Low student numbers and a reduced demand for craft beer have prompted the closure of both the program and the brewery.

WHY IT MATTERS: The Craft Beverage and Brewery Operations program at Olds College was the only one of its kind in Alberta.

“The student enrolment really declined last year,” said Dennis Beaudoin, dean of the School of Trades and Skills at Olds College.

“It declined to the point where we didn’t have enough students to actually run the cohort.”

In February 2025, Olds College decided to suspend student intake for the Craft Beverage and Brewery Operations program. The last group of students will graduate in April 2026.

Once the student intake was suspended, the college conducted a market analysis.

“I don’t think it’s much of a surprise to say the craft beverage industry has certainly declined, so the student demand just wasn’t there any more for the diploma,” he said.

Olds College has two breweries on campus. One is the commercial brewery at the Pomeroy Hotel, which will be closed in June 2026. The other brewery is a teaching brewery.

“We’re going to be looking at the program and see what we want to do moving forward. We may bring it back as a certificate, or it may go through our continuing education so that we can still serve some of the interest that’s out there,” he said.

The Olds College Craft Beverage and Brewery Operations program was the only one in the province.

Decline of program and craft brewing market

When the program began in 2013, there was a cohort of 25 students with a waitlist twice as long. The program was a two-year diploma.

“Back in 2013, there was a lot of student demand and then actually right from that day forward is when the decline started to happen,” said Beaudoin.

Student cohorts began to consist of 10-15 people.

“What’s happening with the last one, we were down to single digits for student interest. And that’s what led to the closure.”

Beaudoin said the craft brewery market has changed drastically over the years.

From 2010 to 2012, people began opening craft breweries, and there was a lot of competition and breweries promoting their products. Since 2023, alcohol consumption has declined drastically.

“When you look at the market mix, when you look at beer or spirits or anything like that, what’s happening is a kick on the beer side. Spirits have been maintaining their market share, but beer has taken a drastic hit with their market share,” he said.

Young people today are not drinking as much as older generations, and many people are cutting down on alcohol consumption due to financial constraints, said Beaudoin.

The commercial brewery initially opened in partnership with the Pomeroy Hotel on campus. Olds College had a hospitality program, which they ran through the hotel and decided to start the brewery program.

The program focused on beer to start, but as student demand declined the program began to include meads, wine and seltzers.

“We changed the way we delivered the program over the last couple of years, but it’s still not doing what we need to do to make sure we’re making the college sustainable,” he said.

Beaudoin said while the decision has been made, there’s still a lot of sadness over the closure of the brewery.

Nine staff will be let go by the end of June. This includes the staff from the brewery and a couple of faculty members.

“If there was anyone who wanted to save this program, it was me. I think everyone here is disappointed because (the brewery) was a real fabric of Olds College,” he said.

“It’s no secret that post-secondaries across the sector are having challenges, and we’re all trying to figure out ways to be sustainable. And unfortunately, this is one of the decisions we had to make.”

The Olds College Brewery will remain open for sales until June 2026 and is open to anyone who wants to stop by and support its final season of brewing.

The post Last call: Olds College to shutter brewery program and commercial operations appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

Heineken’s shares slid more than eight per cent in July when it warned that annual volumes would be broadly stable, rather than grow. On Wednesday, it said it expected volume to “decline modestly” in 2025.

Annual organic operating profit would also be at the lower end of its previously forecast four to eight per cent range, the brewer said.

CEO Dolf van den Brink said macroeconomic volatility had become more pronounced in the third quarter.

“We expect demand to recover when conditions normalise,” he said in a statement.

Analysts already expected annual profits to rise 3.9 per cent, and for volumes to decline by 1.8 per cent, according to a company-compiled consensus.

As a result, Heineken’s full-year commentary may be welcomed, said Laurence Whyatt, analyst at Barclays.

“All the negative stuff was expected. And in fact, it was expected to be worse,” he said.

Heineken shares rose almost one per cent in early trade, Oct. 22.

Brewers across the spectrum face long-term sales declines in some markets due to rising health concerns and disruptions from beer alternatives or even the emergence of weight-loss drugs.

But Heineken said its key challenges in the quarter, including weak demand for beers in Latin America and Europe, were short-term in nature.

