Barley has it good in the Big Horn Basin.

So good that Briess Malt and Ingredients Company, which provides malt for food products all over and for many craft breweries (including local breweries like WYOld West), gets the majority of its barley from the growers, mostly in a 60-mile area, who bring their barley to the Ralston Elevator.

“The majority of our barley, our malt goes into brewing for the microbrews and the craft brewers, home brewers and then the rest of it goes into food products,” said Briess Grower Relationship manager Judy Gillett. “The farming community is like a family to me. I think the relationships that we have with our growers are a good part of our success here.”

Gillett would know, as she’s been in the ag industry all of her life and at the Ralston Elevator through multiple owners. Briess bought the operation in 2013 and took over full control in 2016. To Gillett, it’s not surprising that a company known for its high quality malt would want to get its barley from the area, as she doesn’t think any other region grows barley quite as well.

“I’ve been in agriculture all my life,” she said. “And when I worked for Anheuser-Busch, I saw barley from all over Canada and the U.S. and our barley is really nice. It is brighter and more consistent than any of the other areas.”

Gillett, who grew up not far from the tall elevator where she now works on a farm that grew barley and sugar beets, credited a couple of factors for the success of barley in the region.

For one, she said barley grows well in cooler weather and with consistent water via irrigation.

Crop rotation is also a big factor.

“Sugar beets and barley complement each other really well,” she said. “And then a lot of times they’ll throw dry beans or alfalfa into the mix. But that breaks the disease in the soil, because you put a different crop in there, then it kills out the disease. If you plant barley, barley and barley you’re gonna see a lot of disease. And here they don’t do that, they rotate it out.”

Gillett said Briess works with roughly 300 barley growers who fill the Ralston Elevator, and they grow seven different varieties of barley.

While most of the growers are relatively close, she said families range from southern Montana to Farson and near Casper — she said the early barley loads already in this year came from a farm near Laurel.

Once the barley reaches the elevator it’s stored there until it’s needed, at which point it is taken away by train, generally to Briess’ Wisconsin plant to begin the malting process.

“All of our barley ships into Manitowoc, Wisconsin, the malthouse there, and then they either malt it or roast it to get the products that they’re looking for for our customers that they’re selling to,” she said.

While that process happens a few states away, inside the office beneath the towering elevators at the Ralston facility, there is plenty of evidence of what these loads of barley become. There are dozens of examples of brewing malts, some smoky, others chocolatey, as well as bags of malted chocolate balls.