Deteriorating harvest conditions are creating anxiety for Prairie Malt
Ltd., currently in the market for 2,000 tonnes of low-protein AC
Crystal wheat.
Jack Foster, director of barley procurement for the Biggar, Sask.,
plant, said he needs wheat with less than 13 percent protein levels to
make wheat malt.
It will be used in a small specialty beer market, with products offered
seasonally at events like Octoberfest in Europe.
Foster hopes to find the wheat in Saskatchewan, but will take it from
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other provinces.
“Beggars can’t be choosers,” he said.
The order is already into the Canadian Wheat Board.
Dry conditions last year produced crops with high protein levels, a
situation expected to repeat itself this year.
“The crops are pretty beat up,” he said. “It’s discouraging.”
Prairie Malt will continue to look beyond October if necessary to fill
its customer’s order by April.
The company was contracted to produce the wheat malt for the next three
years. It was first asked to produce it in January, but it took until
April to find 550 tonnes of the wheat it needed, said Foster.
“Once we found the right wheat, we made a good quality malt.”
Foster said it’s a more labour intensive and costly process than for
traditional barley malts.
It requires more micro-malting, careful monitoring and constant
adjustments, particularly in its germination and conversion from starch
to sugar. There are also differences in water uptake in wheat, which
has a bran instead of the traditional malt barley’s husk.
“There’s a lot of trial and error,” he said.
Mistakes can be costly because unsuitable malt can be sold only as feed.
Foster said wheat beer has a different taste than the barley ones,
richer in flavour with less foam.
