Those were the words spoken to Michael Friesen, head brewer at The Patch Brewery in Maple Ridge, by a fellow brewer shortly before their grand opening in August 2024. One year later, as the brewery celebrates its first anniversary, that brewer’s words seem prophetic. I sat down with Michael and co-owner Rebecca Laity to chat about The Patch’s first year and plans for the future.

A Slow Burn: Opening a Farm-Based Family Brewery

Rumours of The Patch were circulating years before their opening day. As other farm brewery owners will understand only too well, the bureaucratic hurdles required to open The Patch were substantial. 

The Laity family has lived and run businesses in the area for generations. However, it wasn’t until around 2017 that brothers Doug and Jeff Laity, along with their wives Kaitlyn and Rebecca, considered the possibility of a farm brewery.  The hard work that Persephone Brewing in Gibsons did to change the laws around agricultural land use inspired them. “We have this land, we could start a brewery!” Rebecca remembers the family thinking.  

It didn’t happen right away. They planted barley and hops and hired an architect to design the brewery buildings, but had to contract-brew out of Taylight and Locality while they slowly hacked away at bureaucratic red tape. At last, in summer 2024, they received final approval for opening their brewery. 

This delay wasn’t all negative, though. Rebecca recalls how those years of planning revealed the welcoming and collegial nature of the craft beer community. She and Jeff visited almost every brewery in the lower mainland – and others overseas – and at each one, Jeff would try to talk to the owner. “Everyone was so open and collaborative,” Rebecca says. “They were all willing to help us out.”

A Year of Challenges and Celebrations

Once The Patch opened its doors, that prediction about a tsunami of people came true. The huge outdoor patio space that welcomes children and dogs, combined with a solid taplist and delicious pizzas, immediately drew in the crowds. On busy weekends, parking attendants were on duty to facilitate the flow of traffic. Speaking as a regular brewery patron myself, I’ve rarely seen this kind of popularity. The Patch must be doing something right.

A large customer base is great, but every benefit has its drawbacks. “There were non-stop adjustments, and staffing was one of our biggest challenges,” Rebecca says. “We had to hire 50 additional staff within the first week of opening.” And the hiring has continued – along with the additional work required for staff training. The hundreds of customer seats available mean that they need more staff if they want to optimize their space. 

Providing efficient customer service as they welcome people in is another priority. The brewery’s popularity required a waitlist system almost immediately. Rebecca remembers that they began with a handwritten waitlist, then moved to a texting system, and now they use an online program. Customers can now add themselves to the waitlist while they’re still at home and check their spot before they head out. It’s been a game-changer.

Once patrons were inside the brewery, there were other difficulties to sort out. The flow of customers from counter to table – and the different options, like table service or counter service – has gone through several iterations. Rebecca acknowledges that this can be frustrating for repeat customers, who may have experienced different “rules” during different visits. It’s also difficult for staff. However, they’ve now found a good balance, and they plan to stick with it.

A final hurdle of their first exciting year was the beer supply. They were selling almost all of their beer directly to customers at the counter. This is great news for any brewery, but it meant that they didn’t have enough beer to fill the cans in their off-sales fridge. Increasing production within their existing brewhouse space required a skilled game of fermentation tank Tetris.  

What Makes The Patch Unique?

A craft brewery won’t find success just by brewing fantastic beer or having a trendy taproom. It needs to hit that perfect balance of high-quality beer (and food, if offered), a welcoming, community-oriented space, and staff who care about the customers. The Patch seems to have found that balance in their first year.

Head brewer Michael Friesen is passionate about this brewery and what it can offer to Maple Ridge. He’s designed the brewhouse for top efficiency, using large serving tanks rather than kegs for the front of house taps (trust me when I say this saves a great deal of time and hassle) and piping the lines underground to feed the taps in the little “Beer Barn” outside. He’s also crafted a taplist that embodies local flavours and histories within a range of beer styles that will appeal to the brewery’s broad demographic. 

It starts with a good lager. “Gotta have a good house lager,” he told me. A lager is a good litmus test for a brewery; you can’t hide any flaws. The Laity Lager is excellent. It’s crisp, clean, and approachable – not too “crafty” for the folks who are used to macro lagers, but a quality beer that craft beer nerds will appreciate. Another popular lager on tap is the 1879 Patch Pilsner, Michael’s twist on a Czech pilsner. It’s named after the year in which the Laity family settled in the region. To Michael, understanding both local history and beer history are crucial if you’re a brewer. “Brewers should have a core knowledge of traditional beer styles,” he says. “They have their foot planted in the past – they know the history. But they should also be aware of innovations happening in beer. Once you know what the rules are, then you can break them.” 

And he’s done a bit of breaking with the 1879 Patch Pilsner. Using imported European floor-malted barley, he puts the wort through an extra-long boil, ages it for three weeks in a foeder (a big wooden barrel), then krausens it to allow natural carbonation, then does a final dry hop. It’s served with a traditional Czech side-pull tap. The subtle vanilla and toffee notes drawn from the wood aging stop it from being a conventional Czech pilsner, but that’s part of its charm; this pilsner is the Laity version of the traditional Czech beer. 

