It’s no secret that Northern Michigan has become something of a craft beer Mecca. From Short’s in Bellaire (the third biggest brewery in the state in terms of production volume, after Bell’s and Founder’s) to the collection of breweries scattered around TC and the County, you don’t need to go far in northern Michigan to find someone who brews beer.

But what about someone who grows barley, one of beer’s key ingredients? While hops have become a better-known agricultural export in the region, barley remains more of an anomaly. In fact, even the producers who are making malted barley locally have only been at it for less than a decade. One of those producers is Empire Malting Company, a small woman-owned farm enterprise in Empire, or what is now called 'beer valley' locally.

The company planted its first barley crop in 2013, but according to Alison Babb, founder and director of Empire Malting Company (pictured above), the origins of the business actually date back to a road trip, of all things. While she’s a Michigander to the bone now, Babb was neither born nor raised in the Mitten. In 2011, she earned her bachelor’s degree in agricultural operations management and technical sales from the University of Florida. Two years later, she found herself driving through Michigan, marveling at the natural beauty of the landscapes and taking pitstops along the trek to sample Michigan beers. She fell in love.

“I realized that Michigan is a place where the beer is just unmatched,” Babb said. “It's wonderful. The brewers here are really great at what they do. And so, when I arrived up in northern Michigan, it didn't take me long to decide that this was going to be a great place for me. [Empire Malting] started with this keen interest on finding out what the barley would taste like here. With hops growing everywhere, it seemed like the perfect place to start up and see if the barley would grow.”

With a goal in mind, Babb set her sights on finding a place to put a barley crop in the ground. Luckily, she says that piece of the puzzle fell into place quickly and serendipitously. In no time at all, she was getting her wish: to see what barley grown in northern Michigan could be.

“I met my partner Zack [Stanz], and he had this historic barn and a family farm here, and he was part of a hop-growing group,” Babb explained. “So we planted our first barley in 2013, and it was a beautiful crop. There's nothing more beautiful than a barley field in the summertime.”

When Empire Malting Company came on the scene, Babb says she was able to quickly build contacts with breweries throughout the state, in part because there was such an urge among brewers to source their ingredients as locally as possible. Partnering with those breweries shaped what Empire Malting is today because it familiarized Babb and her team with the role their malt needed to play in beer production. The business regularly provides malt to more than half a dozen northern Michigan brewers, including Stormcloud Brewing Company in Frankfort, Five Shores Brewing in Beulah, Lake Ann Brewing Company in Lake Ann, The Filling Station Microbrewery and Middlecoast Brewing Company in Traverse City, and Short’s in Bellaire.

In the years since that first crop, Empire Malting Company has grown considerably. This year, the business is aiming to grow 300 acres of barley, up from 280 last year. Along the way, Babb and her team also built a malt house, cultivated more relationships with local brewers, and expanded their portfolio to include six types of barley (and counting).

Read on for more about this growing farm enterprise and producer of artisan malts, including its niche role in the ever-adapting Michigan craft beer industry in this week's issue of our sister pub, the Northern Express.