Thanks to everyone who voted for Briess Specialty Malts in last week’s primary voting for the Coolest Thing Made in Wisconsin! We couldn’t be more excited to make it into the Sweet 16, and are asking for your continued support and votes. It’s simple. Voting continues daily through to and including Sunday, Sept. 23. You don’t have to enter your name or email address. Just click here to vote and you’re done. You can vote every 24 hours from each device 🙂

This marks the third year in a row for the Coolest Thing Made in Wisconsin contest. We may be biased, but we think BRIESS SPECIALTY MALTS deserves the title. And here are our top reasons for why…

  • Coolest history. Ancient Egyptians are credited with discovering malt. They probably stumbled upon it when some of their barley got wet and started growing (sprouting and germinating). Then they dried it and discovered that the process had changed the barley (now called malt or malted barley). And they also discovered it made a delightful beverage that was safe to drink and made them happy. Very cool.
  • Briess is family owned. The Briess family has been dedicated to supplying beer and food manufacturers with super high quality malt and malt ingredients since 1876.
  • Briess is the original American craft maltster. Since the pioneer days of American craft beer, the Briess family has focused on developing and producing specialty malts specifically for American craft brewers!
  • Our growers are the best. Every year some of the best barley in the world is grown just for Briess. Our growers in Northwestern Wyoming and Southern Montana really know what they’re doing, and they’re also super great people. Most of our barley is grown by family-operated farms, which we think is very cool.
  • Creating jobs and good times every day. Next time you enjoy a fresh pint of craft beer or delicious malted milk shake, think about all the people who helped make it possible. Briess Specialty Malts start with experienced barley growers. The barley they grow is processed and transported to Briess where it is malted, packaged and shipped to breweries and food processors throughout North America. Then it makes its way through distribution and retail for consumers. That’s a lot of people for some simple pleasures in life.
  • Oh, so natural. Malt is a simple ingredient. It’s just barley, wheat or rye with water added to make it start growing, then heat applied to stop the growing and develop flavor and color. That’s it. No artificial flavors, color or additives. It’s the real, natural thing and we think that’s very cool.
  • It’s everywhere! Malt is used as much in the food industry as the brewing industry, only in smaller amounts for different reasons. Take a look at that bag of all-purpose flour in your pantry. Malt is probably in the list of ingredients. Why? Small amount of diastatic malt is used to “standardize” flour so it performs consistently in the bread-making process. That’s just one example. Start reading your food labels and you’ll be surprised how often malt or malt extract is listed.
  • It can change forms. Specialty Malts make excellent specialty malt extracts for brewing or cooking. That’s cool.
  • It’s used and enjoyed by the coolest people. Making an ingredient that’s used and enjoyed by so many people is one of the coolest things about BRIESS SPECIALTY MALTS. Thanks for casting your vote for BRIESS SPECIALTY MALTS for the Coolest Thing Made in Wisconsin! Please vote once a day.