In Alberta, Canada, where some of the world’s best malting barley is grown, the 2024 harvest has just begun. The weather has not been ideal this year and the crop is less than perfect, though not as bad as in other recent years—2021 was a year many grain farmers would like to forget.
But Sterling Hilton, president of Origin Malting & Brewing Co., is not too concerned. Hilton is a fifth-generation farmer and together with his family, farms 17,000 acres of land. The Hilton family farm supplies malting barley to global malting companies that make malt sought by breweries around the world. But of all the malt barley the farm grows, he and his family can select the barley from about 1,000 acres that best suits the needs of Origin’s local customers.
The Hilton family has been farming land in southern Alberta for decades, but in 2017, the family decided to vertically integrate and create their own value-added products. In that year, Origin Malting & Brewing was born and is one of only three breweries in North America that grows, malts and brews their own barley, though neither of the other two do so at the scale that Origin does.
For a time, beer had become such an industrialized and manufactured product that many had forgotten it is an agricultural product. The Hilton family itself use to sell their malting barley to a marketing company and never had a connection to the final product, let alone the final beer consumer. But with the dissolution of that marketing company, the Hiltons finally had sightlines to their end users, and that changed everything.
“When we first got introduced to craft beer, it was through meeting great breweries like Lagunitas who used our barley in their beer,” said Hilton in a telephone interview. “When you finally get to meet the buyers and get feedback about how much they love your product … they were very generous with their praise,” he says with a humble laugh.
“Craft beer was changing in Alberta,” said Hilton. “The excitement was infectious.” So, the Hilton family rented space in Strathmore, an agricultural town of about 14,000 people, which would become the future home of a malthouse and a brewery. “Our passion comes from the farm,” said Hilton. “And the ability to be involved in Strathmore, a community that celebrates agriculture, and face our customers has been great.”
“It’s been a fun journey in a lot of ways, doing something value-added for the farm. It has engaged many more members of the family who may otherwise not have been involved in the main agricultural operation,” said Hilton.
In addition to their core line-up of eight beers, Origin serves up seasonal beers, all of which are made from Hilton-grown and Origin-malted barley, and supplies malt to about 40 other craft breweries who can now tell a story of supporting local agriculture, and provide traceability to their ingredients. Origin is a much needed reminder that beer comes from the land.
“We grow beer” is Origin’s tagline and their true grain-to-glass story connects beer lovers back to the soil as well as connecting the Hilton family face-to-face to craft breweries who appreciate their malt, and to beer lovers who appreciate their beer.
In Alamosa, Colorado, Colorado Farm Brewery makes beer from barley malted at the associated Colorado Malting Company. As their name implies the malt and beer are made from barley grown on their farm. In Langley, British Columbia, Locality Brewing also grows, malts and brews with their own barley and goes one step further by also growing hops.
A number of other breweries make beer made from barley grown by themselves, but malted off-farm by third-party maltsters.