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Published by Leonardo Calcagno
Who are you:
Chris Allott
Your current job:
founder and Brewmaster of Manantler Craft Brewing Co.
In which city are you located?
Bowmanville, ON
A word to define what kind of worker you are:
Busy
What tools are essential to your life (app, software, etc..)
to-do list, mash paddle
What does your office space look like?
messy but functional
How large is the brewery?
We have a 5 hectolitre brew system, 40 hectolitres of fermenting capacity
The reason you started brewing?
I bought a Mr. Beer kit from amazon for $40, the beer tasted horrible, but I was completely obsessed with the process of brewing and fermenting after that. Stepped it up to all grain brewing, and then finally took the leap and opened my own brewery with some friends.
What was the inspiration behind your brewery?
We loved craft beer for years but never had too many options at our local LCBO. Opening a brewery was a way to solve that problem for the people of Bowmanville. Obviously, the craft beer industry has jumped leaps and bounds since we had these ideas, but we like to think we are playing our small part.
What are the biggest challenges for you as a brewer in Ontario?
We can’t seem to make enough beer. So I would say scaling the operation has proved most difficult, but not a bad problem to have.
What kind of music do you listen to when you are working?
Everything. Listening to some folk right now, but sometimes we play gangster rap or whatever we feel like.
Do you have a way to organize your days to optimize your work?
What tips would you give to improve productivity? Put processes in place that take the guesswork out of tasks. Lead by example, the harder I work the harder my employees work.
What is the best advice anyone has given you?
A dollar saved is worth 3 dollars earned or something like that. I don’t know how, but it’s true.
What is your routine start and end of the day?
Coffee, morning meeting with my brother Matt who does Sales and Events for Manantler (among other things). Then cleaning(90% of brewing is cleaning), brewing, or doing office work.
Aside from your computer and your phone, what gadget can you not you go without?
Refractometer. (checks the sugar levels in beer and tells you when it is finished fermenting)
3 Ontario craft beers that we must try?
1. Octopus wants to fight – Great lakes brewery 2. WitchShark IIPA – Bellwoods Brewery 3. Lone Pine – Sawdust City
What advice would you give to someone who wants to start a brewery?
Homebrew a lot, learn the ingredients and the process. Reach out to other breweries, we’ve all been through all of the hardships and have a lot of useful information.
facebook.com/ManantlerCraftBrewingCo
