Brewery eyes silo to store barley malt

FREEPORT – A microbrewery has come up with a plan designed to keep down the rising cost of grain needed to brew beer.

Gritty McDuff’s is proposing to build a silo at its U.S. Route 1 brew pub to store barley malt.

Brewery manager Billy Stebbins said malt prices are going up nearly double next month, so a silo would allow Gritty’s to buy it in bulk and keep prices down.

He said the silo would be 24 feet high and 12 feet wide and would be similar in design to silos found on farms.

Freeport’s project review board will take up the proposal next week.

Town Planner Donna Larson said silos are not prohibited and that the main question for the board will be how well a silo would fit in with the other buildings.

“Silos have a fairly industrial look,” Larson said. “How do you blend that industrial look into the village?”

Gritty McDuff’s also has brew pubs in Portland and Auburn. It wants to put up the silo in Freeport because it does most of its brewing there, said Stebbins, who brews about 3,200 barrels per year.

Spokesmen at Shipyard and Geary say those enterprises added silos years ago to save on labor and the cost of grain.