Grainswest - Spring 2022

Spring 2022 grainswest.com 27 BY JENNIFER BARBER PHOTOS BY ANTHONY HOULE PHOTOGRAPHY armer Keith Woynorowski built the Hammer Malt facility and the entire malting system from scratch. He processes the farm’s own malting barley within silver, cylindrical dairy tanks repurposed as combination kilns and germination vessels. The malt is transported from one stage of processing to the next through pneumatic tubes and the entire system is computer automated. Far from being cobbled-together in appearance, the rig looks something like a homey space station. On his family’s 3,000-acre farm near Westlock, Keith grows canola, wheat and oats as well as feed and malting barley with his father Mick and brother JD. With help from his wife and business partner Jennifer, he established Hammer as a value- added project that taps the family’s barley growing expertise. The business now produces specialty malts for Alberta’s craft distillers and brewers. The maltster’s namesake tool, which is mounted on the malthouse wall, is the perfect symbol for the do-it-yourself spirit of the farm and its offshoot barley business. An ancient claw hammer, with a replacement handle made of a length of hockey stick wrapped in tape, it once belonged to Keith’s late grandfather Walter, a farmer known for his ingenuity and work ethic. He and other members of the family built the farm’s buildings and grain handling facilities, and this inventiveness is in Keith’s blood. “I enjoy building and designing things,” he said. “I am self-taught with some experience as a mechanic and heavy equipment operator, but this malthouse project is by far my biggest yet.”