Other core beers, like the Fat Tractor Hazy IPA and the Three Peaks West Coast IPA, evoke local landmarks and sights. Early in our conversation, Michael and Rebecca described the haze that settled over the fields in early August, when the barley was being harvested. I thought of that when I picked up a can of Fat Tractor and looked out the window to see the farm’s tractor sitting in the freshly shorn fields. The rotating taps, including the Sour Patch series and the hefeweizen, reflect seasonal aspects of the local landscape – berries, wheat fields, mountains. 

There are plenty of non-alcoholic options as well, including Phillips Brewing’s non-alcoholic beers, Ole mocktails, and lemonade, iced tea, and Italian sodas. However, one unique inclusion is their coffee bar – a big draw for tired parents who stop by when the brewery opens at 10 am. After discovering an amazing coffee shop on Vancouver Island, Drumroasters, the Laitys went into partnership with the owners. Drumroasters supplies their espresso machine and makes a special roast for The Patch based on Maple Ridge’s water chemistry. You can get anything from a drip coffee to flavoured lattes to matcha to cold brew to hot chocolate.

And finally – food! If you’re in the mood for more than something to sip on, The Patch has you covered with their new menu. While they started with pizza as their mainstay, they’ve expanded to include muffins and pastries, fried chicken, burgers (there are vegan options for these latter two), and salads. A large food truck out back expands their kitchen facilities and helps feed the hundreds of hungry patrons who enter their doors each day.

Looking to the Future

After one year of beautiful chaos and smashing success, The Patch has found its place in the Maple Ridge community. It’s giving the locals something that they’ll come back for repeatedly. Open air, good beer and food, play space for kids and dogs…it’s all here. After a year of consistent pivoting and adjustments to make things work, what does the future look like?

Rebecca feels like they’re just getting started. “We’ve done a lot, but there’s so much more we’d like to do,” she says. “We’d like to expand our food menu and host more events.” An Oktoberfest celebration is currently in the works, although fairly laid-back; business as usual, but with some fun additions. “It’s not a ticketed event,” Rebecca emphasizes, although ticketed events are likely a future possibility. They will also continue to build up their staff in order to ensure quality customer service and good management.

On the brewing side, one thing that isn’t in the immediate future is wider distribution. They’ll continue to focus on selling beer to the customers who come to them for that farm brewery experience. From Michael’s perspective, this is the dream for a brewer. They don’t feel like they’re brewing for a sales team; they’re brewing for their customers, and they’re brewing styles they love. “We can brew the beer the best we can and get instant feedback from people coming in,” says Michael. “We use our passion and creativity.” 

At the same time, as both Michael and Rebecca emphasize, the brewer’s passion must align with the customer base for the brewery. “We had to learn about our audience, and I think we’ve done a great job of making very approachable beers,” says Rebecca. Combining creativity with approachability is something Michael’s done well. He anticipates introducing a barrel-aging program in future, so keep an eye out for that!

A Beer to Celebrate One Year: the Anniversary Brew

Today, The Patch is releasing its much-anticipated first anniversary beer – their “One Year Beer”, a cold-lagered IPA that’s similar to a West Coast IPA but crisper and cleaner. Using a superpowered lager yeast strain (for the brewing science nerds, the superpowers involve biotransformation caused by the release of thiols), Michael brewed the beer with BC-grown Saaz and Cascade hops, fermented it, dry-hopped it with tropical New Zealand hops, aged it in a foeder, krausened it in a stainless steel tank, then double dry-hopped it. 

If that sounds a bit confusing and complicated to make – it is. But it’s definitely worth drinking! This beer has a lager’s beautiful golden clarity, but its fruity aroma and first sip suggest a hazy IPA with melon, grapefruit, guava, and peach notes. Mid-palate, that sip takes a turn to West Coast IPA territory with citrus pith and pine. The finish is satisfying; clean and fairly quick, with just a bit of lingering piney bitterness. As Michael puts it, this beer takes you on a journey. It will sell out quickly, so make sure you get down to the taproom ASAP. 

Congratulations to the owners and staff of The Patch on a brilliantly successful first year. We’re all looking forward to seeing what you do next!

Every Pint Tells a Story

Supporting Local. Celebrating Community.

The post The Patch Brewery in Maple Ridge Celebrates Their First Year in Beer appeared first on The BC Ale Trail.

My most recent Hops Among Friends interview was with Alex Jopson from Another Beer Co. At the end of our discussion, Alex recommended that I speak with Melanie MacInnes from Locality Brewing for my next Hops Among Friends interview. Melanie is the owner and general manager at Locality Brewing, which was established in 2021 in Langley on the Langley Ale Trail.

