Four months into its presence in Latah County, Rants and Raves Brewery strives to have a positive impact in Moscow through supply localization and water conservation.
The fledging brewery plans to localize the entirety of its hop and wheat supply by the year 2020, beginning with the establishment of a hop farm in Latah County.
“We want everything we get to be local,” said Wyatt DuBois, assistant brewer at Rants and Raves. “We are starting our own hop farm five miles south of town and are tilling up the ground right now.”
DuBois said the business is planning to farm a specific hop plant that combines aspects of Northwest American hops and traditional English noble hops.
“There”s a little bit colder weather in the region, so the strains might change a bit,” DuBois said. “We might have our own unique hop flavor. But we”re mainly just looking at making sure our hops don”t have to travel 300 miles to reach us.”
The brewery is also attempting to purchase the majority of its grain supply from a recently-constructed maltster in Colfax, Washington.
“We are going to weigh our options,” DuBois said. “Hopefully we can get most of our grain from them, but it depends on how feasible it is.”
Tyler Hawkins, the master brewer at Rants and Raves, said the business is also focused on water conservation during the brewing process.
“The major thing people should know about us is that we use a deionization system instead of reverse osmosis,” Hawkins said.
“Deionization wastes zero water, whereas reverse osmosis wastes about two or three gallons of water for every gallon we brew.”
Hawkins said many northwest breweries use reverse osmosis, squandering over 100 gallons of water during each brewing cycle.
“That just doesn”t happen here,” Hawkins said. “And we”re going to make sure it doesn”t.”
DuBois said Rants and Raves uses experimentation during the brewing process to provide a nontraditional spin on a wide selection of beverages.
“A lot of breweries our size don”t have the ability to do a step mash with many temperature changes,” he said. “We have coils going through our water so that we can change our temperature at any time during our brew process.”
DuBois said the business uses cold extracts and a separate brewing process to produce darker beverages.
“A lot of these darker beers actually require a much different water profile – usually it”s harder water,” DuBois said. “We don”t even try to get sugar from the dark grain. We”re just trying to get the flavor first and then add it in afterwards.”
Hawkins said a key difference in the composition of ales and lagers is the temperature of each batch.
“An ale is a bottom-fermenting brew that uses warmer temperature,” Hawkins said. “Meanwhile a lager is a top-fermenting, cold temperature beer.”
Dinara Storfer, a chemistry professor at the University of Idaho, said the fermentation process is based primarily on the presence of carbohydrates.
“These carbohydrates – mainly a six-carbon molecule – break all the way down to two carbon molecules plus a hydroxide group,” Storfer said. “When carbohydrates are exposed to oxygen, they produce alcohol and carbon dioxide as a byproduct.”
Storfer said the exposure of carbohydrates to oxygen is the original source of alcohol production.
“It is more than just chemistry, it is organic biological chemistry,” Storfer said. “The oxygen attaches to the carbon, and because the carbohydrates are already partially oxidized, the exposure to oxygen produces alcohol.”
Storfer said she was recently exposed to a theory from peers in the scientific community concerning fermentation and human civilization.
“The theory stated that the fermentation process was the cause for humans to transition from hunters and gatherers to form civilizations,” Storfer said. “Somehow humans accidentally discovered the effects of fermentation. The theory claims humans chose settle down to plant and raise the products, oxidize them and then get the alcohol as a result.”
DuBois said he first became interested in brewing during his time as a student at the University of Idaho.
“Brewing was an obsession for me,” DuBois said. “At the time, I didn”t think it would be fruitful. But that certainly changed.”
DuBois said Rants and Raves wants to establish an open dialogue with community residents for each side to learn more from one another.
“We have a lot to learn from the home brewing world,” DuBois said. “As soon as you are stuck in your ways, that”s the moment you stop growing.”
Hawkins said the brewery”s goal is to provide a welcoming environment by allowing Moscow residents to connect with one another.
“Beer is communal,” Hawkins said. “It is one of the oldest things in the world. People gather around to drink and share stories. It helps bring the community together.”
Josh Grissom can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @GoshJrissom