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(Photo: Red Shed Malting)
Top-notch barley

Local malter supplies key ingredients for award winning beers

Apr 14, 2020 | 7:00 PM

To brew great beer you need great ingredients. And that’s exactly what a local malt supplier is doing.

Red Shed Malting is celebrating the fact that their products were used in several local brews recognized during last week’s announcement of the 2020 Alberta Beer Awards.

“To get recognition from the industry is a real big honour, we’re super excited about it,” says Matt Hamill, one of five family members behind the Penhold area business. “There are lots of those beers that have our malt in it so we got to cheer a lot of times for a lot of our friends. Even beers and breweries that didn’t have our malts, it was great to see them have some success and celebration across the industry.”

Hamill, whose family has been growing barley since 1929, says having their malt used in so many award winning beers is huge for what they do.

“All these beers are ones the breweries put their heart and soul into. They’re putting a lot of trust in us, using our ingredients for their beers. So it’s just really nice to see that they’re getting recognized.”

Red Shed Malting also received their own honours as for the second-straight year, they were named Community Builder of the Year: Partner (in a tie with Alix-based Rahr Malting).

“It’s definitely a nice acknowledgement of the work we’re putting in. We’re just trying to be out in the community as much as possible,” Hamill explained. “Lots of breweries are doing lots of events and we’re trying to support them. Sometimes that just means showing up and having a beer with them, sometimes brewing a beer with them. It tells us that we’re doing some of the right things and need to keep on doing them and keep building the community.”

When Red Shed Malting first started Hamill says there were fewer than 20 breweries operating in the province. There are now more than 130.

What makes Red Shed unique, he adds, is their small size (producing just 200 tonnes of barley each year), which allows them to adapt quickly to customer needs, and the fact they have the only operational malt roaster in Canada.

“If you want to make some of those dark style beers (stouts, black IPAs) and you want to make it only from Canadian ingredients, then you’re using our malt.”

As the COVID-19 pandemic situation continues, Hamill encourages everyone to support the local economy by supporting local breweries.

“Especially breweries dependent on tap room sales. They’re hugely impacted by what’s going on. All these breweries can use our help now so just keep drinking craft beer and keep supporting local businesses,” he says.

“We just love being in the industry and love working with all these breweries. (We’re) hugely appreciative of all the support they’ve shown us (and) hugely appreciative of the support other farmers have shown us. It’s been a wild ride but it’s been a lot of fun.”