I really enjoyed my conversation with Melanie. She is very passionate about craft beer, relationships within the brewery industry and community, her family, and her role as an Indigenous female farm brewery owner. I hope you enjoy learning more about Melanie, Locality Brewing and her love of the Langley area.

Kim: The MacInnes family has owned and operated a farm for many generations. How did you get started in craft beer?

Melanie: That’s a big question. I grew up on this farm. It was a dairy farm and feedlot. Today, the barn is where our tasting room is located. We sold the cows in 1992 when free trade came into effect, and then we got into horse boarding. Over many years, we kept searching for the best way to operate the property.

One such way was through a government agricultural program to plant cottonwood trees for renewable plant fibre, so we planted 36 acres of the trees. We continued with this until the Scott Paper Mill shut down about 20 years ago, and there was no one to sell the trees to. So, we went back to the drawing board and asked ourselves… what can we do to keep the family farm?

One day, some movie location scouts flew in an airplane over the farm, and they thought it looked like Pennsylvania. They asked if they could film a movie called Scary Movie 4 on the farm. It was intended to mock the thriller movie, The Village. They managed to film over a month of the muddiest, rainiest weather, but it was successfully completed. When they finished filming, like many film sets, they were going to dispose of the buildings in the landfill. We thought these buildings could be reused and perhaps they could be used for some student films and lower-budget productions. Other films did come, one of which was a movie named Beyond Sherwood Forest, directed by Peter Delius. One of the horse wranglers on the production suggested moving the buildings and building a Western Town. We did that and we called it Jamestown. Producers and directors would come and look at it as a possible filming location.

My brother Kevin reached out to Brian Bird, a producer, who was looking for a location to pilot the Hallmark series When Calls the Heart (WCTH). He and Michael Landon Jr. came out and looked at our property, and then decided to film the series here at the farm. Every season, the viewership has increased and although each year has faced challenges, the show has gone on. It’s been 12 years, and it’s still being filmed on the farm. Canadians can watch WCTH on Super Channel via Prime or Cable.

My husband Andrew is from Australia. So, along the way, we ended up living in Australia for three years. While we travelled and worked around Australia, we loved going to breweries and wineries that incorporated open spaces, and the farm-to-table concept. We enjoyed the idea of being surrounded by the ingredients that we were eating. Some of the breweries there had green spaces where families could hang out.

We came back from Australia in 2012 and were surprised that there were not many farm breweries here in BC other than Persephone and Crannóg. We loved the experience of going to wineries and seeing the grapes, but we didn’t see breweries on farm properties with barley and malts showcasing the key ingredients in beer. We thought about opening a brewery at the time, but the idea of opening a farm brewery seemed like such a huge undertaking.

Instead, we kind of decided to trick ourselves by starting small, and we planted some hops and an acre of barley to test it. We hadn’t seen others grow barley in the Lower Mainland, so we wondered if it would work here. We also planted blight-resistant hazelnut trees. Plus, we grafted cider apple trees in 2016.  We also decided to take a beekeeping course and we added honeybees to the farm plan.

The barley grew and turned golden and was ready for harvest, but we didn’t have the equipment to harvest it. So, we went to the BC Farm Museum in Fort Langley and met a fellow named Wally. He grabbed two 1890 scythes from the wall for us. We borrowed them, returned to the farm and hand-harvested the barley. We sent the barley in for testing, and it hit the malting specs perfectly.

So, we planted five more acres of barley. We kept going on the hops. Plus, we had six acres of cider apple trees and six acres of hazelnut trees.

Our friends Richard and Kira introduced us to Iain and Christina from Strange Fellows. (Note from Kim: Iain’s Hops Among Friends article can be read here). Iain was with us when we first planted the barley, and he was very realistic with us. He came out to some harvests as well, and it was very helpful to get his input. Our relationship with Iain started here, and we contributed our malt in a collab with Strange Fellows for a “100-mile beer”.

Andrew, being an engineer, built a half-ton malt house. We were able to hit malting specs. Then we got involved with the Craft Maltsters Guild and we continued to learn. We are one of very few certified craft malt breweries in BC.

By this time, we had the ingredients, and we had the malt house, so now it was time to complete the “Field-to-Glass” journey, and we decided to start the farm brewery. COVID-19 delayed the plans, but we eventually managed to open mid-COVID. We first worked on some pilot trial batches with brewer Nick Hendrickson, currently the brewer at Four Winds, and Erik Jensen. Then we hired Karen Cheshire, a brewer who graduated from Olds University and had a biochemist degree from UBC, who previously worked at Steamworks Brewing. With her help, we finished building out the brewhouse. Then we added some great marketing and front-of-house support. I would like to give a shout-out to Lori Fields and Ivan Eytzen for their help here. We opened our doors at the end of July 2021.

As an aside, as we were working on our own brewery, The Beer Farmers and Barnside Brewing also opened, and they were also growing their own ingredients. We’ve learned it’s really full circle in this industry. We do a collab beer with them every year. It’s called Grainstorm, and 100% of the ingredients come from our three farms.

