Grainswest - Spring 2023

Spring 2023 Grains West 6 Madaboutmaltingbarley PURE ENTHUSIASM IS A hallmark of craft brewers. I have never met one who doesn’t love to talk at length about their processes and products. They also typically emphasize their conven- ient good fortune in living in a province that produces some of the world’s best malting barley. Excellent ambassadors for Alberta malting barley, their zeal for the stuff has also not been lost on farmers. Chris and Leah Simeniuk of Kettle Ridge Organics, a grain farm near Olds, have caught the craft beer bug. “I was a notorious cheap beer drinker and wasn’t really into the craft stuff,” said Chris. “I started to try it during COVID because I thought I should start supporting the people who support me.” Chris’s enjoyable exploration of craft beer led Leah and him to team up with micro-maltsters Aaron and Alex Hogarth. The Simeniuks now supply Hogarth Malt with organic malting barley that’s a hit with craft brewers. From this malthouse just northwest of Olds, Kettle Ridge grain is delivered to a growing roster of Alberta craft brewers who use the premium malt to create their beverages. In our cover story “Floored” (pg. 34), we spoke to the Hogarths, the Semeniuks and craft brewer Mike Foniok, whose businesses make up a three-part supply chain that starts in the Kettle Ridge field EDITOR’S MESSAGE The 2023 Blue Book is produced collaboratively by four of Alberta’s crop commissions: Alberta Barley, Alberta Canola, Alberta Pulse Growers and the Alberta Wheat Commission. The Alberta Blue Book is now on Twitter! Follow along with us @albertabluebook Alberta’s Crop Protection Guide and fills the pint glasses of craft beer consumers. Additional barley-focused stories in this issue of GrainsWest include “FCDC reimagined” (pg. 30). Featuring conver- sations with three individuals who have been instrumental in the crop breeding facility’s ongoing transition, it examines the new life of the Olds College Field Crop Development Centre in Lacombe and its barley and triticale work. “By 2030, we want to see most triti- cale, feed, forage and malt barley acres in Alberta be produced with varieties de- veloped at FCDC,” said Kofi Agblor, the facility’s program director. Now that’s a barley idea to get excited about.