Bruce Sample, a former maintenance guy who's now the head brewer at St. Albert's Hog's Head Brewing Company, looks deep into a brown bag of grain and picks out a few reddish seeds.
He rolls them around in his palm then digs into another bag and pulls out a second sample. These grains are lighter in colour but from the same family, a variety called Crystal, he explains.
Brewers can always add ingredients to change the taste of a beer, but it all starts with the right type of grain – that gives beer its distinctive colour and flavour, he says.
"For example, we have the chocolate stout and a lot of people think there's chocolate in there but it's from the malt," he says. "So when you get into a dark malt or chocolate, (the grain) will be a darker colour."
It's a Monday afternoon and Sample has been working since five or six in the morning. A typical brew day takes 10 or 12 hours, he says.
He makes one beer per day, boiling large batches of water, hops and yeast in a mash tun (a vessel that converts starches in crushed grains into sugars) in the back of the brewery.
Later on, the brew is transferred into large, copper-coloured fermenters where it sits for a few weeks until the beer is ready. Ales take about two to three weeks to ferment; lagers between 35 and 40 days, he says.
Micro-brewing done local
Started in St. Albert's Riel Business Park in March 2012, Hog's Head Brewing Company is one of Alberta's few micro-breweries.
This past weekend it got the nod for best beer and best brewery at the Craft Beer Festival in Edmonton.
That's a big step for a small company, since competition is tight and the market is still dominated by larger brewers, says operations manager Shaun McCabe.
But Hog's Head has already made a name for itself in the region.
The company's beer is now sold in five different locations around the city, including Original Joe's, Soda Jerks and The Cajun House. It also got into a few liquor stores and chain restaurants in Edmonton and Fort Edmonton Park, says McCabe.
"That's a really nice barrier break," he says.
Now the brewery's managers are looking to expand within the facility.
Sometime this summer they will open a brew pub in the front of the building at 16 Rayborn Cres., seating about 40 people and serving beer-infused food.
All the equipment isn't set up just yet, but the cook will be a sous-chef from Chop Steakhouse Bar, in downtown Edmonton, says McCabe with some pride. They're even looking to do beer and stout-infused ice cream with Pinocchio Ice Cream, an Edmonton producer.
"They are used to doing darker ice creams and we are looking to have an (India pale ale) ice cream," McCabe says.
For now, the taproom is fully equipped with cozy chairs, a small bar and a large wall-mounted screen and can be rented out for parties.
It's also open to the public every Tuesday to Friday from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. and a little earlier on Saturday, for sports games and as a general hangout spot.
Since the facility can't sell food yet, visitors can try the beer in small test batches, says McCabe. Eventually the hope is to serve all of their beer on tap.
Once the pub opens, he'd like to see people from the area drop by for lunch. If that goes well, the pub's hours may expand into the later evening, he says.
"And to start we'll be serving regular pop but fingers crossed that by the end of the year we'll be serving house-made pop – craft pop made out of our brewery."
Beer brewing
Hog's Head has about 12 beers, including everything from Hop Slayer IPA – a heavy citrus hop "balanced with toasty bready malt and slight hints of caramel and yeast esters" – to Death by Pumpkin Spiced Ale.
Later this year, Sample and McCabe want to bring out a milk stout, they say. They're also working on a summer, wheat ale.
Sample says he likes to play around with his creations, sometimes brewing up small batches to try out new tastes. A computer program helps him keep track of all his recipes, and to change ingredients based on what he's looking to do.
For one of his creations called Clockwort Orange, he added orange zest to the broil to give the beer its distinctive, citrus taste.
Other beers are infused with mango, coconut or toasted coriander. The fruit is added to a cask of half-fermented beer, which is topped up with more beer then left to sit for three to four days, he says.
"Brewing in a way is like being a chef," he says. "You can throw in a little of this and a little of that and experiment and see what you get."
Originally trained in maintaining heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems, Sample says he started out making beer at home when his family lived in Houston, Texas.
An Alberta farm boy, he says he grew up around grain. But it's really his wife's fault that he got into the business because "she got me a beer book," he laughs.
In the late 1990s he took a course on brewing and started working at Hog's Head when it opened in 2012.
He's not one to brew to style or popularity, he adds. If you tell him to cook one way he may just do the opposite. But being a little different is what micro-brewing is all about, he says.
"We don't want to do beers that everybody else is doing," he says, then carefully adds that he'd never create a beer infused with clamato juice.
Last year, Hog's Head brewed 20,000 cases of beer (about 170,000 litres). This year, it's looking to increase that to 60,000 cases. The brewery also contract-brews for other breweries, such as Amber's Brewing and Roughneck Beers.
Eventually, it will outgrow the building but it's too early to think about expanding, says McCabe.
The brewers are worried of going too big, too fast. Other micro-breweries couldn't keep up with the costs of a bigger facility and had to close shop, he says.
Ideally, Hog's Head would build its own brewery, he says.
"It's great to expand. It's great to grow," he says. "But brewery as an industry … the costs don't always allow for the need."
