Did you know that it takes 4 Square Feet of barley field to grow the grain for one sixteen-ounce can of IPA?
In 2018 Kent Falls Brewery was crunching some numbers. They were looking to figure out the impact fo their malt purchases for the brewery and for each beer. They wanted to know how many acres of local farmland their commitments were responsible for supporting.
To do this they needed to ask their maltsters how many pounds of malt and grain were harvested per acre. They then back-calculated with their beer recipes to find out that one 16 ounce can of IPA was responsible for 4 Square Feet of barley.
This calculation was a revelation and got Barry and his team thinking about how to relay this revelation to their customers. By putting a 4SquareFeet logo on a label and building 4SquareFeet of space in their taproom that shows what that can of beer represents in actual space, they could make learning about their commitments to local farms fun and interesting to the public.
We cannot all imagine what an acre looks but we can all visualize 4SquareFeet – tying beer to the farmland in this understandable way creates a bridge between farmer and consumer.
