The first craft malt house in Atlantic Canada is taking shape in the form of a building with pagoda-like architectural features along a busy stretch of Hwy. 101 near Wolfville, N.S.
The unusual-looking building, which will house the product that’s used to make beer and whiskey, is owned by grain farmer Alan Stewart and is only one of about 100 craft malt houses across North America in a "very new industry" aiming to serve the 3,500 or so craft breweries and distilleries in Canada and the U.S.
What sets Stewart’s malt business, Horton Ridge Malt & Grain Co. Ltd., apart from conventional malting plants is that Stewart is using a centuries-old manner: malting the grain on a floor. Today, most mass-production malting is done in facilities using large containers.
"Floor malt is considered a better product because the malster can easily touch, feel and manipulate malt spread across a floor," he says.
But Stewart will need space for the operation, and a lot of it. His wood-frame building will feature a 24-by-64-foot concrete floor to accommodate four tonnes of malt at a time.
It takes seven days to transform kernels of grain from a farmer’s field into malt — essentially a process of facilitating the conversion of starch in grains to sugar required for fermentation to alcohol.
The grain is soaked in water on and off for two days and then spread on the floor for four days. It is kept at relatively cool temperatures while the modification from starch to sugar occurs, says Stewart. It is then dried for a day and ready to be shipped as malt to a brewery or distillery.
Stewart’s building will look more like a traditional centuries-old Scottish distillery than a modern malting plant. The structure will take on a pagoda-shaped roof capped with a cupola. A century ago when there was no forced air heating, this shape was common in Scotland because it allowed natural drafts to run through the building, helping to dry the malt. Since the advent of forced air heating, the natural drying process was redundant but distilleries today in Scotland have continued with the architectural tradition.
Further rationale for choosing a pagoda shape was that Stewart’s metal sided building could end up looking like a "tin can" if a conventional form was constructed.
The 40-by-80-foot main structure consists of 2-by-6 vertical studs strapped with 2-by-4’s. The seven-inch exterior wall cavity is filled with open-cell spray foam, achieving an R-28 energy rating. The building has two floors (including a 12-foot high basement) because it is built on a 10-per-cent slope. It is 40 feet tall from the low side.
"The site is such that it needed a tall building just to get the main building up and close to the street grade," Stewart explains.
The main floor will have an 18-inch wood truss floor system. The roof system from the eaves up is 20 feet high, he adds.
Siding is a copper-coloured sheet metal; the roof is 7/8-inch corrugated metal. Stewart did much of the construction himself with the assistance of Styl Construction, a neighbour who was instrumental in coming up with a workable pagoda-shaped design.
The cost of getting the building to the malt production stage is about $600,000. Additional costs will go towards equipment and a retail store, says Stewart, noting he will be constructing metal steep tanks and a malt kiln himself.
The project is being done under a Community Economic Development Investment Fund, a provincial program that allows companies like Stewart’s to be set up as a community economic development corporation offering investment shares to the public.
Stewart says he will start by marketing the organic malt to small organic breweries in the province and expand from there. He also will target home brewers.
"We’re not selling them large quantities of malt but we’re selling at better margins than we can to breweries," he says.
The business will open this spring.
Recent Comments
comments for this post are closed