Around this time, we also met Tim LaHay from The Barley Merchant. We started hanging out with Tim, having long chats in the barley fields as we talked about the struggles and delays we were all facing as we were trying to open our businesses during COVID. We ended up opening within a week of each other, and we’ve had a great relationship with Tim for many years.

Kim: What makes Locality so unique?

Melanie: We are like an onion. Every time you come here, you peel back another layer and learn something new. It’s such a wild place. (As an aside, our location can be difficult to find, so it’s best to use Google Maps GPS and type in Locality Brewing, rather than the address.)

We are fortunate though, as people love our space. We have a pond, and we added a stage on the pond this year for live music events.

Even as a farm, it is a very unique space. We have a trail around the pond where you can take your dog for a walk. We had an otter swimming in the pond this year. There are beavers and hawks and lots of different birds and wildlife. We have Stampede Burger onsite. It is Metis-owned, and you can have a bison burger there. We also host events with the Waceya Metis Society.

Additionally, you can tour the malt house, and you can see the hops growing up the hop bines beside the picnic area.

Tucked behind the hop bines is our indoor “Secret, not-so-secret, Skate Bowl”.  Every year, we host a skate comp with HMI Skate Park Society with Hippie Mike, and we do a beer collab with a skate apparel company. We have worked with Time Bomb, Etnies, Well Kept Sustainables and Devil’s Toys.

We also hosted an awesome evening with GrlSwirl, a worldwide skate club where people can meet up to skate together. I love to surfskate myself. Andrew and I met through our mutual love of snowboarding and surfing, and we love to travel to surf locations. Farming restricts the amount we can travel, so we decided to bring our passion for board sports to the farm. We will be working with Hot Girl Skate, Shred Catz and Surfskate Vancouver to host meet-ups and create a fun, loving, and safe space for people to find community through skating and surfskating.

We are very different and provide very unique experiences; very different than the experiences at most other breweries.

Kim: Tell me about your first collab beer at Locality.

Melanie: My first love of craft beer was because of Trading Post‘s West Coast IPA. People kept suggesting I try lagers, but I didn’t really get into them. Then I tried Trading Post’s Saison, and I really enjoyed it. But then I tried their West Coast IPA, and I realized that this was my beer. That was my moment. The moment when I discovered my love for craft beer.

So, I was very stoked when we did our first collab beer with Tony at Trading Post for a Women’s Day event held at Farm Country Brewing. At the time we brewed the beer for the event, it had to be brewed on a one-hectolitre pilot brew system, so we brought our system to Trading Post. This was right before we opened. We made a table Saison. It was very sweet of Tony to do this with us. He took a chance with us, and it really meant a lot.

It was two years before the Locality/Trading Post collab when I first met Nancy More and other women in the industry. At that time, Lance and Tony hosted women from Kwantlen Polytechnic Univeristy (KPU) and the brewing industry for a Women’s Day collab, only weeks before COVID shut the World down. It was amazing to be so warmly welcomed and to be supported by such legends.

Kim: What do you have coming up at Locality?

Melanie Every year we do a couple of collabs with Barn Owl Brewing from Kelowna. We think they are very cool people. When they come for a visit, we like to brew a collab beer with them.

On their last visit, we brewed a seasonal IPA called Uncle Eddie’s Festive IPA with cranberry and orange peel. It was released in late November, exclusively on tap at the two breweries.

We also have another exciting beer release coming up. This one is a collab with Another Beer Co., (Note: one of ABC’s owners is Nadine, an Indigenous business owner who also owns Heartberry Soda). This collab is a Fresh Hop beer named Askî Oci, which means “From the Land” in Plains Cree. It’s a Brett Saison that is hop forward. It will be coming out in mid-December in 500ml bottles.

Also in December, we are launching a new collab beer called Beer Goggles with Dragon Alliance Canada and Time Bomb Apparel. It’s a hazy, New England IPA (NEIPA) with Cryo Sabro and Elani hops. It’s unfiltered and double dry-hopped, with light bitterness and a juicy finish. We brewed it to enjoy after spending time outdoors this winter. It’s a great choice following a perfect run on the mountain.

Kim: What else are you working on at Locality? 

Melanie: We just launched a Mexican Hot Chocolate Porter. This was a collab with A Rocha Farm Store and we used their hot peppers in this beer.

I should also mention that both our brewers are female. Karen is our head brewer and Emily Comeau is our assistant brewer. Emily went to KPU, so we had a few of the other KPU students out and they brewed a Toasted Coconut Porter.

The other beer that will be back again is our Cranberry Enchantment Sparkling Ale. It’s in Champagne bottles and it’s always a big hit. These beers will be available on-site at Locality Brewing from Thursday to Sunday and at our After Dark In The Lodge from 6-9 pm on Fridays and Saturdays, and at the Thunderbird Equestrian Centre Christmas in the Country and Fort Langley Christmas Market. We just released this for the season. It’s a really limited-release beer, although we did brew a double batch this year.

