“We wanted to do something to propel the industry forward,” explains Charlie Bredo, cofounder and president of Troubled Monk brewery. “Alberta is very proud of its barley, but we don’t do enough to pump up our own tires.”
Troubled Monk is located in Red Deer, Alberta, a city of only 100,000 people in the heart of Canada’s barley belt. In 2016, Troubled Monk won a medal at the World Beer Cup for its malt-forward Open Road American Brown Ale, so they know a thing or two about showcasing malt through beer.
Barley Throwdown
“People understand how terroir affects wine, hops, and even coffee, but how terroir affects barley hasn’t really been explored,” says Bredo of the motivation behind Troubled Monk’s “Battle of Alberta Barley” project, which involved brewing the same beer three times, each with the same type of barley, but grown in three different regions of Alberta.