Chemistry,
crops,
creativity,
history,
business,
and pluck.
Like the early Shakers who
packaged seeds to sell to gardeners,
Andrew and Craig Martahus are
fulfilling a need for one of today’s
growing communites. In this case, that
community is craft brewers.
Neither father (Craig) nor son
(Andrew) anticipated working together,
and they couldn’t have predicted that
their venture would establish the first
malted grain factory in Cleveland since
Prohibition, Haus Malts.
When Haus Malts was incorporated
in 2014, fewer than 100 craft breweries
operated in Ohio. Today, that number
is likely more than 300. Fifty pounds of
malted grain are needed to brew a barrel
of craft beer, and in 2017, about 1.35
million barrels were brewed in the state.
Not surprisingly, several additional
malt houses have opened in Northeast
Ohio — in Marysville and Brunswick.
Haus Malts’ competitive advantages are
a solid business plan and early entrance
into the field. Craig and Andrew liken
their business plan to a three-legged
stool, which is supported by sales to craft
brewers (including home brewers), craft
distillers, and other food makers. But
their biggest market by far is the craft
brew industry.
Craig Martahus moved to Shaker
in 1979, having graduated from the
University of Pennsylvania Law School.
52 SPRING 2019 | WWW.SHAKER.LIFE
He took a job with Thompson Hine LLP, where he practiced as a corporate attorney
until his retirement in 2015. He had three children with his first wife Lin, who died
in 1997. Daughter Christin graduated from Shaker Heights High School in 2007 and
lives in Boston. Twins Andrew and Patrick are members of the Shaker Class of 2010.
Patrick is a CPA in Chicago, and Andrew earned a degree in chemical engineering from
Washington University in 2014.
Andrew returned to Shaker to interview for positions in the chemical industry,
and in his spare time, he began brewing beer in the basement of the family’s Winthrop
Road home. He also began an intensive study of the four recipe components: hops,
yeast, water, and malted grain. Eventually he planted barley and hops in the backyard
and made a kiln so that he could sprout and roast his own malted grain.
Andrew’s hobby piqued the interest of his father and late stepmother, Joani
Hastings. After a family visit to Riverbend Malt House in Asheville, North Carolina in
2014, and subsequent meetings with farmers, craft brewers, trade associations, and
other maltsters, the three became serious about opening a malt house. Father and son
enrolled in two intensive malting courses. In Oswego, New York, they learned about
sourcing grains and making good malt, and at the Malt Academy in Winnipeg, Canada,
they acquired technical and practical information. They also credit colleagues in the Ohio
Craft Brewers Association and others in the industry for help and support.
Realizing that basement production was not possible for what they envisioned,
the Martahuses began to look for a building that was large, located close to East- and
West Side craft breweries, could accommodate truck deliveries, and would have the
capacity to be retrofitted with temperature-controlled rooms for the various stages
of storing, malting, and packaging grains. They found their space at 6107 Carnegie
Avenue, the former home of the Smith & Oby Company, a mechanical contractor.
Built in the early 1900s, the structure is about 20,000 square feet and has
16-foot ceilings. Martahus family members and friends demolished and rehabbed
about half of the space. Before the arrival of the malting equipment, about a dozen
Smith & Oby employees visited their former headquarters. “They still service our
furnace,” says Andrew.
Haus Malts took possession of its building in April 2015, and, after receiving
certification from the Ohio Department of Agriculture, Craig and Andrew Martahus
started malting. Their inaugural batch was completed on January 1, 2016, and their
first buyer was Little Fish Brewery in Athens, Ohio.
/WWW.SHAKER.LIFE