Kim: What do you love most about the craft beer industry?

Melanie: For me, it’s definitely all about the relationships. The relationships with the other breweries, and our customers, and my family, and neighbours.

Our breweries create community.

I grew up on this farm. It’s beautiful, but it’s also very isolating. Having our brewery here is a way of building community on rural land. I think a farm brewery is like a modern-day community hall. It’s similar to where our parents used to hold farm dances.

Kim: How is it for you as an Indigenous woman working in BC’s craft beer industry?

Melanie: I see being an Indigenous woman business owner as a great responsibility. We were nominated for and won the Indigenous Led Business of the Year at the 2022 BC Food and Beverage Awards. When we were first nominated for this award, we had to really think about accepting the nomination. Winning this award escalated things for me as I wanted to consider the impact of what we are doing going forward. With this award, we now have a platform where we can stand for all Indigenous businesses. I think part of this platform is highlighting Indigenous people.

With regards to Truth & Reconciliation, I believe we have a responsibility to teach and a responsibility to learn. We have an opportunity and a platform to work with each other and boost each other up.

I am fortunate to be connected with other Indigenous-led businesses and businesspeople. For example, Stampede Burgers is Metis-owned. There is also Nadine from Heartberry Soda. I find that working with other amazing Indigenous women is wonderful.

When I think of other amazing connections, I think of Inez Cook from Salmon n’ Bannock. Inez has been such an amazing mentor for me. There are two Salmon n’ Bannock restaurants in Vancouver. One of them is in the International Departures area at the Vancouver Airport. Our beer is there. And that was all created by relationships.

We did a collab beer with Salmon n’ Bannock and Spirit Bear Coffee – a Hazelnut Coffee Cream Ale.

Every time an Indigenous person is connected with another Indigenous person or business, it makes each business stronger. I think of Darnell Stager from Indigenous Tourism BC. He was amazing at connecting us with other tourism-related Indigenous businesses.

I also think back to two of our original connectors: Darian from Jelly Marketing and Bernard from Farm Credit Canada.

I recently went to a fundraiser for Vancouver Indigenous Fashion Week which was held in November. It’s open to everyone, and I highly recommend it. I have huge dreams of hosting a future Vancouver Indigenous Fashion Week event here at the farm where we have a floating catwalk set amongst the barley. I’m meeting more and more people who are helping me see this as a possibility in the future.

Being an Indigenous female owner of a farm brewery presents me with opportunities that I wouldn’t have otherwise. What this means to me is that with my role comes great responsibility.

Hearing the different stories from these Indigenous people is really amazing. Today, through learning and connecting, everyone is finding their own way.

Kim: We’ve seen some changes in BC’s craft beer industry lately including some brewery closures. What are your thoughts on this?

Melanie: It is incredibly hard. The cost of everything is up. Consumer buying is down. It seems like we all have to work ten times harder to make the same amount. It’s tragic. With each brewery that closes, it is a community lost. Every brewery is a place where people go, so when a brewery closes, that signifies a loss for that community.

It’s a difficult time for craft breweries. Knowing how much passion each brewery brings; I know it’s never easy to make the decision to close. BC’s craft beer industry will make it through this, but it’s definitely a tough time right now.

Kim: What keeps you up at night?  

Melanie: My kids. Honestly, I’m so busy being a brewery owner and trying to be with my teenage boys, and we’re still working second jobs. Life and family balance is hard. I hope we get there at some point.

It’s becoming evident how quickly time flies now that they are teenagers, and we want to focus on spending more time together with our kids in the year ahead.

My kids are involved in the brewery. One of my sons, Sebastian, helps with the design of the labels. Our other son Lachlan knows how to fix equipment, drive the tractor, fix roofs and more. He’s very much a farm kid. But having said that, they are teenagers, and they have their own interests, and they want to do their own things besides work with us at the brewery!

Kim: You have a huge property. If budget wasn’t an issue, if you could have any musician or band perform on the new stage by your pond at the brewery, who would it be? 

Melanie: I would have said Tragically Hip. But for now, with Andrew being Australian, he has a vision of having Xavier Rudd play here. He’s a very popular Australian one-man band. We saw him in Whistler and he’s amazing. I’ll put that out there because we would love to have him play here.

Kim: What are some of your favourite beers in winter?

Melanie: Going into this season, I am excited about our Beer Goggles collab as we get ready for the snow season up on the mountain. I am a lover of both West Coast IPAs and NEIPAs.

You know how some days you brew the perfect pot of coffee, and you try to replicate that each day? I feel like this about our West Coast IPA. When I drink it, sometimes I just think it’s so incredible, like that was the perfect batch.

Kim: I saw that the 8 Langley Loop breweries and The Barley Merchant are collaborating to feature Langley beers at the Langley Events Centre. Tell me more about this.

