Origin partnering with Bayer to host new contest, opening new taproom

By John Watson Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Origin Brewing and Malting has partnered with Bayer to host a contest to win a chance to be a part of the brewing process for a new beer.

The contest opened Oct. 15 and will be operating until Nov. 15. Entries into the contest will be accumulated by completing tasks within the FieldView app, such as sharing data with another farmer, purchasing a premium FieldView service, utilizing certain app features, and so on.

“We were approached by some of the team at Bayer … they approached us with this idea of holding a contest to promote their app, FieldView, and in which they would encourage farmers to use that to be a digital solution for the farming community and help them get their records on a digital forum,” said Alisha Beyer, taproom manager for Origin.

The winning farmer will have their farm featured on the beer can and will work alongside Origin Brewing to craft the new beer. 

Once produced, the brew will be available through Origin’s e-commerce site, with a portion of all proceeds generated going to charity. 

“We have done other partnerships supporting the ag community; obviously, we are an ag family that opened up Origin as a value add to our family farm operation … it is just one of those things where we are closely related; we have lots of similar clientele and we have had such strong support from the ag community in Strathmore,” said Sterling Hilton, president of Origin Brewing. “Anytime we can partner with an ag company to do something that is neat and raises awareness for making the farming community better, then that is something that we would jump at.”

Upon the contest conclusion, Origin’s team will sit down to collaborate with the winner to decide how to construct the new beer – taking into account different styles, seasonality of ingredients, and what the winner has an affinity for. 

Beyer added inviting farmers to collaborate on more new beers is something Origin may continue to explore in other future circumstances.

More information regarding the contest is available online for those who may be interested in participating. 

Origin is also announcing they will be officially opening a second taproom location in Calgary, Oct. 25. 

“We have been in Calgary from the beginning, but Strathmore and the surrounding community have been very supportive; we owe a lot of our early success to Strathmore and the surrounding area … this gives us just another ability to get access to a big market like Calgary,” said Hilton. 

The new taproom is located at 943 28 St. NE in Calgary. More information is available through Origin’s website.