“It all started back in high school,” Landis recalls. “I found home brewing to be a fun hobby. It was a little bit of science, a little bit of art… and you got alcohol at the end!” These early brewing experiences started with store-bought kits. “The beer was terrible,” Landis admits. But the inspiration took root and, fast-forward 10 years, with a young family and less time on his hands, Landis joined forces with a number of likeminded friends and bought some home brewing equipment. Sharing expenses and the workload on the labour-intensive brew days worked best for the group. The story shifts to the Alberta government’s decision to eliminate the ‘minimum mandatory volume’ regulation for brewers, allowing people to start up a small brewery without having to commit to large volumes of product right out of the gate. “We thought that if we could start up a small hobby brewery that was able to pay for itself, why not take the plunge. So, we decided to start up at a size where we didn’t have to go to a bank and get a loan.” The partners incorporated their small business in July of 2015 and, after ploughing through the mountain of paperwork associated with producing alcohol for sale, they moved into a brewing space that October. And on Christmas Eve of that year, with the snow gently falling on Grande Prairie, the Grain Bin Brewing Company brewed their first batch of beer for sale.
Beer for the People, by the People!
by John Allaire
W ith the recent election in Canada we have been thinking about Democracy (def.) - a system of governing by the whole population or all the eligible members of a state, typically through elected representatives; control of an organization or group by the majority of its members; the ability to vote on what flavour and style of beer your local brewery will make next! The Grain Bin Brewing Company, located in Grande Prairie, Alberta, Canada, states right up front that theway consumers are enjoying beer is evolving. Not a fan of the beers available to you at the pub or in the store? No problem. Grain Bin gives their customers an opportunity to log in to their website and vote on how the next batch of their delicious beer will be brewed. Of course, they have an array of flagship beers that are available year round, but their small-batch DEMOCRACY! series is taking Alberta by storm by offering a customizable batch of beer for special occasions, or just to sample one pint at a time. Spotlight on Business Magazine spoke with Grain Bin’s owner and Head Brewer, Dalen Landis about their unique production programs and the craft brewing scene in Grande Prairie, Alberta.
Being a low-volume brewery has a number of advantages, mainly in the headache-avoidance department. But a huge benefit is it allows Grain Bin to experiment and produce consumer- driven concoctions like their aforementioned DEMOCRACY! series of small-batch beers. Landis explains, “We have a lot of flexibility and freedom. When we started, we were just brewing the beers that we like to drink. We didn’t have to do the safe, commercially-viable options.” Enter the beer of the people! Landis depicts the idea as being about handing some of the controls over to the people, so to speak, rather than making all the decisions themselves. “It’s like that guy on a road trip, he’s picking all the music. Maybe some of the music is good but it’d be nice if he let the others in the car operate the iPod once in a while. So, the people who were enjoying our beer already, we thought we’d let them have some input and share their ideas with us.” Grain Bin’s DEMOCRACY! series helps them to connect directly with their community. Here’s how it works: There are no set-in-stone guidelines or rules. Customers go to the online form on Grain Bin’s website, fill it out (for example, people would vote on options such as styles and ingredients like more hops, less malt flavour, hint of citrus, and so on), and basically direct the brewery on what they want in a beer. Then the brewers take a swing at what received the popular vote. Voilà. Your palette at work.
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NOVEMBER 2019 • SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE
SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE • NOVEMBER 2019
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