{"id":58285,"date":"2024-12-11T11:31:56","date_gmt":"2024-12-11T19:31:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bcaletrail.ca\/?p=58285"},"modified":"2024-12-12T15:36:11","modified_gmt":"2024-12-12T23:36:11","slug":"hops-among-friends-with-melanie-macinnes-of-locality-brewing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bcaletrail.ca\/hops-among-friends-with-melanie-macinnes-of-locality-brewing\/","title":{"rendered":"Hops Among Friends with Melanie MacInnes of Locality Brewing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hops Among Friends is designed to showcase the people who make up the craft beer scene on the BC Ale Trail. In this latest installment, Kim Lawton interviews Melanie MacInnes from Locality Brewing.<\/p>\n

My most recent Hops Among Friends interview was with Alex Jopson<\/a> from Another Beer Co<\/a>. At the end of our discussion, Alex recommended that I speak with Melanie MacInnes from Locality Brewing<\/a> 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<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

<\/h4>\n

Kim: The MacInnes family has owned and operated a farm for many generations. How did you get started in craft beer? <\/strong><\/h4>\n

Melanie: <\/strong>That\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\"The
The barn, which now serves at the Locality Brewing tasting room was previously an old dairy parlour on the farm in Langley (photo provided)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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\u2026 what can we do to keep the family farm?<\/p>\n

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<\/em> on the farm. It was intended to mock the thriller movie, The Village<\/em>. 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<\/em>, 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.<\/p>\n

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<\/a><\/em> (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\u2019s been 12 years, and it\u2019s still being filmed on the farm. Canadians can watch WCTH on Super Channel via Prime or Cable.<\/p>\n

\"Melanie
Melanie with Nate from When Calls the Heart<\/em> in Jamestown at Locality Brewing in Langley, BC (photo provided)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\"Melanie
Melanie MacInnes and Andrew Hamer in Locality\u2019s tasting room. (photo: No\u00eblle Phillips)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We came back from Australia in 2012 and were surprised that there were not many farm breweries here in BC other than Persephone<\/a> and Crann\u00f3g<\/a>. We loved the experience of going to wineries and seeing the grapes, but we didn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0 We also decided to take a beekeeping course and we added honeybees to the farm plan.<\/p>\n

\"Melanie
Melanie from Locality Brewing in Langley checking the barley to see if it’s ready for harvest (photo provided)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The barley grew and turned golden and was ready for harvest, but we didn\u2019t have the equipment to harvest it. So, we went to the BC Farm Museum<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\"Melanie
Melanie with her son Lachlan picking apples on the farm at Locality Brewing in Langley (photo provided)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Our friends Richard and Kira introduced us to Iain and Christina from Strange Fellows<\/a>. (Note from Kim: Iain\u2019s Hops Among Friends article can be read here<\/a><\/em>). 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 \u201c100-mile beer\u201d.<\/p>\n

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<\/a> and we continued to learn. We are one of very few certified craft malt breweries in BC.<\/p>\n

By this time, we had the ingredients, and we had the malt house, so now it was time to complete the \u201cField-to-Glass\u201d 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<\/a>, 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<\/a>. 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.<\/p>\n

\"a
Locality Brewing in Langley, BC on the Langley Ale Trail<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As an aside, as we were working on our own brewery, The Beer Farmers<\/a> and Barnside Brewing<\/a> also opened, and they were also growing their own ingredients. We\u2019ve learned it\u2019s really full circle in this industry. We do a collab beer with them every year. It\u2019s called Grainstorm, and 100% of the ingredients come from our three farms.<\/p>\n

Around this time, we also met Tim LaHay from The Barley Merchant<\/a>. 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\u2019ve had a great relationship with Tim for many years.<\/p>\n

<\/h4>\n

Kim: What makes Locality so unique? <\/strong><\/h4>\n

Melanie:<\/strong> We are like an onion. Every time you come here, you peel back another layer and learn something new. It\u2019s such a wild place. (As an aside, our location can be difficult to find, so it\u2019s best to use Google Maps GPS and type in Locality Brewing, rather than the address.)<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\"Live
Live at the Lagoon at Locality Brewing for a collab event with Camp Beer Co (photo provided)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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<\/a> onsite. It is Metis-owned, and you can have a bison burger there. We also host events with the Waceya Metis Society<\/a>.<\/p>\n