Born during the craft beer boom, Riverbend Malt House of Asheville, North Carolina, finds a unique niche in the distilling industry.
MEET M EET THE MALTSTER W R I T T E N A N D P H O T O G R A P H E D BY CARRIE DOW
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hen friends Brent Manning and Brian Simpson started Riverbend Malt House in 2010, the craft beer movement was flowing as fast as springtime mountain snowmelt. “Early days, we were 100 percent focused on brewing,” said Manning with a chuckle. “The word ‘distilling’ was not even in the business plan.” That’s because they were in Asheville, North Carolina, one of several U.S. cities famous for growing the craft brewery industry in the 2000s. Both men, who worked together as environmental assessment consultants, had moved from the shores of eastern North Carolina to the mountains of Asheville to start their own business when the Great Recession upended their careers. Their only requirement was that the business be environmentally focused and sustainable.
Watching Asheville’s craft beer scene explode during that time gave them a spark. “We were like, ‘Let’s go into craft beer and see what’s happening,’” he shrugged. After talking with area brewers and much sampling of what came out of their taps, they made a surprising discovery. “Turns out the only local thing going into these beers was water,” said Manning. What business could they create to remedy that? They immediately ruled out hops since North Carolina doesn’t have the right climate; however, small grains — barley, wheat, and rye — are found around the state. “We’re talking about winter barleys, winter wheat, etc., which grows from October to June, which is fantastic because it doesn’t compete with corn and soybeans,” he said. Manning and Simpson also learned that not
PHOTO BY RADCRAFT
a single North Carolina brewery had tapped into it, pun intended. “This got our attention because that’s a big enough industry that it had scientists studying it, it had plant breeders supporting it, it had seed cleaners, trucking companies,” he trailed off before interlacing his fingers together in front of him. “It had infrastructure.” Instead of selling these grains for pennies as animal feed, Manning and Simpson convinced a few area farmers to not only sell grains to them for malting, but to plant higher-quality premium and heirloom grains, the kind that require more effort to cultivate but also offer a heftier profit. During that first decade, Riverbend rode A look inside a germ-kiln vessel at Riverbend Malt House.
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