Westland Distillery Funds Barley Research

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According to the Associated Press, Westland Distillery has created a four-year fellowship for a Ph.D. student at Washington State University's Bread Labs.

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The full-time research position will focus on developing malting barley varieties that are not just economically and agronomically suitable, but also offer unique flavor for whiskey production.

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Westland has worked with Bread Labs, piloted by wheat and barley breeding guru Steve Jones, for several years already. In a previous interview, Westland Master Distiller and co-founder Matt Hoffman said Bread Labs was crucial to the way his distillery developed.

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He said Jones, "who was basically kicked out of the commodity system for not breeding things for Monsanto," was already focused on breeding grain for yield, sustainability, and flavor. In a realistic future of unique, flavorful malts, all three of those components are crucial.

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"Some people just want to go back to an idealized version of the past," Hoffman said. "That’s not truly sustainable if it grows like shit or it yields like shit. It doesn’t work for the farmer."

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Keep an eye out for a future article in the Local Grain Network examining the nexus between Bread Labs, Skagit Valley Malting, and Seattle-area distilleries Westland and Copperworks.