Riverbend Malt House Hits Recycling Milestone: 100,000 Pounds of Rootlets Repurposed For Southeast Agriculture
Riverbend sends the remaining husks— or rootlets— from each batch of malt to nearby farms to be repurposed as animal feed.
ASHEVILLE, NC— Riverbend Malt House is proud to announce its milestone of 100,000 pounds of rootlets repurposed for the nearby ecosystem of local farmers.
While not usable in the malting process, Riverbend sends the remaining husks— or rootlets— from each batch of malt to nearby farms to be repurposed as animal feed.
“This process completely closes the loop in terms of sustainability,” says Riverbend Malt House CEO Scott Hickman. “Consistent with our Malt With A Mission philosophy, kindness to the environment is important. If we create waste we want to turn it into a byproduct, or reduce the amount of waste created.”
In this case, the byproduct makes for happy cows at North Carolina farms like J4 Cattle Company in Morganton. "Our herd of steer eat close to a ton of rootlets every week. The young calves enjoy it too," says owner Robin Jackson. “This has been a great partnership all the way around."
Rootlet repurposing is one of Riverbend’s many tactics for lessening their environmental impact, which includes the reduction of 1,064,030 pounds of CO2 in ten years through local sourcing within 500 miles of the malthouse.
Contact Emily Hutto at coop@radcraftbeer.com with media inquiries about Riverbend Malt House.
ABOUT RIVERBEND MALT HOUSE
Riverbend Malt House is on a quest to connect Southeastern family owned farms and fermenters. Co-Founders Brent Manning and Brian Simpson launched Riverbend, the first craft malthouse east of the Mississippi, in 2010. Buoyed by a 70,000 foot production facility and state of the art equipment, Riverbend Malt House helps breweries and distilleries large, small, and in-between stand out with flavor, locality, and community in an increasingly competitive landscape— all the while challenging the status quo of corporate, big-agriculture malt. Learn more at riverbendmalt.com.
Mainstem Malt To Host Press Conference About ‘Mainstem For All’ Equity Crowdfunding Campaign During American Craft Beer Week
The initiative makes them the first malt company to ask a large and diverse audience to invest, with funds to be used to support their mission-driven growth as a company.
WALLA WALLA, WA— Washington-based craft maltster Mainstem Malt recently launched an equity crowdfund campaign on Wefunder. The initiative makes them the first malt company to ask a large and diverse audience to invest, with funds to be used to support their mission-driven growth as a company. The tagline ‘Mainstem For All’ represents their goal to double down on the social aspects of sustainable business, using their elevated platform to further much needed diversity, equity, and inclusion— or DEI— work in the craft beverage and agricultural communities.
With so many firsts come so many questions. Mainstem is excited to open its virtual doors for a press conference outlining what it means to invite hundreds-if-not-thousands of people to join their company as equity investors.
WHAT: Meet the Mainstem Malt team at this virtual press conference, with ample time for participants to ask questions about the company and its Mainstem For All campaign.
WHEN: Tuesday, May 11 at 1pm PT
WHERE: Register for this ZOOM conversation HERE.
PRESS CONTACT: Emily Hutto, coop@radcraftbeer.com
ABOUT MAINSTEM MALT
Mainstem Malt is a malt company like no other. Founders Phil Neumann and Alyssa Martinez-Neumann started this Walla Walla-based operation in 2014 as a way to support family farms, rural communities, and landscape-scale conservation work. Along the way, they realized Mainstem is in a unique position to inspire much broader change, and have since been pushing to be the beverage industry's model for agricultural supply chain sustainability and innovation. You can find Mainstem’s malt at breweries and distilleries throughout the Pacific Northwest and Alaska, flowing into premium craft beverages that evoke a strong sense of place and purpose. Grain Like Grapes, Malt That Matters. Learn more at MainstemMalt.com.
Mainstem For All: Walla Walla-Based Mainstem Malt Welcomes New Equity Investors Through Crowdfund Campaign
Put Your Money Where Your Malt Is
WALLA WALLA, WA— Today Mainstem Malt announced the launch of Mainstem For All, a crowdfunded effort to engage a growing diversity of the company’s stakeholders as shareholders, in support of their innovative mission as a craft maltster.
Mainstem Malt is the first-ever malt company to invite hundreds-if-not-thousands of folks to join their team as equity investors. This innovative effort calls to action supporters of agriculture, conservation, craft food & beverages, and beyond to put their money where their malt is.
Mainstem was born in 2014 as a market-based approach to conservation with landscape-scale ambitions. Already, co-founders Phil Neumann and Alyssa Martinez Neumann and a scrappy team are impacting management decisions on more than 30,000 acres of farmland, all by connecting family farms to conscientious distillers, brewers, and their biggest fans. Mainstem For All elevates the company’s conservation mission, and emphasizes their more comprehensive commitment to sustainability, diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Mainstem For All is live on Wefunder, where 42 investors have already pledged $40,450. Full funding would support increased malt production and sales, development of a new headquarters and Northwest malt innovation center, and early development of novel technologies that could change the way the world interacts with premium agricultural ingredients.
