Stanley founded Valley Malt in 2010 after learning that local breweries were sourcing malt — a key ingredient in beer — from overseas. She and her husband Christian started out germinating malt for breweries in their basement and eventually took over an old potato and onion barn in their hometown of Hadley. They started flour milling a few years later and operated under the name Ground Up Grain. Both companies saw steady growth until the pandemic hit and turned global supply chains upside down. Suddenly, the demand for locally sourced products increased and her team went into overdrive. “We were prepared for it,” she said.
Looking to expand their operations, the Stanleys found an old paper mill in Holyoke that suited their needs. Located on the Connecticut River, the facility will be hydroelectric, a renewable energy source that will sustain the company’s utility bills and aligns with the Stanleys’ sustainability ethos. The couple took out loans from the Small Business Administration to fund the expansion and when they open this April they will be able to store and process £1million of locally grown grain at once.
“It’s about being that middle person, to really giving farmers a market for what they can grow, but also allowing craft breweries to tell a story that’s not just about the stainless steel and what they make beer, but that it’s part of a larger ecology of supporting local farms,” Stanley said. “The money they spend at Valley Malt is part of a circular economy where everything stays and is reinvested.”
The new facility will increase the company’s production capacity, and local farmers have already started planting more barley, rye, winter wheat and oats. It’s all part of Valley Malt and Ground Up’s larger mission of helping not only the local economy, but the local ecology as well.
Growing local crops is not only an additional source of income for farmers, but also helps fight erosion and keeps nitrogen in the soil so it doesn’t enter water systems. And by operating in a smaller distribution area, fewer greenhouse gases are emitted during deliveries. Once the facility is up and running, the Stanleys plan to use a fleet of electric delivery vehicles to distribute their grain across the region.
“Farming in the Northeast is different from farming in the rest of the United States. We don’t have a lot of land, but we have a lot of fertile land, and we need to learn how to create markets so farmers can grow things that are profitable to them but also contribute to more regenerative practices,” Andrea Stanley said. “It’s great to see something like a beer and know that all of our hands have touched that thing and know that part of their story is what we were able to deliver in our little slice of the ingredient.”
Bold Types is a newsroom series presented by Cross Insurance. The advertiser played no role in content or production.
Janelle Nanos can be reached at [email protected] Follow her on Twitter @janellenanos.
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