Melanie: Yes, it’s really exciting. It’s been in the works for quite a while. Some of the individual breweries have had their beers in the building in the past. A while back, Rachelle Cashato introduced me to Dale Saip, the Senior Vice President of the Vancouver Giants. He mentioned the idea of having a variety of different local beers available at the games. So, for the last year, we alternated between the breweries and would switch beers from each brewery at one of the smaller concession stands.

Since Tim from The Barley Merchant does such an amazing job advocating for Langley breweries, it made sense for him to be the umbrella for this and be the connector that strengthens all of our relationships. It was important that it was Tim from The Barley Merchant, so it’s not a single brewery leading it. Tim really cares about all of the breweries.

Every six games or so, we rotate to a different style of beer. The idea is that with eight breweries, we are each promoting people to go to the home games at the events centre. It’s a cool way to create community there. You can go to the local hockey game and drink amazing local beer. I think it’s the most amazing thing ever.

It was a pipe dream to have more local craft beer presence there, so this is all so very exciting. I could not ever imagine seeing people drink our craft beer in the building. Tim did such a great job working with Dale and Erin to get this across the line. It was a real joint effort. Everyone played a part in getting it to this point.  If you want to come to a Giants home game this season, you can get tickets here and use the discount code: langleyloop.

And speaking of the Langley Loop, we also have Langley Craft Beverage Week in May. This was our second year of running this. We draw a name to see who hosts the collab beer. So, stay tuned for more from the Langley Loop and Langley Craft Beverage Week.

Kim: What are some hidden gems in the Langley area? 

Melanie: I think Fort Langley is just the coolest place. There are awesome coffee shops and great restaurants. It is very walkable. They have night markets on Friday nights in the summer, and it feels like a Hallmark movie. They have a beer garden and artisans selling their arts and crafts items. Also at Fort Langley, there is a restaurant called Tradish the Ancestor Café. They have delicious traditional Indigenous cuisine there like Bannock Tacos.

Plus, there is the historic fort you can go into and see what fort life was like back in the day.

I definitely recommend that people stop for dinner or lunch at The Barley Merchant. It’s also a great way to try all the Langley beers.

There’s also the Historic Otter 248th Trail. There are a variety of cool farms and businesses along the trail. JD Farms Specialty Turkeys has the best turkey sandwich ever. There’s also the Thunderbird Show Park, which is an equestrian centre. Most people don’t realize that you can go and watch incredible show jumping. Plus, Kensington Prairie Farm has alpacas.

There’s also the Circle Farm Tour with so many cool farm businesses to visit. Langley is also a great place to visit in the fall for pumpkins, plus we have lots of cool Christmas tree farms around here.

Kim: What else do you want to share with me? 

Melanie: This really is a family business. My parents Wendy and Rod are a huge part of all of this. I am very lucky that my parents are both alive, healthy and very hard-working. Without their support, none of this would happen. My dad is a powerhouse. The saving grace with my kids is that they have their grandparents around to support them.

My brother Kevin runs the filming side of our business. Both of his daughters, Ivy and Isy have worked at the brewery. It’s a real family affair – we are all working together to make this happen. We couldn’t have done this without all of our family.

Andrew, the Maltster, idea generator, and engineer of the operation keeps things exciting and is very supportive of me running and leading the brewery. Of course, my boys, Sebastian and Lachlan working with us and putting up with the time demands of a family business, they are my world and I love them so much. I also can’t forget Atlas, our family dog and greeter of all. I think more people know Atlas than us and he is also our emotional support dog on those super tough days. I also have a great appreciation for all those who have passed and supported us in life and through spirit after.

We have so many people besides just our family to thank for getting us here today. Our first beer was our Thank You Honey Lager. On our first can, we thanked all of the people who were integral in helping us open the brewery.

Kim: Who in the craft beer community would you like me to interview next?

Melanie: I would like you to speak with Gary Brucker from Barn Owl Brewing in Kelowna next. We’ve been doing collabs together for some time. They are very cool. I pick them because they are so community-oriented, and really good people. I trust them so much. They care about the community, their family, and the beer industry. They came to Langley when we started talking about the Langley Loop to help us and to learn.

Stay tuned for the next instalment of the Hops Among Friends blog series, where I speak with Gary from Barn Own Brewing in Kelowna on the Kelowna and West Kelowna Ale Trail.

Since 2017, this series has showcased more than 20 amazing members of BC’s craft beer community. You can read through all of my previous Hops Among Friends interviews here.

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The Story of Canada’s First Organic Farm-Based Brewery

Travelling through the interior of British Columbia’s central lake country, there is a place, just a kilometre or so off of Highway 1 near the community of Sorrento, that deserves a slight detour and some serious attention. From the coast, there are many routes to get there with varying amounts of time on the road from five hours and up. My visit in the spring was on the return from a conference in the Canadian Rockies. In September, it was travelling the opposite way, from Vancouver to Banff, for a ten-day camping trip. The contrast from spring to late summer could not have been more dramatic — and this was not just about a seasonal change.

