AMBA co-hosts "Barley & Bourbon" pre-conference workshop at upcoming industry event
  • 12/13/2023

AMBA co-hosts "Barley & Bourbon" pre-conference workshop at upcoming industry event

The American Malting Barley Association (AMBA) is excited to offer a pre-conference workshop at the upcoming Beam Institute Conference held March 11-13, 2024 in Lexington, Kentucky. AMBA, in partnership with with the Hartwick College Center for Craft Food and Beverage (CCFB), will be offering a two-hour session, Barley & Bourbon, which will serve as a primer for those in the distilling industry that want to better understand their malt barley supply and quality considerations.


Workshop speakers include Ashley McFarland, vice-president and technical director of AMBA, and Harmonie Bettenhausen, director of CCFB. Discussion topics will cover:

  • Barley cultivation; considerations and challenges

  • Barley quality improvement

  • Research advances addressing threats to barley supply

  • Science of malt production

  • Understanding malt analysis

  • Exploring specialty malts and flavor


This workshop will be directly catered towards the Beam Institute Conference audience and will focus specifically on barley and barley malt considerations within the distilling industry. Topics such as local procurement of barley and GN within barley malt will be also covered. This session is an add-on option to registration and will occur the morning prior to the event’s start on Monday, March 11th from 8:30-10:30 am. Inquiries regarding the offering should be directed to Ashley McFarland (ashley@ambainc.org).