Interra | Food processing under the microscope

Proud Maskoutain, Jonathan Robin jumped at the opportunity to showcase the know-how of the Saint-Hyacinthe region when he learned of the Tourism Industry Recovery Assistance Program in 2021. A little more than three years later, the president of the agro-biotech Station opened the doors to Interra, an immersive and fun journey which aims to demystify food processing processes.

“The Quebec government arrived with a subsidy program for innovative projects in the field of tourism. I wondered what we could do here in Saint-Hyacinthe that would be accessible in all seasons, recalls the entrepreneur. I told myself that it would be fun, an immersive journey that would inform people who come here to find out what a food technopolis is. I wanted something that was young, dynamic, and that would appeal to both my 14-year-old daughters and the dean of the faculty of veterinary medicine. »

It took us almost three years to develop the 6.5 million project, which benefited from a 3 million subsidy – we moved the Station agro-biotech offices to a new section on the third floor to be able to create a route on the ground floor.

Interra is thus located in the industrial building which houses the immense vats of the Bilboquet microbrewery, the stills of the Noroi distillery and the state-of-the-art installations of Trema, a brand new latte in a can. But once inside the immersive journey, we are careful not to highlight the commercial operations of the agro-biotech Station; of course, we are there to learn how fermentation and distillation work, the two processes at the source of beer and spirits, but there is no mention of the products produced in the adjoining premises.

To all honor, those interested can add a discovery package in the neighboring tasting room.

The site is divided into three sections: we first enter the one which deals with fermentation by approaching the history of the process in a fun way, in particular thanks to funny interactive capsules – we learn, for example, that certain primates are fond of fruit alcoholic by natural fermentation! At the heart of the course is the “kitchen”, an island where you are invited to virtually test the fermentation processes behind the production of beer, of course, but also yogurt, kombucha or even sauerkraut. In the section about the distillery, we are invited to assemble stills, from the simplest to the most complex; Elsewhere we explain the different applications of distillation, such as oil refining, while we enter the column of a giant still to watch a short explanatory film.

It is the people at Matièrs who developed the interactive Interra course, the same people who are behind the ilia experience, presented at the Cité de l’energie in Shawinigan, or the immersive show Fjord, by Yves P. Pelletier , which will be launched in April in Saguenay. “We wanted to do a major project, so we had to find a team capable of putting together something good; This is where we were put in contact with Matièrs, tells us Isabelle Leblanc, tourist establishment coordinator at the agro-biotech Station. So they have been there since day 1, because one of the big challenges was research, there was a lot to do and it was the people at Matièrs who did everything. »

The latter also led the creation of the multisensory film The epic graina work created in collaboration with Tom & Tom Design which is at the heart of the Interra experience. Thanks to particularly creative animation discoveries, the short film plunges us into the center of the fermentation process of a grain of barley, from its harvest to the pint of beer. “The film took eight months to make, for example we had to shoot during different seasons, but we first spent a good year thinking about the project,” Jonathan Robin tells us, specifying that other films could possibly be made. see the day. This is grain, but we could make another with milk, for example! »

Indeed, as Interra has given itself the mandate to promote Saint-Hyacinthe as an agri-food technopole, other sectors could one day be added to fermentation and distillation – a small section is also devoted to agricultural heritage of the city of Montérégie.

We hope to attract nearly 40,000 visitors per year, among the general public, business groups, corporate groups and conventioneers, of whom there are many in Saint-Hyacinthe. It can take between 45 minutes and 2 hours to tour the stations on the Interra route, depending on whether or not you choose to scan the QR codes which give access to additional content – ​​the colored codes are intended for children, which we dedicated to a “young shoots” course.

Visit the Interra website