Hard Hels Hops & Hop Farm
Beer hops grown on our family farm in Red Deer, Alberta.
About Hard Hels Hops
Hard Hels Hops is owned and run by Colin and Jaclyn Smith with help from their kids, friends, family and the amazing craft beer community in Red Deer, Alberta. When the first Hard Hels Hops were planted in 2018, it was the realisation of a dream. Hard Hels Hops is the first commercially-grown hop farm in Red Deer, and we are proud to be supplying our hops to local breweries and beyond.
About the Hop Farm
Not only are our hops epic (because they make great beer), but they look epic. Each of our plants is strung from 19 foot steel towers which have been proudly repurposed. These eye-catching T-shaped steel poles are unique to us and are used in the place of a traditional wood grid system used by hop growers around the world.
In September 2019, the first Hard Hels Hops harvest was a huge success for all our varieties - the local craft beer community rallied, and good times were had with good beers. A batch of our wet hops went straight into a collaboration beer with Red Shed Malting and Red Hart Brewing, which was welcomed with line-ups and one of their biggest nights at the brewery, ever!
In the 2020 season, we are growing seven varieties on our 1.5 acre plot. We are also introducing the option to purchase pelletized hops.
We’d like to say a special thank you to our fellow craft beer lovers, family and friends. We couldn’t do this without your help.
Visiting the Hop Farm
This year we’re excited to announce that we will be opening the hop farm to visitors. Our working hop farm is also our home, so please get in touch with us if you’d like to stop by. We’ve built a brand new bar stocked full of local craft beer - the Barley Bin - and a cosy outdoor seating area in the hop yard. We are continuing to expand so that in 2021 we will be offering the hop yard as a wedding venue.
Grown with love on Smith and Steele Farms.
Hard Hels Hops is located on land that has been farmed by the Steele family since 1986. Primed with generations of knowledge from both the Smith and Steele family’s, this land has been cultivated with care using techniques to retain the quality, fertile soil that grows our hops.
The hop yard tucked amongst the canola fields of our family farm.
Our name.
We are often asked what ‘Hard Hels’ means. Well, we named our hop venture after two legends: Harold and Helen. And this is their story (the very short version anyway). When Harold’s father Norman (Jacyln’s great grandfather) travelled from England to Canada in 1911, his reason for landing was noted as ‘farming’, and thus the Steele family farming legacy begun.
Norman travelled west to be a rancher and met his love Lola along the way. They eventually settled in Red Deer and started a family. When Harold was 9 years old in 1933, the family had financial issues and were forced off their land. Norman and Lola took their two boys into the hills to settle on Crown land. They pulled two grain bins together as a makeshift home. Harold and his brother used to sleep outside in a tent.
Times were tough for Harold growing up. Nothing was ever wasted or thrown away. We carry this through in everything we do today at Hard Hels Hops. Nearly everything on the farm is salvaged, repurposed and reused. Most of our equipment has been passed on to us from family and friends.
When Harold met Helen.
Harold and Helen met at a community dance (the good old days!) and in 1951 they were married. Helen’s upbringing was very different to Harold’s - she came from a prosperous family, and their wedding gift was a half section of land. They moved into the original farmhouse across the road from Hard Hels Hops.
They didn’t have a good run when they started farming but they stuck it out. They were resilient and they were stubborn. They were hard-working and they were generous. In the 70’s the farm boomed, they bought new equipment and continued to expand. Their son Neil (Jaclyn’s dad) bought his first piece of land in 1983. It wasn’t until 1986 that Harold and Helen bought the land where Hard Hels Hops is now located.
So that, in a nutshell, is why we are called Hard Hels Hops. We are grateful for the opportunity to build our dream here on the family farm, and none of this would be possible without them.
We raise a glass [of craft beer] to them.
In loving memory of our hop dog Dawson.