the opportunity to create ales using barley harvested and malted on site and yeast cultivated on the farm. They’ll also be able to explore different flavor profiles via some of the specialty malt varieties produced here, like the malthouse’s popular smoked and gluten-free malts.
While the Codys already grow three varieties of hops, they also have plans to expand the program in 2018 in order to provide guest brewers with all of the ingredients to design one-of-a-kind, terroir-inspired recipes.
Limited quantities of each beer made at The Colorado Farm Brewery will be available in the small tasting room, which will be open to the public several evenings each week. Food trucks will also be scheduled for the days the tasting room is open.