Drinking to a river's health: Arizona brewers and farmers fight drought with beer

Arizona brewers are fighting drought by the draught.

In March the state’s first barley malt house should open in the Verde River Valley, supplying a key beer ingredient grown with water pulled from an overworked river that is crucial to metro Phoenix’s water supply.

Under other circumstances that could cause problems.

But timing is everything. 

Sweet corn, alfalfa and other crops typically suck water from the Verde all through summer and, in years past, have drained miles of the river between a diversion ditch and the point downstream where the runoff returns to the river.

Aided by the Nature Conservancy and corporate donors, Hauser and Hauser Farms have converted 140 acres of those crops to winter-planted barley.

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"To grow corn you need a lot of water in June, July, August,” Zach Hauser said last week while hosting journalists on a tour with the Institute for Journalism & Natural Resources.

"With barley," he said, "we're done with water in May."

He plucked several of the unsprouted seeds from the dirt to show how this year’s unusually dry winter has delayed growth. Still, he said, by July he’ll harvest and the river will keep enough water to float kayakers.

Making malt in Arizona

It couldn’t happen without beer.

Barley couldn’t pay its way if Verde Valley farmers had to sell it for livestock feed. Malt barley commands a higher price, but until now Arizona breweries had to buy it from Idaho or other locations because no one was malting in the state.

In March, Chip Norton will open Sinagua Malt to solve that problem. It’s a small business collaboration, but it’s also a lifeline for a river that Norton grew up floating and loving before he watched it decline from overuse.

Sinagua is buying from the Hausers, creating a market for barley in the valley. Last year Norton sent the crop to a Texas plant that produced malt for Arizona brewers.

This year he will produce the malt himself in Camp Verde, soaking and roasting the harvested grain in a process that sets it up for fermentation and determines the beer's flavor and color.

Sinagua will supply the malt as an ingredient for breweries, but will not brew beer itself.

The Verde is 'the place'

The Verde is a small river, Norton said, not a raging whitewater destination. But it's home. As the Southwest's drought passed 17 years he began to fear he would lose his morning walks with his wife and dog along flowing water.

“I’ve run rivers all over the Western Hemisphere, but this is the place,” he said.

After a construction career in Phoenix he retired to Camp Verde and volunteered on conservation efforts to prop up the flows. With help from the Nature Conservancy and other investors, he scraped together $800,000 to start the malt house to supply Arizona Wilderness, Copper Top, Granite Creek, Oso and maybe more craft brewers.

“This is a market solution to conservation problems,” Norton said. “We have a chance to turn this (river's decline) around.”

'It's not like it's a chore'

Arizona Wilderness head brewer Chase Saraiva said the Verde malt that he tested from the Texas malting plant last year was among the most aromatic he has used. Better yet, he said, using it helps keep water in the river to sustain the Phoenix area’s water storage on the Verde.

The brewery agreed to buy Verde Valley malt to grow its buy-local brand while also saving some of the water it uses, Saraiva said. It does the same by purchasing 10,000 pounds of watermelon from the area each year for its Watermelon Gose, swapping flood-irrigated alfalfa for drip-irrigated melons.

"The impact we're creating on the Verde River is real," he said.

Saraiva joined a Defend Our Future-sponsored panel at Tempe's Pedal Haus Brewery on Monday evening to discuss the effects of climate change on beer. The Verde's challenges have included both overuse and a shrinking snowpack to replenish spring creeks.

He advised the crowd of young, beer-drinking environmentalists to drink local and save the river.

"It's not like a chore, right?" he said.

The Arizona Republic toured the Verde Valley for this story as part of a fellowship with the nonprofit Institute for Journalism & Natural Resources.

Environmental coverage on azcentral.com and in the Arizona Republic is supported by a grant from the Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust. Follow the azcentral and Arizona Republic environmental reporting team at OurGrandAZ on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

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