Lake Placid Pub & Brewery owner Christopher Ericson holds a handful of barley, a key ingredient in beer. (Enterprise photo — Jessica Collier)

U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer wants to see more barley malted in New York as he aims for the state to become the “Napa Valley of craft beer.”

Along with his crop endorsement, the New York Democrat is urging the federal government to open general malting barley crop insurance, previously only available to four counties in the state, to 44 counties, including Franklin. The Malting Barley Endorsement is a special federal insurance plan that would be given by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Barley, along with hops, yeast and water is a staple ingredient in beer, providing the alcohol. It is bought by the tons by craft breweries around the state. A particularly sensitive crop, the grain is susceptible to disease, flooding, heat and pests. The malting process involves a series of drying and re-hydrating the grains until they start to sprout and then partially cooking them.

“Due to the risk of it not making malting quality, it could then be sold for feed and they might be more likely to plant something that is less risky,” president of Country Malt Group Bryan Bechard said.

Insurance would provide farmers who grow barley with a backup net to rely on if they have a poor season.

“If you can offer somebody insurance before they start spending tons of money, then they are going to be more likely to do it,” said Mark Jessie, co-owner of Raquette River Brewery in Tupper Lake .

This endorsement focuses on raising the amount of barley produced by New York farms and keeping brewing ingredients local, a goal supported by the farm brewery license Gov. Andrew Cuomo put into effect in early 2013.

As a condition of the license, a gradually increasing percentage of ingredients in the beer brewing process are required to be bought from farmers within the state. No less than 20 percent of all hops and other ingredients must be from New York through 2018, 60 percent until 2023 and, from 2024 on, 90 percent of every glass of craft beer from a farm brewery must come from the state where it is brewed.

“Right now there is not nearly enough production to handle the 60 percent levels,” owner of the Lake Placid Pub & Brewery Christopher Ericson said. “Anything that can be done federally to incentivize farmers to plant barley is definitely going to benefit specifically the farm brewers in New York.”

While Ericson’s company already uses exclusively New York-grown barley, he believes this will only make the grain cheaper and intensify the pride New Yorkers feel about their craft beer.

“The guys we are working with are people I know; it’s a passion,” said Jim LaValley, owner of Big Tupper Brewing in Tupper Lake. “I do anything that we can do to keep the product local.”

Though there are currently not enough New York barley farms able to produce the load required by farm breweries, the barley market in the state has sprouted substantially in the past years.

“About four years ago, nobody was growing barley in New York state,” said Clinton Green, the head brewer for Great Adirondack Brewing Company in Lake Placid. “Within that year there was a handful of farmers that started doing a lot of work with Cornell.”

As the state has loosened regulations and made things friendlier for small-time brewers starting their own businesses, it also aims to supply those brewers with ingredients found in neighboring areas.

Jessie and LaValley try to use as many local ingredients as possible, but the prices and diversity of national and international ingredients provide things still not available from New York growers.

Lavalley said that if he buys malt through a national company he can buy half as much as from New York companies.

The smaller farms will need to be competitive within the market. Though many craft beer brewers gravitate toward local ingredients, there are pros and cons to that decision.

“Given current conditions and crops the way they are, it is going to be a long time before we’re buying strictly New York state ingredients,” Jessie said.

Insurance for such a vital crop to the North Country would change the conditions of barley growing, allowing more farmers to malt the grain at a cheaper and more reliable rate. It would also introduce a more diverse range of crops to the area, allowing brewers to find more specialty grains in their local areas.

This year New York craft brewers will use around 35 million pounds of malted barley to brew dozens of varieties of beer.