For two decades, Chris Eskiw has studied the human genome. An associate professor in the University of Saskatchewan’s College of Agriculture and Bioresources, his work has focused on how DNA regulates health.

The drought of 2021 affected crops across the Canadian Prairies and the Great Plains of the U.S. This significantly impacted crop yield and quality in the major barley producing provinces in Western Canada and the states of North Dakota, Idaho and Montana. To add insult to injury, many farms finally received precipitation in the middle of harvest. The hot, dry growing season produced very high protein content while the late moisture triggered significant pre-harvest sprouting.

Brian Sewell’s first entrepreneurial venture was anything but what you’d expect from a teen who’d decided from day one to take up the family business. But for Army of Darkness Skateboards (AOD for short), Brian’s mobile skate shop and manufacturing company, it rolled straight out of his farming experience.

If you’re driving north from Calgary on Highway 2, as you approach the Highway 42 intersection just north of Innisfail, you’ll spot a big, red shed out to the west. This blushing building is well-known among Alberta craft brewers as the namesake of the highly regarded Red Shed Malting.

Whether he’s in the lab testing malting barley for brewing quality or touring a brewery in China, Yueshu Li is a firm believer in telling the world about Canada’s high-quality barley.

As the recent debut of a new American pale ale called South Side smash revealed, getting to the launch stage with new malt varieties involves critical choices. This beer by Edmonton’s Town Square Brewing Co. is brewed using malt produced by Red Shed Malting and is
the first commercially available beer to feature SeCan’s CDC Bow malting barley.