Spring
2016
Grains
West
32
Feature
BY TAMARA LEIGH • PHOTOS COURTESY OF TOOL SHED BREWING, ANTLER VALLEY FARM AND RED SHED MALTING
GRAIN BIN LOOMS LARGE
over the tasting room at Tool
Shed Brewing near Calgary’s
city centre. After 125 years of storing
grain at Antler Valley Farm near Red Deer,
it stands as a tribute to malt barley and
the farmers who grow it.
“There’s a symbiotic relationship
between the farmers and the brewers—
the better they do, the better we do,
and on it goes. For these guys who grow
A
PARTNERSHIP BETWEENBREWERS ANDBARLEY FARMERS
TAKES CRAFT BEER TOTHENEXT LEVEL
malt barley, there’s only one use for it,
and that’s beer,” said Graham Sherman,
co-founder of Tool Shed and a tireless
promoter of Alberta malt barley.
“Almost every brewery out there, all you
hear about is hops. Hops are such a small
portion of what’s in beer. Barley is the
majority of what’s in beer, and all the small
breweries come to Alberta for the barley.”
Tool Shed is one of several craft
breweries that have opened their doors
in Alberta in the past few years, and part
of a global groundswell in consumer
demand for craft brews.
According to Beer Canada, the national
trade association for brewers, there has
been a surge of interest in beer that has
been building for a number of years.
“Canada now boasts more than 500
brewing facilities across the country,
almost double the number 10 years
ago,” said Luke Harford, president
