One of my recent articles in the local newspaper was a profile of Peace and Salinity Lager from Worthy Brewing Company, an interesting beer on several fronts, the most interesting of which being the malt that was used. The primary malt in the grist was a pilsner-style malt locally grown and malted, from Mecca Grade Estate Malt. Ordinarily, this would have been Mecca Grade’s Pelton malt; instead, Worthy used a batch of otherwise-Pelton that was malted during the Lionshead wildfire last summer, which became infused with the smoke that blanketed the region.

It’s a timely topic, because in Stan Hieronymus’ latest Hop Queries newsletter, he discusses the wildfire smoke taint in hops:

2020 was not the first year that significant fire broke out in the U.S. Northwest hop growing regions, filling the air with smoke at the same time hops were being harvested. But this was the first year that hops were rejected because of smoke taint, an issue vintners and grape growers are already sadly familiar with.

You can read my review of the Worthy smoky-malt beer at my article, on how the smoke translated into the finished product, but I also wanted to do a deeper dive into the malt itself which I didn’t have room (or time) for. So, I reached out to Seth Klann, the owner and maltster of Mecca Grade, to find out more about it.

First, some quick background on Mecca Grade and the Lionshead fire.

Located north of Madras, in Central Oregon, Mecca Grade Estate Malt is located on a family farm that dates back to 1904. The farm raised many various crops over the years, and over the past decade that has included barley, rye, and wheat for malting.

All of the grains are floor-malted, and Mecca Grade developed a proprietary mechanical floor-malting process, described here.

Our Mechanical Floor-Malters are capable of producing 12 tons of finished malt using shallow grain bed depths of 12-16 inches…similar to traditional floor-malting operations.

Our Mechanical Floor-Malter is a continuously moving circuit of grain inside a closed system. The Malter is not a giant Saladin box or another deep-loaded drum, but a one-of-a-kind machine dreamt up by Seth and Brad Klann. Each step of the malting process takes place within this system, which makes our machine a “uni-malter.” Our Floor Malters are the largest uni-malters operating in the world.

Last year, the Lionshead Fire erupted on the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs Reservation, west of the Warm Springs community and northwest of Mecca Grade’s acreage; while the fire traveled west, smoke from the fire inundated the region for weeks, which (along with the other wildfires) had an impact on the Oregon brewing industry in general, as it was during fresh hop season—meaning, many breweries had to scrap plans to brew fresh hop beers since the hops were affected by the smoke. The same thing happened at Mecca Grade; a batch of Pelton was being malted during the worst of the smokiness.

As it turned out, at least with Worthy’s smoky brew that I was able to taste, the smoke had a subtle impact on the finished beer, but not a negative one. I emailed Seth at Mecca Grade with a few questions about it; below are his replies.

What do you think of the malt, and how smoky (or not) it is?

I was super concerned when we made the batch that it was going to be ruined. I loaded a batch of Pelton into the machine hoping the wildfire wouldn’t get worse…which it did. The air quality was awful and it actually extended the length of the grain germination by 2.5 days, which means the living grain was struggling for oxygen just like the rest of us that week. I was also concerned that there was going too much smoke character in the malt itself, which wasn’t the case in the end. It’s super subtle, and for those who are wanting to use and taste it in beer, we’re recommending a rate of 80-100%.

Do you know what other breweries besides Worthy are brewing with it?

Fort George, Reuben’s Brews, Wolves and People, Covered Bridge Brewing Group, and Barbarian Brewing and Lost Grove Brewing in Boise, Idaho.

Did the smoke affect just the one batch (which one was it?), or did you have issues with any other malts?

The smoke only affected that one batch of Pelton, which was different enough that I spun off into the separate product Lionshead.

Have you tried any beer brewed with it yet?

I have, and I love it (I might be a bit biased though). Our brewer Sean has been using it in our Pilsner and table beers and gives just enough complexity to have it be unique without being too much. We list it on the details of our tasting notes. Some people can taste it right away and others can’t. I think it’s a cool expression of our environment, captured at that moment in time through the art of malting.

It’s definitely a potent example (and reminder) that beer is an agricultural product, subject to the conditions of the environment and expressing the terroir thereof.

If you’re interested in brewing with it, Mecca Grade has Lionshead malt available on its online store. $1.25 per pound or $62.50 for a 50-pound bag.