Turner Valley distillery wins big at global competition with 'the quintessential Alberta grain'

A southern Alberta craft distillery which launched just three years ago is crediting barley for its success after winning big at an international competition.

"We use barley as our main thing because we believe that is the quintessential grain for Alberta," Eau Claire Distillery owner David Farran told The Homestretch this week.

"While it is slightly more expensive in terms of efficiency, it is way,way more flavourful."

The Turner Valley distillerypicked up three awardsat theWorld Spirits Competitionin San Francisco in late April.

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Farran's flavoured vodka took a gold medal in the competition which draws thousands of entrants.

"There's a lot of flavoured vodkas out there," Farran said.

"We do one that is very unique. We make it out of Alberta barley and we use prickly pear cactus which is a cactus that grows in southeastern Alberta. It gives it a really unique flavour. It's rare to make it out of barley and it's super rare, I think it's the first time ever, that anybody has distilled it with prickly pear."

Eau Claire's parlour gin took bronze that was chosen ina blind taste test that Farran says is noteworthy.

"Probably morethrilling for us is we won the consumer choice award in the sip awards this year. It's 1,800 people blind-tested across the United States and they chose our gin as their favourite,"Farransaid.

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"There are thousands of entries. You are competing with some very well established and big brands but out of our little distillery in Turner Valley, we seem to be turning out some pretty good stuff."

As the first independent craft distillery,Farransays he's hoping for a revolution similar to another craft product in the province.

"Craft distilling is brand new in this province. It has given us the push to make sure we create flavours that you are just not used to on the market," he said.

"You think about what happened to craft beer 30 years ago. The same thing is starting to happen with craft distilleries."

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With files from The Homestretch