Page 63 - InvestAlberta-EDA-2025

Launching a distillery requires substantial upfront
capital. With the need for extensive storage and years of
aging, it’s no easy feat — but Ranu is convinced the long-
term returns are worth it.
Alberta’s climate, with its balance of warm days and
optimal rainfall, is ideal for grain production. He also
sees potential for unique flavour profiles created by
Albertan peat bogs, including the 20 acres of peat found
on his farm. Eventually, he’d like to harvest peat, smoke
it and use it to infuse flavour in the malted barley; the
resulting whiskey will have unique notes from whatever
plant material decomposed in that bog thousands of
years ago.
Ranu also highlights Alberta’s well-developed
grain-processing infrastructure, which is key to achieving
consistently high-quality outputs. Some of the grains from
other parts of the world have debris. “But the stuff we get
from Alberta is pristine; we just have the infrastructure for
it, we have the technology for it,” he says.
David Friesen, co-owner of Mackenzie Oat Millers in La
Crete, a hamlet in northern Alberta, shares Ranu’s optimism.
Friesen’s facility, the only mill of its kind in Alberta,
produces top-tier organic oats for gluten-free and health-
conscious markets and are among the finest in the world.
He says oats are a “super food” loaded with vitamins,
minerals and antioxidants and widely used as a dairy-milk
or gluten-free replacement. There is a huge international
market for these items.
He sells 97 per cent of his oats to the United States,
where demand for dairy alternatives and gluten-free
products is skyrocketing. He also works with about 60
small-scale local farmers to ensure they produce the
highest quality organic oats possible.
Matt Hamill of Red Shed Malting is focused on the high
quality of Alberta grain. He grows barley, wheat and rye, to
create malt for craft beer and whiskey.
Hamill has seen significant growth in demand
since Alberta optimized production frameworks to
enhance efficiency and eased regulatory restrictions.
Olds College in central Alberta has contributed
to this growth locally by training skilled brewers
through its brewmaster program, bolstering local
talent and further fueling the province’s brewing and
distilling ecosystem.
In addition to skilled labour, Alberta offers
infrastructure already in place to drive innovation. For
example, the barley breeding program with Western
Crop Innovations in Lacombe, 123 kilometres south of
Edmonton, has resulted in Canada’s first non-glycosidic
nitrile (non-GN) malt barley. This is significant because
the malting process can introduce a precursor for
ethyl carbamate, which is a carcinogen. Levels of ethyl
carbamate are regulated, but completely eliminating it
is a huge benefit.
All of those different groups — seed growers,
millers, maltsters, brewers, distillers — are important
to this collaborative industry, says Hamill. For example,
without seed growers and millers, distillers wouldn’t
have the raw material they need to create their world
class whiskeys.
Alberta’s craft breweries and distilleries are also
contributing to the province’s tourism potential,
especially in cities where multiple businesses cluster.
It’s about community building and putting Alberta
where it should be on the map. Ranu, Friesen and
Hamill all hope once more success stories come
forward, more entrepreneurs will be added to the mix.
When they do, Ranu says, he’ll teach them
everything he knows, “because I want whatever is
coming out of the province to be first-class stuff.”
“BUT THE STUFF WE GET FROM
ALBERTA IS PRISTINE; WE JUST
HAVE THE INFRASTRUCTURE
FOR IT, WE HAVE THE
TECHNOLOGY FOR IT.”
— GURPREET RANU, OWNER OF ANOHKA DISTILLERY
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