that had popped up around the time that I had decided I wanted to get back in the brewing business. So, it really kind of made my decision for me.” Meanwhile, back on the home front, Gugin was still brewing beer in the basement, which eventually led to an interest in distilling. That’s when the lightbulb clicked on. If the mar- ketplace was being overrun by craft breweries, why not compliment the movement with craft spirits? He proceeded to find investors and put a business plan together to open a distillery. The rest, as they say, is history. Old Prairie Sentinel opened early in 2017 and has become a valued part of the community. “Community” is a word that gets bandied around quite a bit when speaking with Gugin about his distillery and his business philosophy. When asked what community and sourcing locally means to him, he warns that the answer might be a long one.
“A Prairie Sentinel is a grain elevator. The one that’s featured on our corporate logo is actually a local grain elevator from a place called Mintlaw. It doesn’t exist anymore, so author- ities were going to tear down the grain elevator. A local farmer from Lacombe found out it was going to be torn down and instead, he bought it for a dollar. He got a bunch of friends together and tore it down piece-by- piece and re-erected it on his farm.” The story drew Gugin in, and he was touched by the appre- ciation for heritage and tradition. So much so that his distill- ery’s ethos became centred around paying strict attention to traditional means of producing quality products with a focus on community spirit (no pun intended). Gugin adds, “Our vision or mission statement, if you will, is that we really want to convey that traditional commu- nity spirit, and that hard work really does create a better product.” So how does this apply to everyday operations at the Old Prairie Sentinel Distillery? “It’s immensely important that we really showcase the local barley producers and maltsters that we have in this area… As a result, we wanted to only use malted barley, because that makes a better product, but also because it really does pay respect to the local pro- ducers here.” He goes on to explain that, because it’s all 100% malted barley, the end product boasts an appealing sweet aroma without unwanted harshness. The locally-produced world- class barley and malt obviously gives Old Prairie a leg up on other distilleries. Much of their sourcing comes from nearby Rahr Malting in Alix, Alberta. However, some of their barley is sewn, grown and harvested via vintage farming proce- dures and equipment by a group called 24-2 Draft Horse. “They are a hard-working bunch of real-life cowboys that produce everything with horse-drawn equipment. So seeding, thrashing and so on… everything is done with vintage equipment. And I had the luxury of ‘helping’ them all the way through the season this year… It was an amazing experience to put in that extra work and get a sense of what it was like at the turn of the century when things were manual and harder to do.” Like a fine piece of furniture or the iron works of a by-gone era, Gugin believes that the sweat equity pays dividends in the final product. “I feel like the hard manual work lends itself to our product and our brand because I believe you can taste hard work — doesn’t matter what it is. Cheese, pastry or whatever. You can taste the work that went into it. We want to pass that on into our products as well.” As mentioned in the introduction, Lacombe is conveniently situated almost halfway between Alberta’s two major urban markets, Calgary and Edmonton. Distribution to the major centres is, therefore, part of the overall marketing plan. But
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