Calgary's beer scene is about to get a little bigger.
The Calgary Herald reported late last week (thanks to Chad for drawing my attention to the story!) that a new microbrewery is about to open in southeast Calgary. The men behind it include two former Big Rock heavies – former VP Jim Button and former CFO TIm Duffin – and Allan Merlo and Rob Bondi, who the story says are owners of a brewing equipment company (a cursory Google search came up empty).
The brewery will be called The Village Brewery, and they say the first beer will be ready late fall (which is odd given the photo in the story has them pouring over plans in an empty warehouse). From the story, it seems they will be tap-only at first, with growlers sold out of a tasting room at the brewery. It looks like the brew system is about 20 hectolitres. They promise a downtown storefront in a couple of years. No word on bottling.
What can we expect from the beer? Obviously that is hard to tell right now, but there are a few clues. The initial beer will be a blonde ale, and Button says the plan is for a couple of “mainstay” products but with supplemental beers that are “more creative”. I had dealings with Button when he was at Big Rock and I can say he did know a thing or two about beer, and was always accessible and easy to deal with. I imagine he learned a few things about running a beer business when he was there.
My guess is that Village may follow a bit of a Big Rock route – offer some more accessible anchors to draw in a broader range of customers, but then offer some seasonals and rotating beer that offer more adventurous styles. We can debate how much Big Rock does that today – but that certainly was their model in the early years.
One odd thing in the story is the refusal to name the brewmaster, who apparently has 40 years of experience. It is particularly odd since the brew system was purchased by the brewmaster BEFORE they hooked up with Button et al. I suspect said brewmaster was going to open their own brewery but ran out of cash. But why not put them front and centre? If they are a name we know, it might add credibility to the brewery and their beer. It certainly adds an interesting human dimension to the story.
I guess I, along with the rest of you, will need to sit tight and see what transpires over the coming months. I don’t get to Calgary much these days, so if any of you down there hear anything more, let us all know. I trust there are thousands (hundreds? dozens?) of onbeer.org readers who want to know more.
September 21, 2011 at 1:48 PM
I read that article a few days ago. Great to see the market expanding, but I want to see it IMPROVING too. Will have to wait and see…
September 22, 2011 at 2:27 AM
All these articles have caused me great amusement. A brewhouse not installed yet but beer in less than three months time. It is funny beer isn’t made as fast as marketing people come with ideas. Mechanical has to be in place, inspections have to be passed, then another 4 weeks at least for beer to be made. Baring no mechanical mishaps I guess at earliest late December but probably first quarter of the new year for beer.
As to your assumptions on a brewer running out of money Jason they are wrong. Jim Button has been involved from the get go on this project and I have know about it for a couple years now. A couple peoples educated guesses are they are hiring Jim Anderson (formerly of Carling/Molson’s/Sam Adam’s/Wild Wood)
Here is FFwd’s take on the brewery.http://www.ffwdweekly.com/article/life-style/booze/it-takes-a-village-to-raise-a-brewery-8088/
Notice that they forget Brew Brother’s in the piece.
September 22, 2011 at 4:10 PM
Thanks for the additional insight, Hoser. The article did clearly indicate that the brewmaster owned the equipment when they and Button connected. I guess the reporter got it wrong. I try not to be too hard on reporters’ mistakes, because Gambrinus knows I have made my share of them in my own reportage.
September 22, 2011 at 3:23 PM
It isn’t that hard to forget about Brew Brother’s these days… I have nothing against them, in fact I really don’t know much about them at all, as they don’t really show up on anyone’s radar. Just checked their website (first time in years), looks like they have about a dozen draft accounts… for a brewery that is almost 10 years old, they seem to be contracting, not expanding, which is hard to fathom in given the current conditions in the craft beer market.
September 25, 2011 at 1:17 PM
I think it would be great to have Jim Anderson commercially brewing locally again, if those educated guesses do bear fruit in that direction.
September 27, 2011 at 10:41 PM
Hey guys, Jim Button here. Thought I would help answer some questions.
Yes, I’m the marketing guy and yes I am saying late fall for beer….and by George we are busting our butts trying to meet this guess. To be honest, I think we will be close. Our biggest snag was getting the building permit – if we didn’t hit that snag then we would for sure have beer in our hands today. That being said, we were busy preparing other elements so that we didn’t get too far behind.
But, and this isn’t the excuse part – yet, but, we won’t compromise, so if we are late, so be it…better late than never.
Hope to have you down for a glass at some point and I can tell you about all the little things we keep learning.
Having fun though. Lots of it.
Cheers
Jim
October 2, 2011 at 10:55 PM
Hi I stumbled upon your blog today. Very interesting stuff! A group of my peers, all chefs from Calgary have started a beer tasting “club”. We meet once a week, to taste craft and international beers. We have recently started a website with mainly reviews of the beers we have tried. I was hoping you could put a link to it on your page, and we could do the same for you. cheers, Ryan
October 5, 2011 at 10:41 PM
No one will see this but Larry Kerwin is the brewer at Village Brewery. Sad really, really sad, expect ordinary beer and lots of marketing.
October 14, 2011 at 8:13 PM
Hey Hoser.
Don’t just a book by it’s cover without fully understanding what is inside…give me a call and I’ll walk you through the reasons why I disagree with your position.
And if you want to debate the conversation online I am also happy to do so here.
Either way, I disagree and truly believe that someone that is taking a risk on starting his own brewery at the ripe age of his 60’s may possibly be doing it so that he can finally get a chance to exercise his passion for beer without the shackles of a bigger enterprise.
Open to having the conversation when you are.
Cheers,
Jim
January 26, 2014 at 9:03 PM
Happened upon this blog post today and had some fun reading it. Just need to say one thing: we had beer in two pubs on December 21st, 2011…so yup, we made it as predicted.
Two years later things seem to be chuggin along.