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By MATT HAMILL
HEADOF
THE CLASS
Loveof thecraft
As a 2017 Nuffield Canada
scholar, I am about to embark on what
will no doubt be the journey of a lifetime.
I couldn’t be more excited for what lies
ahead. Nuffield Canada is an amazing
organization that has provided growth op-
portunities for many individuals who have
developed into agriculture industry lead-
ers. I want to thank Nuffield Canada and
the Western Grains Research Foundation,
which sponsored my specific scholarship,
for giving me this opportunity to do work
that benefits the barley industry.
The goal of my research is to interview
numerous individuals throughout the
barley value chain. This includes farm-
ers, maltsters, brewers, distillers, barley
breeders and many others in related
support industries. My travels will take
me to New Zealand, Australia, Brazil
and the United States. I look forward to
discovering some of the best practices
in these countries and how they can be
applied to the Canadian system.
These subjects are of interest to me be-
cause I, along with my family, have started
Sharingbarley knowledge toadvance Canadianmalt andbeer
a micro-malt house here in Alberta: Red
Shed Malting. Right now, we are taking
high-quality malting barley from my fa-
ther’s Penhold-area farm and processing it
into ingredients for breweries in Alberta.
Starting and operating a malt house has
been a monumental task, and it has led
me to incredible conversations with some
truly brilliant people across Canada. I’ve
been able to meet some of the barley
breeders behind the varieties that have
made their way into billions of bottles of
beer around the world, and my conversa-
tions with other maltsters always end up
running longer than expected, as we learn
so much from each other’s experiences.
One of my favourite parts of the job
is talking to the new entrepreneurs who
are starting, or have recently started,
a brewery. Alberta is in the midst of a
phenomenal growth phase in the craft
beer industry. Among the owners of these
new breweries, passion for the craft and a
love of beer are the common denominator,
but each individual’s story is unique and
always interesting. Many of these passion-
ate people got their first comprehensive
introduction to the science of brewing
beer through the two-year brewmaster
program at Olds College, which accepted
its first eager students in 2013. It’s great
that Olds College has such a strong pro-
gram, and the first wave of graduates are
already enjoying success in the industry
and receiving well-deserved recognition
for their efforts.
I still think there is room for growth in
Alberta’s craft beer industry. Converting
people to craft beer is a quick process
when they discover the flavour profiles
and other new possibilities that craft has
to offer. Others are drawn to craft beer by
the benefits it creates for their local com-
munity and the agriculture industry.
I see the demand for craft beer—and,
consequently, craft malt—increasing,
and Red Shed Malting is ready for that
growth. That said, there is still a moun-
tain of hard work that needs to be done
and several obstacles that could stand
in our way in the future. One threat
that stands out in my mind is disease.
We’re very fortunate to be in a region of
the province that has had limited issues
with Fusarium head blight, and we have
worked diligently to keep our farm free
of this devastating disease. However, we
know it is present in the region now and
spreading quickly. When I attended the
Lacombe Field Crop Development Centre
field day this summer, I saw lots of great
research being done to develop resistant
barley varieties and educate farmers on
crop rotation strategies in order to help
combat the spread of Fusarium.
I see a lot of changes occurring at a
very fast rate in the industry. Craft beer is
proving to be more than just a trend and
it delivers benefits throughout the entire
value chain. Craft beer uses three to seven
times more barley than popular mac-
robrews, as more of the sugar that gets
fermented into alcohol comes from barley
instead of adjuncts. These all-grain craft
beers are approaching a one-fifth share of
the beer market, but the breweries pro-
ducing them are responsible for close to
half of the malt demand in Canada. Based
on this, I’m confident that exciting things
are in store for the craft brewing and
malting industries going forward.
Matt Hamill grew up on a grain farm
in central Alberta. He studied at Red Deer
College and holds a bachelor of business
administration from Mount Royal University.
In 2014, he co-founded Red Shed Malting,
one of the first specialty malt houses in West-
ern Canada.
Spring
2017
Grains
West
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