[caption id="attachment_128378" align="alignright" width="300"]
Brandon Ade, owner of Blacklands Malt in Leander, tests raw rye grain for quality.[/caption]
Blacklands Malt made its first malt in late 2013, owner Brandon Ade said. Since then business has been increasing for Leander-based manufacturer for distillers, breweries and bakeries.
“I knew that there was a huge market for malt and barley out there,” Ade said. “But it was a little daunting to start out having no previous relationships with these brewers. … [Now] I get approached by a surprising number of guys all the time asking me about what I’m doing, when we’re going to offer more styles of malts [and] different grain varieties of malt.”
The business produced about 40 tons of malt in 2014, its first full year of operation, and Blacklands manufactured 75 tons of malt in 2015, Ade said.
Blacklands sells malt products to many different local breweries and Dallas brewpubs, Ade said.
