Published by Leonardo Calcagno
In collaboration with Le Labo Yeast | Brewing ideas before beer!
How long have you been brewing beer, what are the core values of your brewery?
We’ve been brewing beer for close to a decade now. Our view is that beer is for everyone. We have friendly and inclusive service, we don’t discriminate and we reject pretension. You don’t need to know about the latest hop variety or beer trends, we just love bringing everyone into the fold. We often serve at our taproom or at festivals and events and are met with customers who don’t have much experience with different beer styles and we love introducing them to craft beer and our brand. You don’t have to be a craft beer connoisseur, you just need to like local beer made really well!
What are the challenges for your business?
- We’ve definitely had some staffing issues. We’ve had some of our most valuable team members graduate and leave to pursue a career in their area of study as of late. We pay well above minimum wage and offer benefits, but we’ve really struggled this year to find really good candidates for one reason or another.
- Gaining greater access to markets. There is limited shelf space in the LCBO/Grocery and even with impressive sales numbers, LCBO store managers can switch out your product on a whim. All LCBO promotional programs also seem to be out of our grasp with the investment being far more than the ROI.
- Other struggles, which are the same for all craft brewers in Ontario are the cost of goods and the unfair tax structure. The OCB has outlined this pretty clearly with their #keepcraftbeerlocal campaign. https://www.
keepcraftbeerlocal.ca/
Upcoming projects for your business in 2023?
We are very excited to announce that we are opening a new location in Stouffville, Ontario. You can read the press release here:
YEAST SUPPLIERS AND MORE