Consumer sentiment has been rocked by trade tensions in key markets such as Brazil, where shipment volume in percentage terms contracted in the mid-teens, and Heineken has struggled to regain lost shelf space in its home region after a pricing dispute with retailers.

But it also reported market share gains in Brazil and Mexico, and a strong showing in previously difficult markets such as Vietnam.

The company reported a 0.3 per cent decline in third-quarter net revenues, just beating analyst expectations for a 0.8 per cent dip. Its 4.3 per cent volume decline was broadly in line with forecasts.

— Reporting by Emma Rumney

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As spring sunshine warms the fields, Konen, 65, and other barley farmers worry tariffs will take away crucial export markets and increase the cost to grow the grains, even as sinking U.S. beer consumption has slashed demand for barley.

Why it matters: Reciprocal tariffs from Canada and Mexico may raise costs and limit export opportunities for U.S. barley growers, at a time when beer demand is also falling. 

“Down here on the farm we’re already stretched pretty thin financially,” said Konen, who is also vice president of the National Barley Growers Association. “It makes us wonder whether or not we can even stay in business.”

Roughly half of Konen’s barley is destined for Mexico, where it will be turned into beer. Some will be shipped back to the U.S. in bottles of Modelo, Corona and Pacifico.

Mexico is the third largest importer of U.S. barley and the biggest importer of U.S. malt, made from germinating kernels of barley and a key ingredient in beer. If Mexico issues tariffs in retaliation or switches to buying barley from other trading partners, experts say it could deal another economic blow to American farmers as U.S. consumers increasingly ditch beer.

Tariffs may decimate U.S. malt barley exports to Canada

Canada, the largest importer of U.S. malt barley, issued tariffs against U.S. barley and other agricultural goods that went into effect on March 4. Frayne Olson, crop economist at North Dakota State University, said farmers are worried that tariffs could decimate U.S. barley exports to Canada.

U.S. President Donald Trump has said his back-and-forth tariffs against major trading partners are intended to curb the flow of illegal drugs and migrants into the U.S., and has downplayed the market impacts for U.S. companies and consumers.

“The people who pay for tariffs are the farmers,” said barley farmer Steve Sheffels, vice president of the Montana Grain Growers Association. “We grow way more barley than we can possibly consume, so if those markets go away, then farmers are going to be competing for a much more limited number of buyers.”

Costs for fertilizer, which is mostly sourced from Canada, will rise with tariffs. Prices for imported crop chemicals from China have already risen because of tariffs that took effect on February 4.

“There’s a sinking feeling and a feeling of dread that things are bad, and things are going to stay bad for a while,” Sheffels said. “We are scared almost to death about tariffs.”

Beer consumption slowly declining

Beer consumption in the U.S. has been sliding and in 2024 it hit its lowest level in over 40 years as more Americans chose other alcoholic beverages, said Bart Watson, chief economist at the Brewers Association. Recently, hard seltzer drinks and canned cocktails have posed particularly bruising competition to beer.

Others are giving up alcohol altogether. Gen Z-ers and millennials are drinking less than most previous generations, according to a 2024 Gallup poll. In January, former U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy called for cancer warnings on alcoholic drinks. Multiple high-profile studies have stated no amount of alcohol is safe to drink.

Watson believes major beer companies such as Anheuser-Busch, maker of Bud Light and Michelob Ultra, may keep prices steady to preserve market share and maintain sales volume. Craft breweries may be less able to absorb higher costs and are likely to raise prices, he said.

The 25 per cent tariffs the White House has slapped on metals will likely hike the costs brewers pay for kegs and cans, which are often made from steel and aluminum imported from Canada.

The price of a bottle of Corona or Modelo, both produced in Mexico, may be more likely to spike if U.S. malt is subject to tariffs by Mexico as it heads south and the finished beer is slapped with tariffs again as it is shipped north.

“Breweries are going to have to choose to pass this along or choose to eat it,” Watson said. “It will have an impact.”

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“Across Canada, there’s about 1,200 breweries. I can guarantee you, just about all of them are using oats to some degree,” he said today at the SaskOats annual general meeting in Saskatoon.

Heise, who is president and chief executive officer of Regina’s Rebellion Brewery, estimates his operation uses about 100 pounds of oats per batch of beer, and uses oats in about half of its beers.

“An individual brewer isn’t probably using a whole bunch of oats, but as an industry, it ends up being a significant amount.”

