Maker’s barley is grown in the Sask. Valley home to some of the best barley producing dirt in the world. Our fields are next door to the malt house and get delivered straight from there to end-user. We single-malt batches from specific fields to ensure 100% traceability from “Grain to Growler”. Take a look to see where your current year production is being sourced.
Premium Pale is lightly golden in color, it punches with flavor and aromatics above its SRM, reminiscent of freshly baked bread, unsalted cracker and malty sweetness.
The 2020 Vintage was grown on the “Home 1/4”, a field that has been farmed by our family for 3 generations. This barley was part of our 2020 agronomic trial where we went a little crazy and added zero Nitrogen! This ultra-sustainably grown barley is low in protein allowing for fuller hydration in the malt house and fantastic extract percentage resulting in higher brewhouse yields. The malt sensory analysis showcases a flavour profile high in grainy sweetness–leading with notes of honey and followed by a floral undertone. The 2020 vintage is our best malt yet!
Maker’s English was originally created as “Bow Bayern” with CDC Bow barley. This is a rich and full-bodied base malt. Cereal gives way to lightly toasted cracker and merges with a robust malty sweetness. Add nuttiness and sweet biscuit and a beautifully layered flavour profile emerges. It is our take on a traditional Maris Otter.
Maker’s Vienna is uniquely kilned to maximize flavor profile and aromatic punch. It is reminiscent of a heritage English floor malt with hints of bread crust and toffee bringing a slightly darker vibe. Rich malty flavor and a full-on crackery sweetness dominate. I’ve often thought that Vienna is what our traditional Sask Valley barley is meant to become and that we have to tether it back when making anything lighter. Maker’s Vienna is considered our malt house signature.
Maker’s Munich is made from premium 2-row Sask Valley barley.
Our latest light Munich has aromatics reminiscent of southern sweet tea. Toasted bread crust and toffee sweetness balance beautifully with black tea tannins. Despite its robust flavor profile, the high quality barley has maintained an enzyme and extract package suitable for any usage.
Maker’s Dark Munich is beautifully balanced between malty caramel sweetness and roasted burnt bitterness. The aromatics are reminiscent of a dark Earl Gray tea. Despite its robust flavor profile, the high quality barley has maintained an enzyme and extract package more reminiscent of a base malt.
Our first ever trial-batch of HoneyB was done in the middle of June with the doors to the malt house wide open. Less than an hour into our lengthy process we had a literal swarm of bees in the plant attracted by the exceptionally sweet aromatics. This malt brings forth honey and light caramel with mild acidity and without the roasted flavour profile of our Caramel series making it a unique and versatile option!
Maker’s Caramel is made from premium 2-row barley.
After a long cool germination we stew this malt in its own juices at mashing temperature. This process starts the conversion of starches into sugars. We then ramp up the kiln to darken the malt and promote Maillard reactions. The end result is a malt with sweetness in the honey and caramel ranges.
Maker’s Caramel is made from premium 2-row barley.
After a long cool germination we stew this malt in its own juices at mashing temperature. This process starts the conversion of starches into sugars. We then ramp up the kiln to darken the malt and promote Maillard reactions with significant heat compared to our lighter Caramels. The end result is a malt with dark sweetness in the caramel and molasses realms.
Maker’s Dark is beautifully balanced between malty caramel sweetness and roasted burnt bitterness. Our distinctive kilning recipe takes the heat way up past 250 F imparting significant flavour. The malt will contribute colour and notes in the coffee and chocolate spectrums.
Maker’s Midnight is made from premium 2-row barley.
Midnight is what happens when you max out your kiln and walk away for a few hours. There is a beautiful note of dark fruit reminiscent of a dark red Bordeaux that we believe is accentuated by our extremely unique process. The malt will also contribute chocolate and move into the roasted spectrum. At first glance this malt looks mild, but come to the dark side with caution…
Wheeler Wheat uniquely uses Hard Red Spring Wheat (HRSW) rather than soft white wheat.
Our land has a long legacy of growing HRSW. In 1911 Rosthern’s own Seager Wheeler won first prize for best North American Hard Spring Wheat taking home the prize of 1000 gold coins from the Canadian Pacific Railway. Between 1911-1918 five separate entries won World Wheat Competitions and Seager became known as the “Wheat King of the prairies”. HRSW is still known world-wide for its premium qualities and the Sask Valley grows some of the best HRSW in the world.
We search high and low each year to find a pristine sample of white wheat to malt. The variety of our first batch was AC Andrew and it was grown by Charabin Seed Farm. I loaded up our White Tandem and headed west on a crisp December day. Funny how old Tandems don’t like -40 C…I had a stuck accelerator cable and frozen air brakes before I had even crossed the North Saskatchewan. A bit of rigging got me to Charabin where I not only loaded up white wheat, but was helped to a fantastic chili lunch with a crew of 10 from the local snowmobile club. They had draught beer on tap from The Armoury in North Battleford and I later found it that the batch they were drinking was made from Maker’s Malt! They also threw a heater on my air brakes so I could make it home without relying on the pen I had stuck in the release to hold out…what a beauty of a stop! In more recent years we’ve worked with Antler Valley Farms in Alberta and the tradition of interesting road trips continues!
This Organic Rye is grown by the Regier family of Hestia Farms in Tiefengrund (between Laird and the historical Fort Carlton). Their home quarter is only 2 miles from our most northwest fields. When the Mennonites emigrated from Russia under threat of the Bolsehviks, they were looking for soil that could live up to the vast Steppes of the Ukraine and western Russia and found it here. This is Rye straight from God’s country!
Maker’s has partnered with MGM Seed and Grain on this product. MGM provides: “Oats from the heart of the Canadian prairies, processed at a state-of-the-art gluten free oat mill.” The oats are identity preserved from the farmer’s field all the way through the processing facility. The high quality of the oats is obvious upon inspection and typical uses include high end food products (such as Clif Bars).