I couldn’t be more excited for this. If you come by the HUB 8pm Thursday for a glass of Notch you’ll get to meet 3 important people: the farmer who grew the barley, the maltster who turned it into malt, and the brewer who turned the malt into beer. So what’s so revolutionary about locally malted beer?

If you’ve been drinking with us this past year, you may have heard something about Valley Malt. It’s one of the only independent malt-houses in the country, and they invented a BSA program. Basically a CSA, but for brewers. Chris, brewer from Notch pre-paid for the barley at the beginning of the season, a farmer grew it this summer in Northampton. Andrea from Valley Malt malted it (a process where you sprout and toast the grain to prepare it for brewing) in July. Chris added yeast and made a recipe to turn that malt into beer this fall.

350 years ago, there used to be malthouses in Hadley and hops grew wild on the banks of the Connecticut River. Now most brewers, even craft brewers, order malted grain from huge secretive malt-houses. But now for the first time in a long time, we are going to have a truly local seasonal beer. Grown here, malted here, brewed here, the result of Massachusetts grain and weather. It’s a farmhouse ale, supposed to be really really good. Come Thursday to meet Chris and Andrea and everyone who had a hand in this.

Notch Valley Malt BSA Launch
8pm, Thursday 10/4, Clover HUB (1075 Cambridge Street, Inman Square)
$3 Notch, $0 snacks from Clover