Although oats have been used as an ingredient in beer for centuries, for both health and trade reasons, Heise says this most recent surge in use in Canada has happened alongside the growth of the craft beer industry, which began in the 1980s.

One of the most popular types of craft beers in North America is the India Pale Ale, (IPA), which features hoppy flavours and intense aromas.

One style of IPA beer, hazy IPAs, is custom made for oats, Heise said.

“Hops can be a little aggressive and bitter, so the oats really help smooth that out. It creates this textured mouth-feel creaminess,” he said, adding the oats add the desired haziness.

“There’s this ‘haze craze’ going on in craft beer. That’s why the oats are really taking off. Every single one of us (brewers) is using a ton more oats than we ever have before.”

Oats are also commonly used in stouts to add flavour and texture.

And in recent years, brewers have begun to discover additional benefits of using oats in beer, in terms of both brewing and marketing, Heise said.

“It actually improves fermentation and yeast health, and that’s really critical to get a nice, clean tasting beer,” he said, adding that using oats can also help improve shelf stability.

“I think it’s phenomenal — the marketing around oats as being healthy is not a bunch of BS.”

Unfortunately, he said his brewery’s oat use isn’t likely to have much of an impact on Saskatchewan oat producers’ overall profitability, despite the fact he’s happy to pay a premium for locally produced ingredients.

“I don’t think much of that ends up in your pockets. We are a very, very tiny part of the oat market, but we’re doing our part to try to boost those prices up.”

The post Crop Production Show 2025: Oat beers having a moment appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

Before 2013, Alberta wouldn’t provide a licence to a prospective brew house unless it could demonstrate the ability to produce 500,000 litres of beer a year. 

“It’s tough because you get to self-doubt. You get imposter syndrome. I’m just some random guy,” Sherman said. “If nobody could change those laws up until now, why would I be the guy to do it?” 

But change it he did. Now his company, Tool Shed Brewing, is consistently named among the top breweries in Calgary and its capacity is over two million litres of beer a year. 

A high-tech overachiever 

Sherman traces the history of Tool Shed Brewing to his days working as a communications tech advisor in Afghanistan between 2007 and 2010. 

“I’m just a nerd that got hired by the government and military customers to go into the war zone and design and implement NATO secret clearance-level tactical communication networks,” he said. 

He lived in Afghanistan on and off during that period. When he’d come back to Calgary, he and his friend, Jeff Orr, who he worked with in Afghanistan, would focus on hobbies that included making gourmet coffee, barbecuing meat and brewing beer. 

Sherman freely admits that he probably took every single one of those hobbies too far. 

He had a coffee roaster shipped from Italy. He had to change the electrical loads to make it usable in Canada, but even then, it couldn’t be used while the washer or dryer were running. He described the setup, which allowed him to access the roaster and assign roast profiles from outside the network, as “ridiculously geeky.” 

He applied that same geeky fixation to his barbecue operation. 

“My barbecue actually has a probe in the ambient air and in the meat. And I designed this algorithm that looks at the differential of those two set points and knows exactly, based on the current environment, when the ribs will be ready. And it’ll send you a tweet,” explained Sherman.

“There’s an infrared camera so you can see the ribs cooking, and there’s even a little fan that blows on the charcoal and keeps the temperature within a perfect half-degree of temperature control.” 

That may seem obsessive but it’s hard to argue with success. And he’s had some pretty good success with his barbecue brand, Notorious P.I.G. 

“Last year we went to the world championships as the Canadian National BBQ team, and we won a gold medal,” said Sherman. “And we actually qualified again for this year.” 

These endeavours all took place in an eight-by-15-foot tool shed in Sherman’s backyard. Hence the company name. 

“The biggest thing that I noticed was that all the hobbies that I was getting into had a common theme: bringing people together,” he said. “And when you start making beer, wow, that really brings people together.” 

For Sherman, there was also something cathartic about brewing beer with his buddy. They shared some harrowing moments while working in Afghanistan and found that connecting with someone who went through the same things was therapeutic. 

“We’d been through so much in Afghanistan. It was terrifying. We had a lot of really close calls,” said Sherman. The first time he heard rockets fired into his camp, he couldn’t sleep a wink, but he eventually arrived at stoic acceptance. 

