REGINA – It looks like beer and tastes like beer but it’s a beer with a difference. And it’s on tap at a Regina brew pub.
Scott Robertson, brewmaster at Bushwakker Brewing Co., has made organic beer. The 170 tonnes of barley malt used in the first batch of Stubblejumper Pilsner was grown on certified organic land.
Organic malt is about 20 percent more expensive than regular, and the organic hops are two to three times more expensive, Robertson said. But the potential market is great.
Dennis Amon of Regina, a Bushwakker customer, chose Stubblejumper over the regular brew and said he’s willing to pay more for an organic beer.
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“It’s worth it. I think people would go for (an environmentally friendly product).”
Robertson said the first 800-litre tank of beer (about 1,400 pints) should last two to three weeks. Customer response will determine if another batch is made.
The partners involved in developing the beverage hope it will appeal to environmentally conscious drinkers.
Bioriginal Food and Science Corp. of Saskatoon asked Robertson to make the new brew using pale two-row Harrington barley grown in Saskatchewan and processed by Prairie Malt of Biggar. After the barley is malted, it’s taken to Great Western Brewery and Dairy Producers for further processing.
Bioriginal is a joint venture of Saskatchewan Wheat Pool, Saskatchewan Crown Investment Corp., Organico, PGE Canada and Nuvotech Ventures International.
Sweetener already produced
Rick Kulow, Bioriginal president, said the idea for organic beer came from the company’s organic malt barley sweetener, which has been selling for about three years and is used in organic cereals, crackers and cookies.
Kulow said numbers from the ongoing taste test indicated more people preferred organic over regular beer, but some couldn’t tell the difference.
He said brew pubs in Washington, Colorado and Texas are interested in giving organic beer a try.
The idea for adding more value to malt grew out of the popularity of micro-breweries and home-brewing.
“The micro-brewery market is tough because organic barley is not a high value-added product,” Kulow said. However, the extract required for home-brewing is higher value-added.
Market testing of the extract is now in preliminary stages.
