CAMDEN TOWNSHIP – Barley stalks bow their heads to indicate kernels of grain are nearly dry enough for harvest. In Camden Township, the bowed stalks indicate the next step will soon begin at Ohio Malting Company, a new venture of growing barley and making malt for
. ‘I’m the only person in Ohio growing grain for the micro brewing industry,’ said Bob Matus, owner of Matus Winery, 15674 Gore Orphanage Road, Wakeman. ‘It’s for the small guys, the Ohio breweries. All the breweries buy grain from Wisconsin and Canada. Well, why don’t we grow grain here? This is fresher, right on the spot, locally grown in Lorain County.’ Eric Stockinger, associate professor at The Ohio State University and OARDC department of Horticulture and Crop Science, said Matus is one of very few growers of barley for malt in the state. ‘(Matus) is one of the pioneers,’ Stockinger said. ‘He’s doing it completely independently. He’s going for it.’
Stockinger began field testing barley for malting in 2008
, adding he’s six years through a 10-year process of developing a variety for Ohio. Malting barley needs a low protein content and high starch-to-sugar transformation during malting, while barley for animal feed is the opposite, Stockinger said. Pinnacle barley, a variety Matus harvests in the next few weeks, is combined like wheat. Two pounds of barley kernels make about a gallon of beer, Matus said. While Matus’s son, Hayden, 13, bottles wine with him at Matus Winery, his older son, Hunter, 18, works at the malting facility with the boys’ grandfather, Robert J. Matus. ‘This has been my brainchild even before I started the winery,’ Matus said. Matus found out making malt is tricky. ‘Once we combine it, we convert it into malt,’ Matus said. ‘Malt is the product this grain becomes so the beer guys can make their beer. ‘The malting process takes about a week,’ Matus said. ‘These little kernels of grain are all full of starch; there’s no sugar in them. In order for a beer guy to make beer, he needs sugar. So you take these little kernels of grain and you trick them into growing. You soak them in water and they sprout. As this grain is sprouting, it is converting the starch into enzymes. When it reaches a certain sprouting level, we dry it back down. Now it’s called, ‘Malt.’ ‘We’ve done wheat before,’ Matus said, ‘and wheat can be malted for your wheat-style beers.’ Out of 250 acres on the Matus family farm, six acres grow grapes; 35 acres, barley; and the rest, soybeans, Matus said. If the malting business does well, Matus intends to plant more barley next year. ‘It’s a lot of work,’ Matus said. ‘The processing is a huge amount of work. Eventually we will have a lot more barley, but we’re going to have test batches.’ A sheet metal worker who opened the winery in 2006, the same year a company he worked for filed bankruptcy, Matus’s recent ventures keep him close to the soil. ‘I could still be doing that, but this is cooler. I’m a farmer at heart, grew up here,’ Matus said. ‘This is all part of the family farm. Haven’t left. My sons are the same way.’ Micro brewers and hobby beer makers may email
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