“Eventually everyone comes to this realization that, ‘if it’s my time, it’s my time,’” he said. “Then you can sleep through the rockets. That’s a crazy thing to get used to.” 

Sherman’s younger brother is a professional brew master in Australia. So when he set his sights on setting up a brewery in his tool shed, he called his brother for advice. 

“No way, I’m not helping you with this,” was his sibling’s response. “You’re going to get divorced over this.”

In an attempt to dissuade Sherman, his brother described a list of equipment he’d need and emphasized the endless work involved.

“I think he was trying to talk me out of it, but I was loving everything that I was hearing,” said Sherman. 

His brother eventually did offer tips, and Sherman got the homebrew operation up and running. And, just like his coffee and his barbecue, people loved his beer. 

“At one point, I said to my buddy, ‘this is the best thing ever,’” said Sherman. “‘People are coming from all around to spend this great time together. I think maybe we figured out the secret of life.’ 

“I know it sounds over the top but passion goes into creating something with your hands, and when people try it and they lose their minds, there’s nothing better on earth.” 

Bureaucratic fight

Sherman quit his job and decided to make brewing beer his full-time vocation. That’s when he slammed head-on into Alberta’s archaic liquor laws. 

Essentially, the Alberta Liquor and Gaming Commission (ALGC) responded with, “sorry, it can’t be done. It’s always been this way.”

That response infuriated Sherman. He compared it to arguing with his kids. 

“All the greatest breweries around the world come to Canada trying to get their hands on this barley — Sierra Nevada, New Belgium, Oskar Blues, and even as far away as Sapporo in Japan,” said Sherman. 

“In fact, from my house, I can look out the window and see this beautiful tract of land with combines rolling up and down it. It’s one of the best barley operations in the world. I can see those guys pull that barley off the field from my house, and I can’t brew with it in the city that I live in. It’s madness.” 

It was a gut punch. 

Sherman remembers going home after hearing the response from the ALGC and thinking about the pickle he was in. He had quit his job and his next mortgage payment was due in a few days. Doubt began to sink in. Maybe his brother was right. 

But defeatism wasn’t going to pay the bills. He was determined to make lemonade from the lemons the ALGC had served. But it wasn’t going to be easy. 

“Ever try to change a provincial law? It does not happen before your next mortgage payment comes due, that I can tell you.” 

But Sherman found a workaround. He changed his business plan and applied for an importer’s licence rather than a brewer’s license. The new plan didn’t run afoul of ALGC regulations. 

“The moment I got that licence, I grabbed all this beautiful barley and drove across the border to British Columbia. I went to a brewery just outside Vancouver that let me brew my beer in their facility. I brewed my beer, drove back home and imported my own freakin’ beer to Alberta.” 

Sherman put 660,000 kilometres on his Toyota pickup truck while driving between Calgary and Vancouver. And when he wasn’t driving back and forth, he was imploring the ALGC to change its ways. 

“It’s insane. But I think the nice thing was, it was perfectly insane,” said Sherman. “It wasn’t me saying, ‘do you realize what I would have to do?’ It was me saying, ‘look what I’m doing.’” 

Sherman researched the topic with his trademark zeal and shared that research with the ALGC at every opportunity. 

“There’s a report from the Economic Development Board of Canada saying every dollar you spend on local craft beer contributes $1.12 to that local economy,” said Sherman. “And of course it does. It supports the malt house, the truckers, the farmers and the brewers.” 

All of the driving and haranguing the ALGC eventually paid off. In 2013, the commission changed the law. 

“They sent out a tweet that day that said, ‘Congratulations Tool Shed, no more minimum brew requirement,”’ said Sherman. 

To be fair, the Alberta Small Brewers Association had been arguing for a rule change for years, so Tool Shed wasn’t in the fight on its own. But the timing and the ALGC congratulatory tweet suggest Sherman’s tenacity played a significant role. 

In the decade since the law was changed, Alberta’s local craft breweries went from 12 in 2013 to 187 today. 

“Everyone is using local barley, and everyone is supporting the farmers. It was a tremendous win for all of us.” 

Tool Shed is now housed in a 50,000-square-foot building in Calgary, and its capacity quadruples the ALGC’s previous minimum requirement. Its beers are available across the country, the customer base is growing, and the facility is becoming a destination in Calgary. 

“We’ve always had a tap room here. But one of the other things that we were able to change in Alberta is that we’re the first brewery in Alberta where the tasting room in the back is right on the brewing floor,” he said.