“Beyond Alyssa and me, there are 14 fiercely loyal households on Mainstem’s cap table. For philosophical reasons, we’ve always wanted to open the company up for an equity crowdfund campaign,” says Mainstem Malt Co-Founder Phil Neumann. “Now’s the time. We’ll be the first malt company globally to raise money like this, and It feels SO good to be underway. Our dream is to get 1000+ new investors on the team and infuse a diversity of new perspectives into the company’s growth.”
Learn more and invest at wefunder.com/mainstemmalt.
Please direct all media inquiries to Emily Hutto at hutto@radcraftbeer.com.
ABOUT MAINSTEM MALT
Mainstem Malt is a malt company like no other. Founders Phil Neumann and Alyssa Martinez-Neumann started this Walla Walla-based operation in 2014 as a way to support family farms, rural communities, and landscape-scale conservation work. Along the way, they realized Mainstem is in a unique position to inspire much broader change, and have since been pushing to be the beverage industry's model for agricultural supply chain sustainability and innovation. You can find Mainstem’s malt at breweries and distilleries throughout the Pacific Northwest and Alaska, flowing into premium craft beverages that evoke a strong sense of place and purpose. Grain Like Grapes, Malt That Matters. Learn more at MainstemMalt.com.
Root Shoot Malting and Traverse Image Encourage Craft Lovers to Save Family Farms One Beer at a Time
Colorado-based Root Shoot Malting and Traverse Image are asking craft beer and whiskey lovers for their support to preserve and regenerate Colorado agriculture.
Todd Olander of Root Shoot Malting, photo by Traverse Image
LOVELAND, CO— Colorado-based Root Shoot Malting and Traverse Image are asking craft beer and whiskey lovers for their support to preserve and regenerate Colorado agriculture, allowing Olander Farms to continue growing and producing local grains on their farmland, and to keep telling this story through the new film 100 Year Lease.
100 Year Lease is the product of three years in the making, all dedicated to the education about and preservation of the American family farm. The film was shot by Traverse Image and branded by Colorado-based MTN Creative. This new documentary film premieres on Root Shoot Malting’s YouTube channel on Tuesday, September 29.
Through the agriculture-centric crowd-farming platform Steward, Root Shoot is asking for contributions towards a conservation easement on their current land, and for the 100 Year Lease mission and documentary film. A contribution is an affirmation of your commitment to knowing your farmer, your maltster, and your breweries and distilleries who utilize craft malt. You’re pledging to seek out products made with local grains as an ambassador of craft.
Support the 100 Year Lease documentary via Steward here. Find a checklist of ways to demonstrate your commitment and advocacy on the Root Shoot Malting website.
During Craft Malt Week from September 27 to October 3, 100 Year Lease t-shirts are for sale on the Lake Hollow Homestead website, with 50 percent of the proceeds going back to Root Shoot’s Steward campaign.
Contact Emily Hutto at hutto@radcraftbeer.com with media inquiries about Root Shoot Malting or their 100 Year Lease documentary project with Traverse Image.
ABOUT ROOT SHOOT MALTING
Root Shoot Malting’s family of farmers grow, harvest and malt the finest grains to give brewers and distillers high-quality taste in every glass. Opened in 2016 on 1,500 acres of Olander Farms’ irrigated land in Loveland, Colorado, Root Shoot harvests alfalfa, wheat, corn, rye, and barley. Root Shoot gives breweries and distilleries the ability to procure local, consistent and high quality craft products. Find this craft maltster online at rootshootmalting.com.
ABOUT TRAVERSE IMAGE
Traverse Image is a Colorado digital film company with a focus on documentary films about the natural world. Traverse Image believes that films can inspire monumental change— the passionate company is tenacious in their pursuit of bringing powerful stories to life through film. Get inspired at traverseimage.com.
ABOUT STEWARD & THE STEWARD FOUNDATION
Steward is the fundraising platform for sustainable and regenerative agriculture, helping small farms to flourish by allowing anyone to invest and become stewards of the land. Steward’s charitable branch, The Steward Foundation Inc., is an IRC 501(c)(3) charitable organization created to manage contributions and fund grants to projects surrounding sustainable and regenerative agriculture. By making a donation to The Steward Foundation, donors will be contributing directly to Root Shoot Malting's conservation easement project. 100% of a donor's charitable donation will be distributed to the project, and the donation will be tax-deductible to the extent that no goods or services were provided to the donor in exchange. The Steward Foundation’s tax identification number is 37-1912757. Find Steward online at gosteward.com.