LISBON

Blue Ox Malthouse, the maker of a key ingredient in craft beer recipes, is hosting a public open house here from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Friday with tours, tastings and a ribbon cutting ceremony.

The founders of Blue Ox Malthouse are using the event to acknowledge a diverse group of organizations who rallied to support the company’s mission with an investment in local agriculture and rural economic development. Representatives from Coastal Enterprises Inc., Maine Technology Institute, Slow Money Maine, Maine Department of Community and Economic Development, the Town of Lisbon and the Maine Brewers Guild are some that will be in attendance to celebrate.

Blue Ox Malthouse’s 7,500 square foot facility uses traditional floor malting to process raw grain into malt, the ingredient used in brewing and distilling beer. The company is certified by Maine Organic Farmers’ and Gardeners’ Association for both organic and nonorganic production, and this season is working with both barley and wheat.

Blue Ox Malthouse nearly doubles Maine and New England craft brewers’ access to locally sourced and produced malts increasing their capacity to create products that are not only brewed locally, but sourced locally as well. Until recently Maine grown grains had to be exported for processing before being imported back for brewing. With a capacity to produce more than 500,000 lbs annually, Blue Ox Malthouse is in the top ten largest facilities of its kind in North America and provides an instate market for up to three quarters a million pounds of small grains.

Founder and maltster Joel Alex recognizes that Blue Ox Malthouse’s success has truly been a community effort. “Without the support from this diverse and committed group, our business would never have materialized,” Alex said.

The company got its foothold early 2013 when Alex, an Old Town native, began working with the Maine Small Business Development Center and received an MTI Tech- Start Grant to conduct a feasibility study and develop his business plan. Encouraged by the results, Alex proceeded to grow the idea over the next 2 years during which he lived based out of his car until finding and deciding to move to the current facility in Lisbon Falls.

“With the opening of the Blue Ox Malthouse in Lisbon Falls, Maine people have yet another reason to raise a glass in celebration of our thriving craft brew industry,” said US Senator Angus King. “This impressive new operation will improve the industry supply chain by nearly doubling Maine brewers’ access to local, home-grown malts, bolstering a growing craft beer industry that has already created thousands of jobs in our great state. I commend Blue Ox Malthouse for its vision, its success and for its commitment to strengthening our economies and our communities through local, sustainably sourced materials.”

“There is probably not a resource in Maine for small businesses and entrepreneurs that I haven’t taken advantage of over the past few years,” Alex states, which is probably true.

Since 2013 Blue Ox Malthouse has been able to bring over $750,000 to the project in a combination of grants, loans, and private investments with the biggest financial commitments coming from CEI, MTI, and private investors within the Slow Money Maine network.

Other resources Alex has tapped into include Maine Center for Entrepreneurial Developments Top Gun program in 2014, the Libra Future Fund grants, and Maine Grain Alliance technical assistance grants. Perhaps appropriately the last was made possible by the Allagash Brewing Community Grant Program.

In addition to Alex and partner Steve Culver, Blue Ox Malthouse has one full time employee, one parttime employee, and contracts with local labor for production activities, though Alex expects to continue to grow the employee base over the next year.