“So the tanks are right there, and it’s kind of steamy, loud and obnoxious, but you can smell the hops, you can see the steam, and you can watch the beer being brewed as you’re having a beer and some barbecue.” 

That’s right. He’s managed to shoehorn his BBQ brand into his facility. The restaurant was an upgrade done during the pandemic. And true to Tool Shed ideals, it uses only Alberta-sourced meat products.

The restaurant is called Notorious P.I.G. but it serves pork, beef, chicken, sausages and just about everything on a grill. 

“We even have some vegetables,” joked Sherman. 

The post From backyard beer to big time brewing appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

A $9.6 million investment by Labatt Breweries of Canada will see the Banded Peak Brewing Co. expand its 4,800 square foot brewery by an additional 7,000 square feet. 

The company is also increasing staff by 68 per cent with new positions in front of house, logistics and brewery operations. 

The expenditure also includes a bulk grain silo to reduce plastic use in malt shipping as well as improved brewing equipment throughout the facility.

Banded Peak Brewing Co. has been owned by Labatt since 2020.

“We’re proud to be able to contribute to our community through this investment,” wrote Chad Patterson, vice president, craft and high end with Labatt Breweries of Canada in a December 13 news release.

“From day one, Banded Peak has brewed local craft beer for Albertans and beyond, and this investment from Labatt will enable the necessary next steps to ensure that Albertans can continue to enjoy locally-brewed Banded Peak beer for years to come.”  

Colin McLean, co-founder of Banded Peak Brewing, was “thrilled” the investment will allow the company to bring Calgarians more selection.

“This investment cements the fact that we are steadfast in our commitment to producing our beer locally, with new jobs, local ingredients and the type of innovation that continues to make Calgary a great place to live and work.” 

The 176-year-old Labatt Breweries of Canada is owned by Belgian multinational Anheuser-Busch InBev.

Banded Peak Brewing opened its brewery and taproom in Calgary in 2016 to serve a growing market for taproom culture in the city. They championed the establishment of the Barley Belt, a district with Alberta’s highest concentration of taprooms.

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Carlsberg Group on Wednesday announced an all-cash deal worth $4 per share for all shares of Waterloo Brewing, which bills itself as the largest Canadian-owned brewery in Ontario and a pioneer of the current “craft brewing renaissance” in Canada.

The deal still requires court approval — and approval from TSX-traded Waterloo’s shareholders, although Carlsberg has already signed up Waterloo company directors and officers holding a combined stake of about 39 per cent, with “irrevocable” support and voting agreements.

A committee of Waterloo independent directors is also recommending the remaining shareholders vote in favour of the deal, on which the two companies expect to close early in the first half of the new year.

In business since 1984, starting as Brick Brewing and rebranding in 2019, Waterloo Brewing produces the Waterloo line of premium craft beers and a “value” brand, Laker.

It also holds the Canadian rights to Seagram Coolers and the LandShark and Margaritaville beverage lines, and already has been producing Somersby cider in Canada on Copenhagen-based Carlsberg’s behalf since 2020.

“One of the priorities of our SAIL’27 strategy is to grow our business in attractive markets where we are small today, such as Canada,” Carlsberg CEO Cees ‘t Hart said in a separate release Thursday. Buying Waterloo Brewing, he said, “significantly improves our growth prospects in the Canadian market.”

“This exciting opportunity will scale our business in Canada. The brand portfolios are complementary. Local sourcing will secure long-term robustness of supply, and increase commercial flexibility and speed to market for innovations, step-changing the way we operate,” Carlsberg Canada managing director Anders Rud Jørgensen said in the same release.

Waterloo Brewing’s portfolio of “long-standing co-packing relationships will benefit from these combined operations,” he added.

“We’ve enjoyed a close relationship with Carlsberg and are excited about becoming part of one of the largest brewing companies in the world,” Waterloo Brewing CEO George Croft said in Wednesday’s release, adding the the board “is confident that joining Carlsberg is the best long-term solution for our employees, partners, customers, consumers and community.”

Waterloo on Wednesday also announced results for its third quarter ending Oct. 30, reporting declines in both net revenue and gross profit in what Croft described in a separate release as “a challenging year for the industry.”

