Grainswest - Spring 2022

Spring 2022 Grains West 30 CUSTOMER SATISFACTION Sturgeon Brewing of Morinville was the first Hammer Malt client. Owners Josh Watson and Kerry Lamoureux were longtime homebrewers prior to the launch of their business in 2020. They were keen to purchase locally grown malt and connected with the Woynorowskis as the budding maltsters built their business. “We were able to develop our products and our quality controls together,” said Watson. “Keith malts the barley and we see how it performs. If we hit our targets, we knew we were on the right track. Keith can fabricate a solution to any challenge he is presented with. He was meant for this kind of business.” “If some element is missing from our malting process on day one, it will cascade to a bigger problem on day 10,” said Keith. “Nobody sees that more than the brewer.” Sturgeon’s help allowed him to adjust the various stages of the malting process to deliver best results. Sturgeon and Hammer even teamed up to develop The Good Chit malt. High in beta-glucan, chit malt is blended in small amounts with other malts primarily to increase foam stability in beer, which increases head retention. The Fort Distillery in Fort Saskatchewan creates small-batch spirits. Head distiller Julia Le has worked with various maltsters in the past to create vodka, gin and whisky. Rather than import malt from overseas, she approached Hammer as a local source. “Keith is an innovator through and through,” said Le. “We were looking for a peated malt to use in our whisky. We wanted an Alberta-based product with our own custom specs—something nice and smelly, like a campfire. We worked with Keith to dial in exactly what we wanted, and he worked to create that effect. Every new batch is better than the last.” Word has spread about Hammer’s increased production capacity and customized smoking capabilities, and the maltster has taken on a large new distilling client this year. “I hope we will have enough capacity for the next few years,” said Keith. “If not, I’ll build some more.” The Woynorowskis launched their malthouse project in 2020 after both attended the Canadian Malting Barley Technical Centre's malting course. Since that time, demand for their malts has steadily grown. FEATURE