In my evaluation of the recent AGLC changes around beer production policy (which you can read here), I mentioned in passing a couple of breweries who have successfully gained their license, but have not yet opened up for business. One of those operations is Troubled Monk out of Red Deer (no website yet, but they do have a Twitter thing, @TroubledMonk). They have not released their logo yet (hence the goofy city logo).

Troubled Monk is the brainchild of brothers Charlie and Graeme Bredo, two Red Deer denizens who have spotted a growing desire for craft beer in the central Alberta city. I spoke with Charlie last week about their plans. He is owner of a green power retailer in central Alberta and the brothers have been brewing “on and off” for about 12 years. Their initial plan last spring was to open up as a nano-brewery. They set up a tiny 50-litre system in one of the bays of Charlie’s residential garage. It was that system that got the AGLC license. They began testing recipes with a plan to start “one-keg at a time”, says Bredo, and then expand a year or two later. (Full disclosure: back in the spring the Bredos asked me to try some of their test batches and offer feedback on ingredients, process and design to tweak the recipes.)

But as they did more research, they started to second guess that plan. They went back to the drawing board and decided to make the jump to a full-scale micro immediately. “We thought we better do this right the first time,’ says Bredo. “We were concerned about consistency and repeatability on such a small system. Plus we wanted to create some buzz, and for that it was better to have a location”. So instead they purchased a 17 hl system with four fermenters and a bright tank, scheduled for delivery at the end of March. They have recently hired a brewer, who will start in the spring. With luck the first batches of beer will be rolling out of the brewery by the early summer.

An Older Troubled Monk Design. Newer branding TBA.

In an interesting twist, they are planning on packaging in cans (as well as growlers and kegs), making them the third craft brewer in Alberta (and second in Red Deer!) to go that route exclusively.

They are still playing with the beer recipes, but they want their beer to be approachable and well-suited for the Red Deer market. “We want to sell beer that people want to drink,” says Bredo. “Our plan is to start with three: a quality, lighter-end wheat ale, blonde ale; something in the middle, a pale ale with great hop aroma but still approachable; and then a brown ale or something darker”.

The pale ale, the expected flagship, has a provisional name – Pesky Pig Pale Ale – honouring Francis the Pig who is famous around Red Deer for his brazen escape from the local slaughterhouse and eluding capture for many months back in 1990. Charlie describes the goal of the beer as having “India Session Ale qualities with big hop aroma and flavour but going a bit easier on the bitterness”.

With a name like Troubled Monk, you might forgive people at getting confused, thinking they were specializing in Belgian-style ales. Bredo acknowledges there is some of that among craft beer afficionados. “A lot of beer people are saying you are going to make Belgian beer. But we are not concerned. The average guy is our target market and most people don’t know what a Belgian beer is”.

Instead, the name is inspired by a commitment to mix old and new approaches. “The troubled monk is committed deep down to tradition, but wants to take a different approach. He wants to give beer to the people, sometimes try new things”. Bredo says that conflict is the vision behind the brewery. “We are merging the traditions of the monks brewing beer and their history with the new world craft beer. Different ingredients, hops, etc. Old World monk. New World approaches.”

Despite already possessing a production  license, a few hurdles remain before the brewery can get going, including land re-zoning on their 4000-sq.ft. brewery location in the Riverlands district of the city. Despite being small, Bredo raves about how quickly the craft beer community is gelling in Red Deer. “Kevin Wood (of Red Deer’s other brewery, Something Brewing/Drummond) showed up at the zoning public hearing and spoke in support of our application, even though we hadn’t even asked him to”.

Bredo credits the AGLC policy changes to getting them going “They were huge. They let us buy the small system and ‘be’ a brewery”. However, he said the license is only one piece. “Getting the license was easy, but you still don’t have a real business at that point. [The rule changes] got us interesting and serious, but we evolved from there. It is still going to cost upward of a million dollars to get going.”

What keeps them going despite the hurdles? “It starts with a love of craft beer. You brew and think it would be nice to this more. Combine that with a love of entrepeneurship. I like starting new things. I am always looking for new opportunity”. It is the potential that keeps him moving each day.

And hopefully one day soon, the troubled monk can stop being troubled about zoning and renovations and equipment and start troubling himself with brewing up some good beer.