Good points
@AlexKay I guess I am not of the opinion that a local craft maltster is necessarily going to make a better product than the well known maltsters that have been in business for 100+ years. Support is great.
Beating the big boys is another thing. It is not like the famous German or UK malts are lacking imho. Someday I might try some but it is tough to justify when there is price parity.
We have TexMalt in Fort Worth. I have not researched them much. Their website says they have been perfecting the malting process for five years. Tough to compare to the Euro maltsters with that metric and the price of their malt is similar to the Euro malt at my LHBS. I am sure it is fine and makes beer though. Personally, I need more of an incentive to try some batches though.