Introducing: Climate Select — Skagit Valley Malting

Barley that was sown, grown, and malted together in an effort to build up the processes needed in a climate changing world.

We at Skagit Valley Malting have been known to malt some weird shit, now over 17 different grains, seeds, and other things… but our core has always been malting barley. Over the past few years, our work with the Washington State University BreadLab and Westland Distilling has allowed us to start some creative projects, one of which hit scale this year. Internally we’ve referred to it as Mixomalt, but we’re proud to be releasing it as Climate Select.

This small batch special release is a time capsule of one field, one year, one batch. By blending multiple barley varieties in the field, we can smooth the effects of climate change on a crop. Mixtures like this also reduce the need for pesticides and fungicides. This specific batch was grown by our partners at Washington Bulb during 2021, which included the heat dome in the pacific northwest. The barley is harvested and kept separate from our other barley and malted in a single batch to keep the blend of varieties the same from field through malting. We don’t know the full makeup or varieties in the finished product, but it included Pilot, Fritz, Copeland, and Francin.

By growing these varieties together, certain ones that do well in specific climates will have a larger impact over the blend and others will be diminished. Each crop year reflects the growing climate of the season and is an opportunity to have deep conversations about the impact of climate change on crops and ways to lessen them in our growers yields.

We’re excited to continue this program and see how the blend yields and changes each year.

Get your Climate Select today.