Breweries in South Jersey are banding together to celebrate Craft Malt Month. Ten local breweries will be participating
in a tap takeover at Reunion Hall at 206 Haddon Avenue in Haddon Township on September 26, all bringing their
favorite beers brewed with grain from local craft maltster Rabbit Hill Farms.
Rabbit Hill was founded by the Barile family, with Abe Barile, daughter Hillary, and son Blair converting the operations
from potatoes to craft malt in 2016. As Blair was an avid homebrewer at the time, the switch to malted grains seemed
like a logical choice.
“Both Blair and I loved being able to find the things we grew on someone’s table,” says Hillary Barile. “Making the grains
that went into someone’s beverage still gave us that opportunity. Our initial thought was to build a brewery on the farm
and do farm-to-pint all in one location.”
They originally wanted to grow all of the ingredients for beer at Rabbit Hill but soon realized they wouldn’t have to go to
that extreme while still realizing their farm-to-pint dreams.
“Eventually, we got stuck on malting,” she says. “It’s so intriguing.”
Rabbit Hill is one of the few malt houses that have revitalized the ancient craft of floor malting, a process that is likely as
old as beer itself. In floor malting, fresh grains are spread out on a large floor and allowed to germinate for several days,
during which the grain is regularly turned with a specialized rake to control temperature and promote even growth.
After germination, the grains are then dried and heated in a kiln to stop the germination process and develop flavor and
color.
With floor malting, Barile says, they were able to control the process better than with the limited, small-scale malting
equipment that was available at the time.
“In the way we like to grow a crop and find it on people’s tables,” Barile says, “we like to control the process of what
we’re doing. It seemed very natural to turn to floor malting: it’s a very artisan way of making malts. We could be in
there, shoveling and raking – the tactile aspect was very attractive.”
While the craft beer movement has been around for several decades, craft malt has only recently coalesced as an
offshoot of the initiative. The Craft Maltsters Guild was founded in 2013 to promote and sustain the tradition of craft
malting in North America. Barile joined when the family began malting, eventually joining the board in 2018, and
becoming president of the guild in 2023.
Barile says that local malt gives a brewer or distiller a chance to impact local supply chains. While beverage producers
have a lot of choices from which to purchase malt, it makes sense to support local.
“If you have a brewer choosing to buy locally malted grain, they’re supporting a local supply chain in the same way that
the drinker who buys a local craft beer supports local jobs and the local economy,” she says.
Further, there’s a sustainability impact to the producer buying locally, as well.
“We’re reducing food miles,” she says, “and, in many cases, creating transparency in the supply chain. How was the
grain grown? Is it organic? Is it a sustainable farm we want to support? Those choices might not be something that
impact how beer tastes, but they impact the local community in a different sense.”
The sustainability aspect is incredibly important to the folks at Wander Back Beerworks of Vineland, who spearheaded
this event.
“Sustainability is one of our driving pillars,” says Brian Hink, co-founder of Wander Back Beerworks. “Buying local grain is
one of the biggest things we can do to cut down on our carbon footprint – we’re 15-20 minutes from Rabbit Hill.”
“It’s fresh,” says Chris Henke, one of the other co-founders of Wander Back. “Sometimes, it’s out of the kiln and into our
beers that day. With some of the bigger guys, it may have been malted and kilned many months or even a year ago, then
sat in storage, then taken more time to cross the ocean, sitting in the hold of a ship for a month, then sitting in storage
again.”
On an almost universal basis, the brewers and distillers agree that local malts make for a better end product for them.
“A lot of time local maltsters will have different varieties of the malt than what you can get from the bigger malthouses,”
Barile says. “The barley that works in New Jersey is not the same as what grows in Montana. They all have different
qualities, different flavor profiles, different malting techniques. There are lots of possibilities for different base flavors as
to what malt is bringing to the beer.
“As you get further into malting, you appreciate the unique things that can come from floor malting. You’ll see different
flavors and qualities than what you get from grains malted in a larger-scale commercial system.”
Celebrating these things about local malt seemed like a logical extension of the “drink local" movement. The Tap
Takeover at Reunion Hall was Henke’s brainchild.
“We’re members of the Craft Maltsters Guild,” he explains. When the Guild began blasting out the first Craft Malt
Month for this September, the idea for the celebration began to form.
“It made sense to celebrate something that’s core to our business. I reached out to Hillary about the event, and she was
on board right away. Everyone we talked to came on board.”
That includes local favorite, Tonewood Brewing Company. They’ll be in attendance at the event, bringing along one of
their flagship American Pale Ales, Freshies, which uses red wheat from Rabbit Hill, as well as one of their smaller batch
brews, Samso, an oak barrel-aged farmhouse Saison.
“I’m always jealous of wineries,” says Jacob Irving, Distribution Sales Manager at Tonewood. “They have all of their
ingredients on-site, the grapes come right from their soil. In our industry, the hops might come from the Pacific
Northwest, the grain is coming from Germany, but, from time to time, we get to support a great local producer like
Rabbit Hill. It brings more life and more sense-of-place from our backyard. It’s nice to have a local family with a truck full
of grain, loaded on pallets. It helps the beer feel more at home.”
“We’ve been lucky enough to use Rabbit Hill’s grain from day one,” says Amanda Cardinali of The Seed in Atlantic City,
“so it’s a consistent flavor profile in our beers.”
The Seed will be bringing along Oat, an IPA brewed with 100% Rabbit Hill grain and dry hopped with Nelson, Citra, and
Motueka.
“I think there is something very special about creating a relationship with the farmer who is seeing the entire process
through and cultivating your raw ingredients,” she continues. “Hearing how passionate Hillary is about her craft and
watching everything that Rabbit Hill puts into their work translates fully into her product, and I think you can taste it
through our beer.”
