Mashing of milled malt grains for preparing malt. © Can Stock Photo / SerhiiBobykMashing of milled malt grains for preparing malt. © Can Stock Photo / SerhiiBobyk
Sarnia

Microbrewery makes 'farmers only' pitch in effort to unload spent grain

A Sarnia microbrewery wants to team-up with a local farmer to re-purpose spent grains from its brewing process.

Refined Fool Owner and Director Brandon Huybers said cattle and pig farms are the best landing spots.

"It's kind of a win for both sides," Huybers said. "They get a bunch of fresh, nutrient-rich feed for their cattle or pigs and we get to keep brewing because we need to do something with all that spent grains, so it works out well."

Huybers said the brewing company has been overrun with inquiries since sharing a 'FARMER WANTED' post to Facebook Tuesday morning.  He said he's already talked to an army of awesome farmers and that he woke up on Wednesday to about 20 more emails.

"They need to be fairly close proximity wise. Other than that, if they're reliable and consistent, that's kind of the two main characteristics we need to make sure the grains are leaving the site each day," he said. "If they can learn a complex handshake, that helps too -- you know, let them know we're in tight."

Huybers said they already have some really good options, so it won't be an issue finding a replacement.  He said they've worked with the same farmer for about seven years now.

"It's been a really good relationship, he's been consistent and he's worked with us on all of our growth. But he's actually switching over to a new feed and he gave us a bit of a heads up, so we have about a two to three month window to try and find someone new to fill his shoes."

Huybers said they need to unload about 5,000 to 7,000 kilograms of grain a week.  He added that they brew about 3,500 litres every weekday and that they have plans to expand.

"We've actually got another six tanks arriving, hopefully, by the end of August, and those are going to add about 10,000 extra litres of capacity to our current tanks, which will be nice."

Huybers said they currently have 17 tanks at the Davis Street location for roughly 30,000 litres of capacity.

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