Admiral Maltings: “California Grown, Floor Malted Grains”
Ron Silberstein is the co-founder of Admiral Maltings, a pioneering California-based craft malting company committed to reviving the traditional art of floor malting. With a background as a brewer and a deep respect for sustainability and regional agriculture, Ron has helped build a business that partners with local family farms to produce organic and no-till barley. Under his leadership, Admiral Maltings delivers freshly kilned, flavor-rich malt that connects brewers and distillers to the land, the farmers, and the unique terroir of California. DeliveryRank has the opportunity to find out more.
Admiral Maltings operates the first floor malting facility in California since Prohibition and is the state's only certified organic malting operation. Could you elaborate on the challenges and opportunities you've encountered in reintroducing this traditional method to the modern brewing industry?
I think at the heart of our mission is a desire to reconnect—to rebuild the relationship between the farmer, the maltster, and the brewer. We want to give brewers in California the real option of using California-grown ingredients, which hasn’t always been possible—or prioritized.
Malt, after all, is to beer what grapes are to wine. It’s fundamental. Malted barley is the soul of beer—it’s barley that’s been soaked, sprouted, and then dried. And yet, over the past century or more, malt has been largely industrialized, taken over by large commercial and even multinational corporations. Somewhere along the way, the reverence for malt—the care and craft behind it—has been lost.
For a long time, many brewers came to see malt simply as a source of sugar, just a means to fermentation. And so one of the greatest challenges we’ve faced is re-educating people about what malt actually contributes to beer. From the barley variety selected, to the soil it was grown in, to how it was cultivated—and, critically, how it was malted—every step matters. The character of the malt directly affects the character of the beer.
In our case, we use a traditional, artisanal method called floor malting. It’s incredibly time- and space-intensive, and yes, more expensive—but it produces a depth and complexity that’s hard to achieve through industrial processes. It’s rare today, but we believe it’s worth preserving.
So much of our work comes down to education. Helping brewers and consumers alike understand why malt matters—not just as a fermentable, but as a cornerstone of flavor, texture, and aroma. And beyond quality, there’s the question of impact: are we supporting our local agricultural economy, or are we importing ingredients from thousands of miles away? Neither approach is inherently “bad,” but I think there’s value in reflecting on the choices we make. Local sourcing supports smaller farms, lowers carbon footprints, and strengthens our regional food and beverage systems.
In short, our goal is not just to make great malt—but to help restore the connection between people, place whiskey and beer.
Your partnership with California farmers to source quality, local grain aims to unlock and capture California's terroir in your malt. How do you ensure that the unique characteristics of the region are reflected in your malt, and how does this influence the flavor profiles of the beers produced?
Unlike larger maltsters, our smaller batch sizes give us the flexibility to work directly with individual farmers—whether they’ve grown five acres or five hundred. That means we can malt barley that comes from very specific regions, year after year. Now, of course, due to crop rotation, it’s not always the exact same field each season, but it’s typically within the same regional zone—places like the Dunnigan Hills, Hungry Hollow, or other subregions of California’s Sacramento Valley, where much of our grain is grown.
When you grow the same barley variety in the same region over multiple seasons, a distinct flavor profile begins to emerge. You start to notice its distinguishing characteristics, much like how winemakers come to understand the subtle nuances of their vineyard sites. What we’re doing isn’t so different from winemaking—though perhaps the flavor expression is more subtle. In wine, all the water used to grow the grape comes from the land itself. In beer, of course, we add water during malting and brewing, so the direct connection to terroir is diluted somewhat. But still, variety, soil, and climate all play a role—and those factors absolutely influence the final flavor of the malt.
We also have additional levers to influence flavor—especially in the kilning process, which is how we dry the sprouted grain. Just as you can roast coffee beans to a light, medium, or dark level—or toast bread to varying degrees—we can do the same with malt. That kilning process is a major contributor to flavor. In some cases, it can even mask or soften the more subtle distinctions created by terroir. But if we’re working with the same farmers, the same varieties, and malting everything on-site using traditional floor malting techniques, then those differences really begin to show.
