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The Food Issue
2017
grainswest.com9
BY ANDREA HILDERMAN
FUNGUY
OLDSCOLLEGE STUDENT FINDS INNOVATIVEUSE FOR
SPENT BREWERS’ GRAINS
Photo:AlexVilleneuve
Alex Villeneuve hopes his company, Ceres Solutions Ltd., will be producing 3,500 pounds of mushrooms per
month by fall.
HEARING THAT A COLLEGE
student was growing mushrooms in his
dorm room might give you the wrong idea,
but Alex Villeneuve is not
that
kind of stu-
dent. In fact, Villeneuve saw an opportuni-
ty in mushrooms, and has followed through
on that idea to create what is poised to be a
full-fledged agriculture business.
“The idea for this business came to me
my very first day attending the brewmas-
ter and brewery operations program at
Olds College,” said Villeneuve, who also
has three years of experience as an ap-
prentice chef under his belt. “When I saw
the spent grain from the brewing process
being—essentially—dumped, I immedi-
ately wondered if I could grow mushrooms
with it instead.”
In his Olds College dorm room, he
experimented with growing mushrooms
using Ziploc bags and the spent grains
from the brewing process to make sure his
idea would work.
The idea didn’t quite come out of the
blue, as Villeneuve had grown oyster
mushrooms before. His initial interest in
mushrooms came from his culinary past
and his passion for sustainable agricul-
ture, gardening and local food. “Back in
high school, I was part of the permacul-
ture club,” said Villeneuve. “This is where
I was able to put into action some of my
passions, and earn a certificate as well.”
While researching the spent grains from
the brewing process, Villeneuve realized
that they were a problem for breweries to
dispose of. “They could be thrown in the
garbage,” he said. “There is also the possi-
bility of hiring a private composter, but that
could cost up to $2,000 per month. Some
breweries do have farmers who come and
take the grains to feed to animals, but that
was somewhat inconsistent.”
Once his mushroom production was
perfected, Villeneuve started to look at the
change in composition of the spent grains
before and after a crop was grown. “We
found the substrate texture was changed
and protein levels greatly increased,” he
said. “The mushroom mycelium, or roots
if you like, converted the complex fibres
in the grain to protein. Over seven weeks,
protein increased by 183 per cent.”
Not only could a crop of valuable mush-
rooms be produced from the spent grains,
but an enhanced animal feed as well.
“Feed trials are needed to further describe
the value of the feed, but it’s another
value-added product of the process,” said
Villeneuve.
Villeneuve is currently working with
one brewery as he scales up his business,
but he doesn’t expect to be limited by
substrate availability. “We determined in-
directly through the annual taxable litres
produced that about 130 tons of grains are
used every day in Alberta in the brewing
process, more than enough for this busi-
ness to grow and expand,” he said.
Villeneuve started at Olds College
in September 2015, and incorporated
his company, Ceres Solutions Ltd., in
November 2015. He has since graduat-
ed from the brewmaster and brewery
operations program and is well into the
scale-up phase of his business at his
2,500-square-foot warehouse space in
Olds. He hopes to reach his full produc-
tion capacity of 3,500 pounds of mush-
rooms per month by fall.
“This level of production will require
about 500 pounds of mushroom substrate
per day,” said Villeneuve. “I don’t know
if we would have gotten this far this
quickly without the incredible support of
Olds College and the organizations that
are helping us with grants and expertise.
I feel very lucky how this has all come
together.”