Waterloo said it’s “continuing to see consumers trade-down as a result of ongoing inflationary pressures,” which has led to sales growth for the Laker brand but has “negatively impacted the company’s premium beer brands and ready-to-drink products, which is putting pressure on gross margin.”

Waterloo has since raised the price on its single-serve 473-millilitre Laker cans, a change it said is “consistent with the balance of the industry and will have a significant and positive impact on gross margin in the fourth quarter.”

The company also reported renewals with “strategic” co-manufacturing partners, which it said will result in about $18 million of combined revenue over the extended terms of those contracts.

For its last full fiscal year ending Jan. 31, 2022, Waterloo had booked $5.803 million in net income on $180.825 million in gross revenue, up from $3 million on $156.8 million in the previous fiscal year. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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China’s General Administration of Customs had informed the country it was halting the exports due to “lack of documentation,” the agency said in a statement.

It added that “this is first such notification we ever received, because the importing countries usually start by asking for any missing information.”

The Chinese agency said earlier Thursday it had stopped imports of Lithuanian beef but gave no specific reason.

Relations frayed after Lithuania allowed Taiwan to open a de facto embassy in its capital Vilnius last year, angering Beijing which regards the democratically-ruled island as its own territory.

Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said on Wednesday during a visit to Australia that nations seeking to use trade as a retaliatory measure must be reminded that “like-minded countries have tools and regulations that help withstand the coercion.”

Britain, the U.S. and Australia are backing an EU trade case against China at the World Trade Organization over Beijing’s alleged trade curbs on Lithuania. Canada said Thursday it will also seek to join in the WTO consultations over the dispute.

“Canada is concerned by China’s recent trade actions taken against Lithuania and European Union goods and services with Lithuanian content, which could undermine the rules-based international trading system and its institutions,” Global Affairs Canada said in a statement Thursday.

The European Commission says overall exports from Lithuania, an EU member, to China fell 91 per cent in December compared to the same month in 2020.

The Lithuanian agency said the country hasn’t exported food products, including beef, to China since early December 2021. It did not immediately give further details.

“As far as I know, the Chinese move does not create practical problems, because we do not export these products to China now. The exporters have moved on to other markets,” Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte told reporters Thursday.

“If the problem is procedural and bureaucratic, as China says, then it will get solved very easily,” she added.

Correct ‘mistakes’

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian declined to elaborate on the beef suspension, but said Lithuania should correct its “mistakes.”

“What Lithuania should do is face up to facts, redress its own mistakes, and come back to the right track of adhering to the one China principle, instead of confusing right with wrong,” Zhao said, referring to China’s policy demanding countries recognize its claim to Taiwan.

Taiwan’s foreign ministry spokesperson Joanne Ou condemned the latest Chinese move, calling it “unilateral” and “bullying” and the latest example of Beijing trying to change Lithuania’s foreign policy.

China is the world’s top importer of beef but shipments from Lithuania are minimal. It imported just 775 tonnes of beef from Lithuania in 2021, out of a total 2.36 million tonnes of beef imports that year, according to Chinese customs data.

Taiwan has stepped up its food imports from Lithuania to help ease the impact of Chinese curbs, most recently rum.

— Reporting for Reuters by Dominique Patton in Beijing and Andrius Sytas in Vilnius; additional reporting by Emily Chow in Beijing, Ben Blanchard in Taipei and Kanishka Singh in Bangalore.

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“It will be an extremely tight and difficult year for the malt processors and ultimately for the brewers as well,” said Peter Watts, managing director of the Canadian Malting Barley Technical Centre (CMBTC) in Winnipeg.

“Not only did the hot, dry summer lead to a significant reduction in yields, it also impacted quality,” said Watts, noting higher protein levels were a big issue this year.

The rains that eventually came hit right at harvest time, “adding insult to injury” by leading to quality downgrades.

Total Canadian barley production in 2021-22, which includes feed barley, was estimated at 7.1 million tonnes by Statistics Canada. That compares with the 10.7 million tonnes grown the previous year.

Preliminary data from the Canadian Grain Commission show average protein levels for barley selected for malting in 2021 coming in at 12.8 per cent. That’s the highest of the past decade and well above the 10-year average of 11.7 per cent.

Maltsters typically like lower-protein barley, and Watts noted they are expanding their specifications in order to account for the higher protein levels. “Stuff that normally wouldn’t be accepted, will be accepted this year,” said Watts.