Avery Robinson of Black Rooster Food in Brooklyn, NY, uses Rabbit Hill grain for their rye bread. They use regular rye
flour for the bulk of the bread, and add about 5-10% malted rye flour, creating an enzymatic reaction, affecting the pH of
the dough.
“It changes the way the flour rises, rests, and processes,” says Robinson. “It sort of acts as a natural rye sweetener.”
Since rye is not a widely used grain, not a commodity crop, Robinson says it’s important to connect with the farm, the
space, and the farmer.
“You have a clear relationship,” he says. “You get to know the land, you know what’s happening with the grain and
where it’s coming from. There’s a lot more transparency and awareness. It’s a cultural act – connecting through the land
– I think that’s very important.”
Robinson will be supplying his bread to Local Standards, one of three restaurants at Reunion Hall. The chef there, Joe
Gentile, has been crafting three dishes to serve using Robinson’s bread.
“With the strong flavors in the malted rye bread,” Gentile says, ”we needed something that will hold up.”
They’re doing three open-faced sandwiches: cream cheese, smoked salmon, and capers; fig, gorgonzola, and bacon; and
peanut butter and jelly.
“Darker beers will be good with the bacon gorgonzola,” he tells us. “The salmon and cream cheese will be great with the
lighter beers, and the peanut butter and jelly will be great with an IPA.”
In addition to being the chef at Local Standard, Gentile owns Tanner Brewing Company of Haddon Heights. Jared Kiraly,
the Head Brewer at Tanner, says that craft malt has been on his radar for his entire professional career.
“Everyone wants to drink local and know the people making their beer,” Kiraly says, “but how can you consider it local if
the ingredients aren’t a product of the place where you’re from? It’s much more rooted in the community if you’re using
ingredients made by your neighbors.”
Kiraly, who will be bringing Tanner's Oatmeal Stout to the event, loves that the grain from Rabbit Hill provides a greater
depth of flavor.
“They’re floor malting, which is super cool,” he says. “It gets you something a lot more flavorful – there’s more flavor in
your raw materials so there’s more flavor in the final product. It’s cool to see these traditional methods being held onto.
People are doing it that way for a reason.”
In addition to the ten breweries in attendance, Independent Spirits Distillery of Woolwich Township – another consumer
of Rabbit Hill Grain – will be joining the festivities at Reunion Hall.
Kerry Thomsen, owner of Independent Spirits, specifically entered the beverage industry to showcase the excellent grain
in the region.
“This was always my plan with my distillery,” she says. “I opened it so that I could use the grains growing around me. ”
While Thomsen doesn’t typically use malted grains – she distills with the grain in the still along with the wort, which
would need to be separated to avoid excessive bitterness –, she nonetheless enjoys working with Rabbit Hill.
“I got in touch with Hillary early on in my distilling and I use all her grain,” she explains. “We’re women doing different
things in the same way. I’m creating a generational business, and she’s running one. We’ll go own as we have a younger
generation coming along. It’s a great collaboration.”
At 5,000 square-feet of space, Reunion Hall features indoor and outdoor dining paired with two unique bar areas. Three
different kitchens serve up sandwiches, chicken dishes, and vegan fare – similar to a traditional food hall with one
centralized payment system. With 56 taps and extensive cocktail and wine lists, the venue seemed like a logical choice.
“The whole reason we built Reunion Hall was to provide local beer to everyone,” says Dave Welsh, owner of Reunion
Hall. “Now, it’s cool that you’re seeing the craft beer scene explode, using products grown on Jersey farms.”
Barile loves the choice of venue to showcase Rabbit Hill’s grain. She says that they’re used to going somewhere where
they know their customers are on tap, but usually only one or two.
“I don’t know that I’ve ever been to a place with this broad a tap list with our ingredients,” she says. “Having a list like
this, it’ll be hard for me to make decisions. I’m excited for the opportunity to show people that local malt and grain can
be in this wide a variety of beverages – not one style, or brewery, or beer – lots of different choices. I think that’s
exciting. I wanted to do something like this forever, and I’m glad that Chris finally put it together.”
For the guys at Wander Back, their relationship with Rabbit Hill has truly come full circle. Hink brewed several beers with
Rabbit Hill’s very first batches of grain in September of 2016.
“We’ve used Hillary’s grain since the very beginning,” Hink says. “It has a very distinctive character. As they’ve matured,
their quality has gone through the roof. I’d put them up there with the best imports.”
Henke agrees.
“Looking at the specs,” he says, “you’d think it was coming from Europe. Rabbit Hill brings in centuries of knowledge and
experience and applies it to what they’re doing in South Jersey.”
All of this experience and knowledge makes for a great reason to have a celebration.
“At the end of the day,” says Justin Vitti, co-owner of Wander Back, “it’s a celebration of grain.”
The event takes place at Reunion Hall at 206 Haddon Avenue in Haddon Township, beginning 6 pm on Thursday,
September 26. The following breweries, distilleries, and bakeries will be in attendance:
Black Rooster Food, Brooklyn, NY
Double Nickel Brewing Company, Pennsauken, NJ
Dr. Brewlittle’s Beer Co., Maple Shade, NJ
Independent Spirits Distillery, Woolwich Township, NJ
Kane Brewing Company, Atlantic Highlands, NJ
Screamin’ Hill Brewing, Cream Ridge, NJ
The Seed, Atlantic City, NJ
Tanner Brewing Company, Haddon Heights, NJ
Tonewood Brewing Company, Oaklyn, NJ
Twin Elephant Brewing Company, Chatham, NJ
Wander Back Beerworks, Vineland, NJ
Whims Brewing, Atco, NJ
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