Local breweries bounce back
Outcast Brewing co-owner Krysten Schnarr fills and packages cans by hand. (Photo by Matthew Siu)
Alberta craft breweries are bouncing back after months of COVID-19 guidelines and regulations restricting sales and operations.
Starting in mid-June, certain businesses across Alberta have been able to resume operations at a reduced capacity, as per Stage 2 of Alberta’s relaunch strategy.
This comes after months of lockdowns in order to combat the spread of COVID-19, where small breweries have had to adjust their distribution models and find work-arounds to make up for lost revenue.
Breweries like Outcast Brewing in Calgary, whose co-owner Krysten Schnarr began canning their beer by hand, in lieu of an expensive canning line operation.
“We were the first brewery to essentially flip our business model overnight,” says Schnarr. “We were told on March 16 that they [Alberta Health Services] were shutting everyone down. The very next day, we opened our online store and started doing home deliveries.”
During the height of the lockdown in Alberta, other breweries such as Troubled Monk in Red Deer and Annex in Calgary also shifted production to hand sanitizer in order to help relieve some of the demand.
Red Hart Brewing in Red Deer found that their sales actually were not affected nearly as much during those initial months, according to taproom manager Gary Strom.
“Everybody still wanted their Red Hart beer, so they would come in for growlers,” says Strom. “Some people would come in almost every day, it was crazy.”
Strom attributes this kind of fervent dedication from their community as what helped keep the brewery afloat during those months.
“I heard this a lot through COVID that beer is recession proof, so any of these downturns we’ve experienced haven’t really affected the alcohol industry,” says Strom. “If shit hits the fan and we get shut down by COVID again, we can keep our head above water.”
“I think a lot of people are starting to want to do the taproom experience,” says Schnarr. “There’s something completely different and unique with actually going to the source.”
Outcast falls within an area of Calgary’s south-east dubbed the “Barley Belt,” a collection of local craft breweries and distilleries.
Currently all drinking and dining establishments in Alberta are operating at reduced capacity in order to provide adequate social distancing between patrons.
While the taprooms have reopened, Red Hart has had to remove many of their tables and seating, but with permission from Red Deer County, have increased the size of their patio.
Outcast brewing’s taproom started off spacious by design resulting in little adjustment being required to resume operation.
