Once they tied their beers to Skagit Valley Malting, they looked for ways to highlight the unique flavor of the Valley. For Barnett, creating a beer using a single premier malt was the best way to share the taste of the Skagit Valley with customers and beer aficionados. So, he created Skagit Valley Blonde Ale, using Skagit Valley Malting’s exploratory variety the NZ-151 barley (a two-row spring variety bred by the breeders over at the Washington State University Bread Lab, which is next door to the malthouse).