That’s the problem homebrewer Andrew Peterson was trying to solve when he was thinking about opening a brewery a few years ago. The solution, he realized, was maybe not to open a brewery at all.
"You’ve got so many guys in the area who are producing fantastic beers. [I thought] maybe I should just supply them,” says Peterson. “So I said, let’s see about making a malt house an actual business.”
Now after two and a half years of planning, building, and preparing, Peterson is close to opening Vermont’s first commercial malt house, Peterson Quality Malt, which will use Vermont-grown barley to make malt for the state’s breweries.