What we don’t do—which is standard practice among large-scale maltsters—is blend barley from multiple regions or mix different varieties together in order to standardize flavor. Our process is largely single-farmer, single-field, single-variety. That’s true not only for our barley—which is the bulk of what we malt—but even for our wheat. We know exactly which farmer and which field it came from. For smaller grains like oats, which we use in far smaller volumes, we purchase them through the market and don’t always know the exact farm, but we still keep the sourcing regional, within California whenever possible.
So, what we’re doing is preserving identity—from seed to soil to malt. And when you preserve identity, you preserve flavor, story, and a real sense of place in the final beer.
Being California's only certified organic malting operation, sustainability seems central to your mission. How do your sourcing and production practices contribute to environmental sustainability, and what impact do they have on the local agricultural community?
What we’re doing here at our malt house goes beyond just flavor. My interest in organic farming didn’t actually begin with taste. Sure, with a fruit like a peach or a strawberry, you can often taste the difference immediately—“Wow, that’s so fresh, so sweet.” But malt is different. It’s a processed ingredient. Barley goes through malting—soaking, sprouting, drying—and then it’s brewed with water, boiled, hopped, and fermented. By the time it’s in your glass as beer, many of the original raw characteristics have been transformed.
So, with malt, the decision to go organic isn’t just about flavor. It’s about farming practices, soil health, and environmental impact.
Why Organic Still Matters
Even though the flavor impact might be subtle, growing barley organically makes a real difference. Organic farming prohibits the use of petrochemical-based fertilizers, synthetic pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides. That means we’re not adding harmful substances to the soil, polluting our waterways, or exposing farm workers to toxic chemicals. It also protects wildlife—the birds, the bees, the microorganisms in the soil—all of which play essential roles in a healthy ecosystem.
So yes, organic is something people understand because it's a certified process. But it’s just one piece of a larger picture.
Sustainability: Going Beyond Organi
There’s also something broader—sustainable farming—and it’s just as critical. We prioritize sustainable practices with all our farm partners, whether or not they’re certified organic. Let me break down some of the key principles:
Crop Rotation
Farmers don’t plant barley in the same field every year. Doing so would deplete the soil and attract pests and diseases, leading to increased chemical use. By rotating crops, farmers break these cycles naturally.Cover Crops
Instead of leaving the soil bare between plantings, farmers grow cover crops. These help maintain moisture, keep carbon in the soil, reduce erosion, and support soil health.Minimal or No-Till Practices
Traditional plowing and tilling disturb the soil’s microbiome—its bacteria, fungi, and other organisms. These microbes are essential to plant health, acting like a communication network for stress, nutrients, and pathogens. No-till methods help preserve this natural intelligence, reduce erosion, and keep carbon sequestered in the soil.Animal Integration
Some farms let animals like sheep, goats, chickens, or cows graze through the fields after harvest. This natural process aerates the soil and adds organic fertilizer through manure, boosting nitrogen and other nutrients in a completely natural way.
Soil: The Unsung Climate Hero
Most people don’t realize this, but there’s more carbon in soil than in all the trees on Earth. Healthy soil is one of the biggest potential climate solutions we have. By supporting sustainable and organic farming, we’re not just protecting the quality of our malt—we’re helping to regenerate the soil and reduce carbon emissions.
We work with farmers who prioritize practices that regenerate land, protect ecosystems, and keep harmful chemicals out of our environment. Whether it’s through certified organic farming or broader sustainable methods, our malting process supports healthier soils, healthier farmers, and ultimately a healthier planet.
The Rake Pub offers a unique experience by overlooking the malting floor and serving beers made with your malt. How does this setting serve as an educational tool for visitors, and what role does it play in fostering a deeper appreciation for the malting process and craft brewing?
