Brewers Supply Group (BSG) is proud to announce a partnership with Leopold Bros. to distribute a new line of small-batch, handmade malts. BSG is excited to make these high-quality malts available to brewers, distillers, and homebrewers. The first shipments of Leopold Bros. malts are expected to be available in early 2020.
BSG will carry a range of malts from Leopold Bros., including base malts for craft brewers, as well as a distiller’s malt and a whiskey malt for producers of craft spirits.
Information on the range of Leopold Bros. malts can be found on BSG’s websites, catalogs, and at events. We encourage all customers to reach out to their Sales Managers and Customer Service Representatives to learn more and request samples.
About Leopold Bros.
Leopold Bros. is a family owned floor maltings operation and distillery located in Denver, Colorado. Since brothers Scott and Todd Leopold first opened their doors in 1999, they have created everything from classic unfiltered lagers to a number of spirits, including a wide array of whiskey styles.
“We don’t just malt. We mash for our own line of James Beard Award nominated spirits, so we’re operating on a different level than other maltsters. If our maltings aren’t top-notch, we’re going to be the first to feel it.” says Todd Leopold, who collected his Malting & Brewing diploma from Chicago’s Siebel Institute of Technology in 1996. He later studied lager beer production at the Doemens Academy in Munich, Germany, and floor maltings at the Springbank distillery in Campbeltown, Scotland.
To meet the family’s high-caliber standards, a modern-era conical steep casts over twenty metric tons onto traditional germination floors. At a cool 55 degrees Fahrenheit, the green malt is turned and raked by hand for days on end until germination has concluded. Drying in a Doig-inspired-style kiln follows, with maltings fresh from the kiln transferred to bagging within an hour of final curing.
Todd’s brother, Scott, is responsible for a number of the internal systems yielding their floor malts. Scott Leopold holds a B.A. in Economics and B.S. in Industrial Engineering from Northwestern University, as well as a Masters in Environmental Engineering from Stanford University. Prior to launching his family business, Scott developed his career engineering environmentally sustainable manufacturing processes for Fortune 500 companies.
In-house floor maltings began initially to address the brothers’ own needs for their celebrated line of spirits which include vodka, gins, whiskies, liqueurs, and more. The distillery sits adjacent to the malthouse where it is home to over a dozen open-air wooden fermentation tanks, and several stills in a range of styles. Chief among these stills is their Kentucky-made “Three Chamber” whiskey still, an amalgamation of detailed engineering and industrial art.
Terry Bunch
