Origin Malting cleans up at Alberta Beer Awards
By Miriam Ostermann, Associate Editor
Photo Courtesy of Origin Malting & Brewing Co.
Those words had always resonated with Rockyford farmer and operations manager of Origin Malting & Brewing Co. Kyle Geeraert since he first heard them during his post secondary studies.
Now the saying has turned into words to live by – literally.
While the local brewery is still in its infancy and was always intended as a subset to test their family-run Hilton Ventures Ltd.’s malt, Origin Malting recently put Strathmore on the map by having their Last Post Brown Ale recognized with gold in the brown beer category and gold for best of show in Alberta at the second annual Alberta Craft Brewing Convention’s inaugural event, the Alberta Beer Awards 2018.
The brewery and taproom also picked up silver in spiced beer with The Darkness Chocolate Porter and silver for trendy beer of the year with their New England-style Getting’ All Hopped Up Ale. In addition to the provincial recognition, the establishment is overwhelmed with the local support that’s now forcing the company to expand its operations by purchasing completely new brewing equipment to keep pace with the demand – both in their taproom and the malting industry.
“It’s very humbling and definitely surprising, we weren’t expecting to win any (awards); but best beer in Alberta – that was very surprising and pretty cool,” said Geeraert. “In 2016, Troubled Monk won silver in the World Beer Competition for their brown ale and we actually beat them. For us, that was positive affirmation that we’re doing a good job.
“The malt side of things is really taking off. We’re barely keeping up with demand on the malt side of things right now and in the brewery the local support has been phenomenal; we cannot keep up at all. I mean it’s a great problem to have.”
Origin Malting & Brewing Co. submitted 15 of their more than 30 locally brewed styles of beer to the Alberta Small Brewers Association, where certified beer judges performed a blind taste test to pick the 2018 winners during the association’s first Alberta Beer Awards. All the beers are brewed using craft malt that is locally grown on their fifth-generation family farm and malted in Strathmore.
Last November, the establishment’s head brewer Nick Patterson – who has no professional training – sat down with members of Strathmore’s Royal Canadian Legion and came up with a recipe to mimic a traditional English brown ale as was popular during the world wars. The Last Post was brewed for Remembrance Day with proceeds funnelled into the local poppy fund, and became the taproom’s first brown ale.
“We just designed the beer to be for our fundraiser, we never expected it to be nominated for an award … we had a really good response from the time we released it so it was on our radar to make it again and make it potentially a full time beer; now that we got this recognition for it we pretty much have to,” said Patterson with a chuckle.
“I don’t make beer to win awards; we just make beer that we like to drink and think is well done. So, it’s definitely humbling to know that the people who were also in the competition were large breweries that have a handful of brewers designing beers and have multiple people involved, and not just one person plugging away. It’s definitely unexpected.”
Origin Malting & Brewing Co. first started brewing July 14, 2017 and opened the brewery and taproom during the August long weekend. In seven months, the brewery has already hit their first-year projections on litres sold and have made 80 different brews. Their product can also be found at the Strathmore Curling Rink and Strathmore Family Centre, and will be at this year’s Strathmore Stampede and Heritage Days.
According to Geeraert, over the next six months Origin Malting beer will be featured all over Alberta, and the company is looking into collaborating on various projects with breweries from the United States and British Columbia.
However, local roots play a big part for the owners, who have a strong presence in the Strathmore community and have donated thousands of dollars back to different charities and organizations with profits from specifically crafted beers.
“Origin Malting & Brewing Co. made a name for themselves in Strathmore and Wheatland County very quickly,” said Lawrence Carriere, executive director with the Strathmore and District Chamber of Commerce, which will have samples of the beer at their Not Your Grandfather’s AGM on March 26.
“Now being recognized on a provincial level is a tremendous achievement. Albertans don’t just love their beer, they’re proud of it, and this sort of award will put Strathmore on the map as a place to get a top-quality craft beer.”
More than 300 beers were entered into 22 categories at the competition on March 14. Origin Malting & Brewing Co. competed against beer from well-accomplished breweries such as Big Rock Brewery, Troubled Monk Brewery and Wildrose Brewery.
On Feb. 28, the Legal Issues Scottish Ale also won first place for favourite beer at the Science of the Six Pack.
Marketing Digital and Taproom Manager Meleah Geeraert is aware of the brewery’s place in the wolf pack and knows it’s full steam ahead.
“I think we’re one of the only companies that do it from beginning to end to prove our malt, and we’re not doing much distribution because how much we’re pushing our system and spitting out as much as we can with our brewery,” she said. “We’re just keeping up and that’s such a good thing and that’s a huge shoutout to our local support, because that’s mostly being sold out of our taproom alone. We just want to make Strathmore proud and have a great atmosphere here. We’re not going to slow down any time soon.”