Crannóg Ales is a craft brewery that gained notoriety as Canada’s first organic brewery. It has produced famous beers such as the creamy black Back Hand of God Stout and Insurrection Pale Ale. It is also an active farm, growing its own hops, complemented by a flock of sheep, that are kept safely in a crannóg (an elevated shelter) at nighttime. Their organic farm, which is known as Left Fields, has grown tiny amounts of Harrington malting barley and black wheat over the years — used just for organic bread-making fun. According to co-owner Rebecca Kneen, “In the last two years, the deer ate ALL THE BARLEY. Fortunately, there was only a little bit!”

A visit to the brewery in mid-September was in stark contrast to a previous visit in April. The September visit was interrupted by the repeated thud-thud-thud-thud of Chinook helicopters carrying helibuckets of water (up to 9842 litres) to fight a fire, still raging out of sight, over top of the mountain. This emergency had started three weeks earlier. The brewery was bustling with activity as it was the height of hop harvesting. Many local craft beer enthusiasts and neighbours were busy lending a helping hand at this critical time of the year. I was able to get Rebecca Kneen (the farmer) and Brian MacIsaac (the Brewer) away from the hustle for a short interview. 

The Beginnings

The life path of these two passionate souls couldn’t have been more different in their youth. Rebecca was born in Toronto to parents who wanted to see how the food system is shaped from the bottom up. As people living in Toronto, they had seen it from the top down in food systems analysts and activism around food systems. 

“We bought a place when I was little, sort of as part of the ‘back to the land’ thing,” Rebecca explained. “Only, with my family it was a little more of a political act.” 

It was of great importance for Rebecca’s parents to get out of the city and back to the land. So they took their family to rural Nova Scotia and lived on a farm. This would be Rebecca’s start to a lifelong passion dedicated to organic farming. 

Brian was born in East Vancouver, but at a young age headed to Belfast and spent his formative years in a very politically charged atmosphere. This had a profound effect on him and also brought a very unique edge to the beer and the philosophy of the brewery.

The East Van Connection

Back in the early 1990s, Rebecca and Brian were both hanging out on Commercial Drive in East Vancouver. Rebecca says that she noticed Brian before he noticed her, but Brian claims that is not true. They both agreed they were stalking each other. Eventually, they did meet face to face and started building their unbreakable bond together. They found their values were united. Brian was visiting Dan’s Home Brewing Supplies, picking up ingredients, adjusting recipes to his liking, and returning to get Dan Small’s opinion. At the same time, Storm Brewing had opened six blocks north on Commercial. James Walton welcomed Brian into the brewery and provided him with more feedback and knowledge on running a small commercial craft brewery. 

“We wanted to farm as well, so urban wasn’t really in the cards,” Rebecca explained. “We found a strong organic community in the Shuswap, with lots of local mentors for the farm side of things. Land in the Shuswap was relatively affordable, and it’s a location with lots of access to all of southern BC. We miss our East Van community, but also a lot of that community was in the process of leaving for the country as well, so we were part of a diaspora.”

The Start of a Brewery

In an interesting coincidence, BC’s first organic craft brewery’s tanks were purchased from Canada’s original craft brewery, Horseshoe Bay Brewing, which opened in 1982. They are still used today in the brewery in the heart of the Shuswap. 

Crannóg Ales officially opened in January 2000. The brewery sits in the middle of Left Fields organic farm, in the heart of unceded Secwepemc territory (Secwepemculew). 

The name and artwork of the brewery come from Brian’s connection to his family “Gaels” — mostly Irish and some Scot. You will see his Celtic artwork throughout the brewery, surrounding structures, and on the labels. 

“It was a long slog trying to get it going because of getting access to a lot of organic materials,” Brian explained. “They were just not being made, so we had to find them — left, right, and centre, from all over the world. The exception was that we started growing our hops, and they started to come ready in 2003.” 

“He does very well for a townie!” Rebecca added with a smile.

In spirit, Crannóg’s beers are built on the guiding principles that are at the heart of their passion: environmental stewardship, social responsibility, integrity, and quality beer. Everything from the byproducts of the brewing process is used on the farm or recycled when necessary. Their core beers became instantly legendary and are sought out wherever they are found on tap. 

For Brian and Rebecca, it is very important to provide a stable source of income for themselves, workers, and the brewery. They maintain a stable financial base and do not want to grow the brewery beyond the footprint of the farm. This stewardship has gained them not only respect in their local community but across the province.

A Close Call

This idyllic life changed dramatically on August 18th, 2023.