Higher-protein malt barley create processing challenges, including reducing alcohol extraction levels, altering water absorption, and leading to hazy beer.

The larger brewing companies may adjust their recipes to use more adjuncts, such as rice or corn, to compensate for the tighter barley supplies, but Watts said craft brewers don’t have that option.

The CMBTC is currently working with higher-protein samples to come up with modifications maltsters and brewers can use to adapt to this year’s crop, Watts said.

Some export customers do like higher-protein malt barley than is typically used in North America and would be a potential buyer for higher-protein grain in a year with more normal yields, but Watts expected export movement would be down in 2021-22.

“We’re just so short this year, there isn’t enough malting barley to go around,” he said.

“We’re in uncharted territory… people are not often forced to work with this kind of quality.”

While there will be challenges, one possible bright spot to come out of the year was the fact that maltsters will be forced to work with newer varieties that they may not have selected in the past, offering opportunities for those varieties to gain traction, Watts said.

Research into how the different varieties fared this growing season was ongoing, he added, with results and recommendations for 2022 to come shortly from the CMBTC.

— Phil Franz-Warkentin reports for MarketsFarm from Winnipeg.

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“Canada has a global reputation for its clear skies and clean water,” said Don Tse, a beer writer and consultant who operates Far Out Exporters with wife Michele and business partner Jeff Orr.

“Over 90 per cent of the beer is water. The malt barley grown in Canada is globally recognized.

“In the craft beer world, America leads the charge and Canada is second.”

The company is marketing beer produced across Canada, but since it’s located in Calgary and the trio knows craft brewers here, they have a special focus on Alberta suds.

Tse initially imported beer brands into Canada but as the domestic craft beer industry took off, opportunity beckoned.

“My wife and I really love to travel,” he said. “We would travel all over on the import business side, visiting breweries and things. Along the way, we met a lot of beer buyers in other countries. We just knew a bunch of people, and so we’ve been contacting them… It’s about knowing people.”

The pandemic has put a damper on the market, but Far Out Exporters has shipped craft beer to Australia and recently sent a shipment, including beers from Alley Kat Brewing Company in Edmonton and Inner City Brewing in Calgary, to Sweden.

“Every country has had some kind of lockdown,” said Tse. “Because of that, every country has had a big push to support small local business, which is great, but it doesn’t help me in my business of exporting beer.”

Still, a shipment to the U.K. is in the works and the company is in talks with Ukraine and reaching out to contacts in Europe. The U.S. is also a target although it’s “a difficult market — it has weird labelling requirements.”

Canada’s reputation for high-quality food and top food safety standards helps but other factors come to the fore.

“There are certain countries that have a fascination with Canadian wildlife,” he said, noting one of the beers in their portfolio is Grizzly Paw, brewed in Canmore and has a bear on one of its beers.

“That type of thing plays really well in Australia and Germany,” said Tse. “It sounds silly, but a beer made with maple syrup does well overseas.”

The two big trends in craft beer worldwide are Indian Pale Ales and kettle sours.

“We brew those really well here in Canada. It’s funny how countries like Germany have centuries-old tradition of brewing beer, but they brew the beer they’ve always brewed. So they look to North America for these IPAs and sour beers. That seems to be very popular.”

When he first got started in the beer industry, Orr said Albertans felt left behind by places like Vancouver, Portland and San Francisco, which had flourishing bar and craft scenes. But 10 years later, the variety and quality of beer coming out of the province is up there with other flourishing beer scenes.

“The goal here is to show people that we’re not just late to the game and trying to figure it out,” he said. “We’ve picked things up and have a stellar offering. You don’t get any fresher than having the barley come from up the road.”

Sophisticated buyers are looking for technical prowess and at beer reviews to see what they would like to try, added Orr.

“Our job as exporters is to try and bridge that gap a little,” he said. “We live and reside in this market, and recommend beers that they are looking for. We maintain a portfolio of beer that we would get behind and enjoy.”

While it’s “very early” days for their company, the outlook is bright, said Orr.

“In terms of beer and exports, Canada has not really put an emphasis on craft beer (but) I think there’s huge opportunity for marketing beer made in Canada,” he said. “It will surprise people.

“There’s a lot out there that people don’t see from other places right now. That’s exciting for me.”

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