A family-owned Red Deer County business won three medals at the 2025 Malt Cup .
Red Shed Malting earned a gold in the Pilsen category, silver in the Pale Malt category and another silver in the Unique Malt category in the international competition for malting quality. It was the only Canadian business to earn a medal in 2025.
"We couldn't be more excited. It's huge for us," said Matt Hamill, maltster at Red Shed Malting.
The Craft Maltsters Guild established the Malt Cup in 2019 to serve as an industry standard for malthouses of all sizes around the world. The international event aims to empower maltsters with valuable analytical and sensory feedback on their malts.
This year’s Malt Cup featured eight categories, with 112 different entries coming from 34 malthouses from seven countries. Malt Cup entries are scored in three rounds and, this year, judged by 97 judges across 14 locations in a process facilitated by the Montana State University’s Barley, Malt and Brewing Quality Lab.
"To get the nod from some good judges was really encouraging," said Hamill.
"We've been in touch with the Craft Maltsters Guild since we started — we've officially been members for a few years now. ... It was just in the last couple years that we started submitting our own products for this competition. We're super excited to pick up some awards."
Red Shed Malting has been running for about 10 years and is set up on the Hamill family farm.
"We take grain from the farm and process it into an ingredient for brewers and distillers. Most of what we're selling is right here in Alberta, but we also ship right across Canada," Hamill explained.
"The awards we won were important ones for our business. They were some of the malts we recommend for craft brewers — people who are using all malts and not using adjuncts like corn or rice. We've spent a lot of time trying to find the right variety of barley to use and dialing in our techniques. For it to all come together was really encouraging and something we're incredibly excited about."
The full list of winners can be found at www.craftmalting.com/2025-malt-cup.
