City Star Brewing, Berthoud’s small town brewery is one of the first Colorado breweries to join the Craft Maltsters Guild. The Guild is a grassroots movement in today’s malting industry dedicated to promoting and sustaining the burgeoning craft malt tradition across North America. Small-batch, independent maltsters are coming together, in a rising tide to bring heart, diversity, relocalization, and excitement to the marketplace.

Joining the Craft Maltsters guild was originally inspired by City Star’s partnership with local malthouse, Root Shoot Malting. The two local businesses were brought together in 2016, when City Star crafted Local Yokel, all-Colorado ingredient pale ale that led City Star brewers to work with the then newly established Root Shoot Malting. The fifth generation farmers had just kilned their first batch of barley in their state-of-the-art malting facility. The Olander family had been growing quality barley for decades, but craft malting was a new venture. Since that first collaboration brew City Star has moved to use Root Shoot’s Genie Pale Malt as the base malt for all ales in addition to brewing with various specialty malts.

City Star is committed to craft and quality from grain to glass. This means an emphasis on quality ingredients and where they come from. The brewery is supporting local farmers and community plus using a quality product that incorporates the Northern Colorado terroir. City Star’s carbon footprint is lowered by using barley grown and malted right in its backyard.

Root Shoot is “Saving Farms One Beer at a Time” and City Star is proud to play its role. Frankly, brewing with craft malt is an easy business decision. City Star Brewing and the Root Shoot family have forged a strong friendship. Northern Colorado communities and the greater craft beer scene reap the benefits of this partnership. As one of Root Shoot’s first brewery partners, City Star is excited to support our local maltsters, the Craft Maltsters Guild, and the greater craft malt movement.