The Rake is really our showcase. When people visit, they’re not just stepping into a bar—they’re entering a window into the entire malting process.
We operate a business-to-business model, primarily serving other breweries and distilleries. So when our clients visit, I take them through the floor maltings, explain the process in depth—much like I’m doing now—and show them how everything starts with the grain. But it doesn’t stop there. We go beyond just showing the raw materials or the malting technique—we let them experience the final product.
I can pour them a glass of American single malt whiskey that was made using our malt. Or a bourbon that includes our grain. Or a gin that started its journey right here. And of course, we’ve got over 20 different beers made from our malt on tap.
When they taste the beers, they start to notice subtle but consistent flavors—a certain depth, a nuance—that ties all these brews together. It’s a powerful moment of connection. Brewers love it. They’re proud to have their work featured in a space like The Rake, which is unapologetically a haven for beer geeks.
The bar itself elevates everything. The ingredients are more expensive, so brewers treat them with extra care and intention. They're not just producing “any old beer”—they’re crafting thoughtful, high-quality brews that reflect the effort, the process, and the story behind the malt. It gives brewers a real incentive to have their beer featured here.
And for the everyday customer, it becomes a powerful education. They realize—often for the first time—that beer is an agricultural product. It doesn’t come from a factory filled with artificial ingredients. It starts with barley, or other grains, grown by a farmer. That grain is sprouted, germinated, and dried—transformed into malt. The sugars are then extracted using hot water, fermented, and finally turned into beer.
At The Rake, customers can look through glass walls into the malthouse and actually see it happening in real time. They might notice seeds germinating on the floor, workers turning the grain by hand, soaking it, or drying it in the kiln. Most people don’t know what they’re looking at, of course. Sometimes they'll even say, “Oh, is that where they dry out the hops?”—which highlights a common misunderstanding.
People often assume beer is made from hops, and yes, hops are important—I wouldn’t want beer without them—but as my mentor Dr. Lewis once said: “Hops are the salt on the potato. Malt is the potato.”
And that’s what we’re really trying to show people—that behind every good beer is a seed, a farm, a farmer, and a story.
Admiral Maltings has collaborated with local breweries and distilleries, such as Mad Fritz Brewing and Wright & Brown Distilling Co., emphasizing a "ground-to-glass" approach. Can you discuss how these partnerships have influenced your product development and what they reveal about the evolving relationship between maltsters and craft beverage producers?
What this work really allows us to do is create deep, meaningful connections—not just between producers and consumers, but between producers and the farmers who grow the grain. For example, I’m hosting a barley harvest celebration on May 31st, where a group of our customers will come with us to witness the barley being harvested. It’s an opportunity to bring people right to the source—to show them where it all begins.
These kinds of connections have led to some incredibly rewarding collaborations. Breweries like Mad Fritz will often tell me, “We care deeply about the water we use, the land we grow on, and the grain itself.” Sometimes, they even grow their own grain. In fact, Wright and Brown once brought us grain they had cultivated themselves, and we malted it specifically for them. They then used that malt in their own production. We've done the same with Sierra Nevada Brewing Company—they grew their own grain, and we processed it for them.
It’s the same story with distillers. I once spoke with one who said, “I’d love to make bourbon, but we don’t have a cereal cooker to process the corn.” And I told them, “You don’t need one—if we malt the corn for you.” Once corn is malted, its starches are already broken down into accessible sugars, just like with barley. So instead of cooking the corn, all they need to do is steep it in hot water with the rest of their mash to extract the sugars. It's a simple solution that opens up entirely new possibilities.
This is the kind of hands-on, collaborative work we love—malting corn for a distiller, processing rye grown by a small farm, or barley from a brewery like Sierra Nevada. It’s about more than just making malt; it’s about direct collaboration, creative exchange, and a shared purpose. We’re not just supplying ingredients—we’re helping to shape the final product, together.
If you would like to find out more about Admiral Maltings, please visit https://admiralmaltings.com/