443: Grain-to-Glass Brewing with Local and Regional Malt, Live from Alberta

We recorded this week’s episode live on stage at the Alberta Craft Brewing Convention in Red Deer, Alberta, in early October. The thematic through line is farm-to-glass brewing—something that’s not that hard to do there, since a significant amount of the malt used by North American brewers is grown in the province. Major maltsters such as Canada Malting and Rahr have plants in the province, and some farmers who grow grain for these larger maltsters, such as Red Shed, also operate their own malthouses to produce smaller batches for local brewers.

Joining the conversation are three award-winning brewers who represent different corners of the industry in Alberta: Chelsea Tessier of Polyrhythm Brewing in Edmonton, Jen Rogers of Wild Winds in Bridgeland, and Sarah McCambridge of Blindman Brewing in Lacombe. Agriculture plays a role in the conversation, of course, but the conversations covers interesting collaborative projects, malt freshness, unique processes, beers that tap into different angles of malt flavor, and a lot more.

In this episode, the panel discusses:

• blending craft pils with two-row in hazy IPA
• matching hops to base malts
• hitting European malt specs in North American barley
  
• horse-drawn barley farming and harvesting
  
• replacing specialty malts such as Carafoam with locally produced chit malt
  
• producing more stone-fruit ester precursors with floor-malted pils malt
  
• unique specialty malts such as wood-fired chocolate malt
  

And more.

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