Darryn Shewchuk says making beer is far more difficult than most people imagine.
But for owner and brewmaster Bart Larson, it came naturally. “It’s like anything he says,” from the boardroom of Mt. Begbie’s new facility, which opened last year. “You just have an interest. And it started as a hobby.”
Larson started the brewery in 1996, and this year saw Mt. Begbie take home a number of awards. Among them were two golds and a bronze as well as brewery of the year at the Canadian Brewery Awards in Ottawa.
In December, Mt. Begbie Brewing opened its new tasting room, and after a holiday hiatus the facility up in Johnson Heights is running at full speed.
It’s exciting for director of sales and marketing Shewchuk and brewmaster Larson, who are looking forward to seeing new visitors and old friends alike walk through the doors and taste some of their award winning beer.
“It’s just opened recently, right now we have nine of our beers on tap and we will soon have some of our experimental brews coming out,” said Shewchuk. “Those will be small batches that we do to see whether they will work for future products and those will only be available on tap here.”
Although the focus, Shewchuk says, is really on the beer, Mt. Begbie will also be offering food following their acquisition of a new chef, who has put together a menu that includes tapas and upscale pub food. However be aware: they do have cider and wine for those gluten sensitive.
Shewchuk says that the new facility has been a pleasure to work in and given Mt. Begbie access to all kinds of technology that similar breweries of its size are not using. Like a state of the art hop gun.
“They are small things that really make a huge difference,” said Shewchuk.
Mt. Begbie has no official events planned, but expect to see them hosting corporate groups, locals and tourists up at the facility, and participating in local community events around town.
Stay tuned for a video covering some of what goes into putting out the beer every week and an update on the new tasting room.
