Medicine Hat Brewing Compa ny
Serving thirsty, hard-working people damn fine beer I t is not too often that a business that opened its doors in 2016 can trace it roots back to theearly 1900’s, but that is thecasewithMedicineHat BrewingCompany. Spotlight on by Christi Rideout
Business had the opportunity to catch up with Warren Vancuren, Owner, and Kaiden Vancuren, General Manager of Manufacturing & Distribution, for the brewery and learn about their family’s journey to bring back a piece of Medicine Hat’s history. But as Warren and Kaiden will tell us a legacy isn’t the easiest thing to live up to, but then again Medicine Hat has never been about doing things the easy way, but the right way when it comes to making timeless craft beer.
“Starting a brewery andknowinghowto breware two totally different things.”
Although the Vancuren’s chapter with MedicineHat BrewingCompany startedon December 10, 2016 the story of the brewery started over a century ago, in 1912 when the Medicine Hat Brewing Company first opened it’s doors to serve thirsty residents of this booming community, old fashioned lagers, ales and stouts. When the Temperance Movement picked up, this popular brewery and water hole - one of Medicine Hat’s first - was forced to close it doors in 1920. A second incarnation of the brewery was attempted between 1925 and 1927, but unfortunately was not able to keep the brewery running and had to close its doors. The third iteration of Medicine Hat Brewing, and where the Vancuren family comes onto the craft beer scene in Medicine Hat, is when Warren, an oil and gas businessman who had operated a number of servicing companies over the years, and his wife, Kathy tried retirement.
They found that they had way too much free time on their hands and were looking for a new project to keep busy. The craft brewery industry had been something Warren had followed, researched and grown passionate about over the years. So, it was not a surprise to them after about a year of solid research on the industry, Warren decided that getting into the craft brewing industry and opening a brewery was definitely a good fit for he and Kathy to come out of retirement. Warren has a strong background in business, and Kathy with a background of over 25 plus years in accounting, giving them the foundation for a strong management team to get things off the ground and running. During this time, Warren discussed with the rest of the family making this a family venture. Kaiden says, “After much thought, I made the decision to leave my position at a Frac company and come on board. Brennan made the decision a couple of months later to leave his position in Calgary and move back.”
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DECEMBER 2019 • SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE
SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE • DECEMBER 2019
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