California’s craft beer industry is losing yet another trailblazer, after Alameda’s Admiral Maltings shut down its production facility, with adjoining taproom The Rake also closing. The company’s malts powered many of California’s most award-winning beers, and the closure is sending brewers and fans of the pub reeling.
Admiral Maltings isn’t a household name, but it’s a giant in the beer industry. Its malts are prized for producing unmatched flavor and aroma, and they feature unique varieties of barley that are impossible to source from any other company. They were the industry’s craft alternative to the typical large-scale industrial malts, but Admiral malted its last batch of grain earlier this month and will close its taproom The Rake on Sunday, a sad blow to the already beleaguered craft beer industry.
Ron Silberstein, one of the company’s co-founders, said over a beer last week at The Rake that rent and debt payments became too much for the company to handle…