This year much of the spring barley we’ve purchased for malting is from Quintin Farm, overlooking Lake Champlain in North Hero, VT. Andre Quintin is a third generation farmer, primarily boarding dairy heifers, raising beef, and growing corn, soybeans, and alfalfa for animal feed. He lives with his wife Karen and their two sons.

This was his first year growing barley, as a way of diversifying and strengthening the farm. It serves double duty, also supplying straw the farm can use and sell as a cash crop. In recent years he had experimented with other new crops, including CBD hemp, fiber hemp, and even milkweed, which is used like down in certain clothing, and in the specialized ropes that help contain oil spills. But none of these crops have developed a reliable market in our region.

Meanwhile the Quintins’ neighbors at the brewery Kraemer & Kin had been asking for barley in the hope of brewing a new beer with all North Hero-grown ingredients. With Valley Malt providing the market scale to justify the investment, this year Kraemer & Kin will finally see their wish come true.

“It’s gone well! Especially considering the challenges Mother Nature gave to us,” says Andre. “We’d like to do it again.”

See the Valley Malt 2023 Crop Report to learn more about Quintin Farm’s barley crop, and discover all the other farms you support when you brew with Valley Malt.