Pilot Malt House opens its new doors to Michigan craft brewers

BYRON CENTER — In the craft industry, an open house means to bring the latest brew talk, your beer and a friend.

For the open house at Pilot Malt House’s new location, everyone was invited — industry professionals, home brewers, craft industry members and plenty of tagalong friends who just like drinking beer and want to learn more about malt.

“It’s an opportunity to get to know the local businesses,” says Erik May, owner of Pilot Malt House.

“There’s a huge demand for local malt product here in Michigan, and there aren’t many malt houses. So after a slightly inebriated conversation with a friend, we said why couldn’t we do it?”

The malting process itself is dependent on many factors like temperature and humidity, so having a limited workspace used to really challenge Pilot’s employees. The old location was ‘teeny tiny,’ and Pilot employees would have to employ “very creative processes to manage the grain.”

“Temperature control was…interesting,” says Ryan Hamilton, lead maltster. “At o

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