This area of the province, the Shuswap, has been in the middle of a prolonged drought: It has lasted about four years with no particular sign of ending any time soon. As a result, there have been a lot of forest fires in the region. This summer, two large, wildly out-of-control fires started up from lightning strikes across from Shuswap Lake on Adams Lake. That started at the beginning of August, and by August 18, the fire expanded exponentially and made a run across little Shuswap and Big Shuswap and came up Squilax Mountain behind the brewery. Embers were being thrown over onto the side of the mountain that Crannóg habitats! Then, the whole thing went up. On the night of August 18th, it became a critical emergency. It was also the night that Scotch Creek burned down with the loss of many people’s homes. In this one night of devastation, fear overwhelmed the community.

Without water or electricity, Rebecca and Brian decided to abandon the farm and brewery. They quickly concluded that the best thing they could do was to get out of the way, so nobody was trying to save them. The smoke was so dense they could hardly breathe.

As they watched, one part of the fire started and took off  — in the space of about half an hour it went from one tree to about five acres of blaze. It was rapidly expanding at that point. 

“We were trying to grab everything when we got evacuated — well when we evacuated ourselves,” Brian explained. “There were no lights.” 

Rebecca added, “Some things were perfectly random. You evacuate weird things — you find out later, like our whole liquor cabinet. My main thought was: grab the gin, I’m going to need it tonight!”

With the help of a friend, they had some of their sheep moved to safety that night while they retreated to the nearby community of Salmon Arm. The next day they came back in the morning and loaded up the rest of the sheep, making sure they had everything locked down, and turned off the gas to the brewery. 

“One of the things we did was load our apartment-size freezer on a truck — packing up all the meat we had been growing,” Brian said, and Rebecca added, “It was our food for the next year.” 

They were off their property for a week, without knowing what was going on. Word got to them that they still had the farm and brewery, but it was so smoky you couldn’t tell where the fire was but only hear the sound of crackling and roaring of a raging forest fire. 

They managed to grab a whole bunch of beer and load it into their van, including growlers. They had just set up for Roots and Blues, an annual music festival in Salmon Arm. Before the festival got fully underway, it was shut down. Fortunately, for them, their beer was stored by another local brewery. 

“Yeah, the community was amazing!” Rebecca stated. “I just put out a message to the organizers of Root and Blues: Can you hang onto the beer? I don’t know what we can do with it right now. They got their sponsor to hold the refrigerator trucks for a few more days. Ricochet Brewing and Mt Begbie Brewing helped us load it and get it to a distributor. From there we were able to get it into storage and make sure it was all safe. It was one of those beautiful moments of the brewery community helping each other out — we appreciate it!”

Hop Harvest — Mid-September

Three weeks later, when I visited in the middle of September, there was still a lot of smoke. The fires would cool down at night and build back up in the afternoon. The good news was that the thunderstorm part of summer was mostly over and things would calm down.

Rebecca and Brian are very sensitive and in tune with the environment surrounding them. Rebecca commented, “In recent years we have seen many changes in the weather patterns with less rain and summer temperatures remaining higher than normal for extended periods. This not only affects the forest but also the animals that habitat them for food and shelter. In the end, we feel nature will come up with a solution.”

When it comes to the farm and the production of hops, I asked Brian what effect smoke has on the hops, as they are an integral part of the flavour and bitterness of beer. 

“It stops them from growing as much because they can’t breathe,” he answered. “It’s not like wine grapes, where it goes into the sugars, and then you can’t ferment those sugars anymore — they absorb the flavours. Hops are different.” 

“I’ve got to say we were incredibly lucky,” Rebecca added. “All the beer we had in storage stayed just fine over the time we were without power, which was only about four days. We did lose some that were in active fermentation, and whatever we had packaged was gone, but that was a fairly small amount compared to what we had in bulk tanks and even in the kegs. We have come through this remarkably well. A lot of that has to do with the hard work of a lot of other people.”

When it was safe to return to their farm, they had the opportunity to personally thank the firefighters who had bravely protected their farm and brewery.

With the hustle and bustle of harvest around them, and bags of fresh hops building up, Rebecca suggested that I accompany her to the hop processing room in one of the adjacent buildings. Climbing the stairs to the second floor gave a wonderful overview of the brewery and farm. Arriving inside, Rebecca took one of the hop sacks and laid its fragrant contents out on a drying tray. She invited me to do a face plant into the thick layer of hops — it was absolutely heavenly. Such a memorable moment this beer geek will never forget! 

Rebecca then pulled out trays of dried hopes and packed them into sacks using a baler. This “powered by might” manual press could certainly replace going to the gym during harvest time.

Focusing on 2024

At the end of December, I gave a call to the brewery. A cheerful, happy voice greeted me on the other end of the line. Rebecca told me that everything is back in order, and the brewery is looking forward to a productive and exciting 2024 with their new brewer Kevin Symington.

Rebecca concludes, “I think our main news is just that we made it! Through a very very challenging year, we’ve come out whole, and we’re looking forward to deepening our sustainability with local partnerships.”

If you find yourself on a road trip through the Shuswap, be sure to drop in for a growler fill. It might be a good idea to pack one of your growlers from home with you… recycling bottles will put a big smile on Brian’s face. 

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