kitchen with a top-notch brewhouse seemed to be the logical answer. But Fletcher still needed to pass a more vigorous acid test before taking the plunge out of his finan- cially secure position in the automotive industry. His beer was getting rave reviews from his friends and family, but he needed a little more objectivity before diving in head first. “Nobody was really drinking craft beer here until we started brewing it.” Canada-wide home-brew competitions were the answer. So in late 2012, he began bringing his beers to Calgary, Winnipeg and other surrounding urban centres and entering into their home-brew competitions. Stacking his beers up against other obsessive amateur brewmasters was the only way to see where he stood as a brewer. He walked away from his first competition with some advice, useful cri- tiques on his beer, and a little knowledge on how to cate- gorize his brews… but no hardware. Not to be discouraged, he applied the knowledge he gained from his first competition and won medals in all of the follow- ing competitions for the recipes he uses in his brew pub today. The last time a brew pub opened in Yellowknife was some 20 years earlier, but had failed to really establish itself in the community. Fletcher and Miranda saw their new-found talents as an opportunity to take advantage of a gap in the marketplace and fulfill dreams of owning their own brew pub. It was time to take the leap with both feet. In January 2014, Fletcher quit his full-time job in the auto industry and became a brewmaster.
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JANUARY 2018 • SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE
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