Beyond The Grape

The Spotlight is a series of interviews with the craft beer heroes behind local organizations who are helping grow the beer scene in our fine city. In this issue, we look at Beyond The Grape, the growth of the Tri-Cities Brew Club, and the explosion of the craft beer scene in the area. 

Vancouver’s craft beer scene continues to grow, not just within Vancouver proper, where we have dense hubs of brewing activity (such as “Yeast Van”), but also in suburban areas outside the major metropolitan area. Areas like the Tri-Cities, where the craft cultural boom is undeniable. Port Moody, with its two well-established breweries and a third launching soon, is an excellent example of a major growth industry whose cultural, economic, and social benefits encompass parts of daily life far beyond the brewing scene. Money is being injected into small business in amounts and ways that have never been seen before, and standards are being set in terms of municipal acceptance of an industry that, traditionally (and in many other cases continues to be as such), has been met with resistance over fear of potential problems.

For this, we have a few entities to thank. Without question, it’s breweries like Yellow Dog and Moody Ales that have championed this growth. One of the province’s best IPAs comes in the form of Yellow Dog’s Play Dead, while Moody’s Russian Imperial Stout is one of the best representations of the style that I have seen done locally. Both do great work in the community, lending support to local nonprofits and setting fine examples of how breweries can have a place in a small city while disproving the “more alcohol = more alcohol-related problems” status quo.

This article, however, aims to shed some light on another incredibly important group of individuals who have blazed a trail of acceptance, collaboration and community spirit: Beyond The Grape, and the Tri-Cities Brew Club.

I spoke to Michael Druce, owner of Beyond The Grape and host of the TCBC, about how the scene has transformed the city with its progressive approach to breweries setting the pace for neighbouring municipalities to adopt a more inclusive position towards allowing the industry to operate locally.

The Tri-Cities Brew Club has become something of the public face of the craft beer community in the area; especially in Port Moody. Tell us a bit about the history of the club, from its’ origins to present day? 

Almost two years ago at a national homebrew day event, a few of us met and kept in contact knowing the scene was growing and wanting to do something local. After a few discussions amongst us, we decided to create a club. I offered to host/ be the home of the club at Beyond The Grape. We had the space and at that time were just about to enter the home brewing supplies business. Until then we had just been doing the Brewer’s Best Extract kits. The fit was perfect and has led to great things for so many areas of the craft beer scene in the Tri-Cities. We have some very talented members that were there from day one and have gained many others. We have members now working at Yellow Dog, Moody Ales, Ridge Brewing, Big River Brewing, and Bridge Brewing. Our club is fairly relaxed but we all enjoy craft beer and want to share that with others. There are some casual members to very active ones. We meet the second Thursday of every month and there is almost always someone new at each meeting. Our members range from beginners to professional brewers and we welcome all. If you brew or even want to brew, you are welcome to come out and learn and share your knowledge.

With the explosion of interest in craft brewing and beer in the area, can you comment on the impact on small / local business and the city itself due to craft industry growth? 

This industry has been great for Beyond The Grape and the community, even in the short time that it has been in the local area. The relationship between the breweries and Beyond The Grape is fantastic. We have been very supportive of the them and they have returned the support. All of us support the community in whatever way we can and have the local craft brewing industry at heart with whatever we do. The more the local craft beer scene grows, the better it is for all of us – whether it is the breweries or us as a home brewing supply store. This has also had a very positive impact on other local businesses, from pubs and food trucks, to printers and sign companies  – to name a few.

You host the TCBC’s meetings and other events at your store, Beyond the Grape. Can you elaborate on your relationship with the club? Which came first, and how has each entity benefitted from being associated with one another?

Beyond the Grape On-Premise Winemaking was started in 1999.  The wholesale supplies and product available locally for beer at the time were not that great compared to the Wine kit/On Premise industry, so we never really came off that path till 2013 when our wine kit supplier/ manufacturer Winexpert talked us into a new product that got our foot in the door. We became the trial store for the Brewer’s Best Extract beer kits, and with that we tried to get to know as many parts of the home brewing business as we could. We also started teaching classes. Our supplier hosted a National Home Brewing Day event in November of that year; a neighbour of mine, as well as myself and Dan Helmer (now co-owner of Moody Ales) met and the concept of the Tri-Cities Brew Club really started to become a reality. At this time it was also becoming apparent that Beyond The Grape could also do more for local brewers with supplying more than just the kits as more and more people were coming in asking for other things like hops, grains, yeast, and equipment.

After a few conversations with Dan and his now business partner Adam Crandall and their encouragement, Beyond The Grape launched itself completely into the Brewing Supply business in February/March of 2014 and part of that was to host the club. Since that time, the relationship has been prosperous for both.  In that year and half, the brewing supply side of our business has grown to be between 25-30% of our business and continues to grow. We have now become a major player in the greater Vancouver market with a great supply of grains, hops, yeasts and equipment and have gained a bit of a niche of finding things for customers. Our growth has also lead us to other great relationships, such as having award-winning home brewer and BJCP judge Warren Boyer teach our all grain class. We also provide ingredients to several breweries and cideries.

The Brew Club has been involved in a number of successful, local beer events. Tell us a bit about these, and perhaps an idea of any events to look forward in the future. 

Dan and I work well together and have taken a liking to working on side projects. The Club is one of those projects and with that we have found other great people to work with. the TriCities Cask Festival Association (TCCFA) has grown out of the club with all members of the Association being club members.  The TCCFA has now put on one successful cask festival and is working on several events for the coming months. This all stemmed from Dan and I figuring a way to get the club to have a cask in the first festival that he put together. The Club has now to includes a cask in each festival and the feedback has been great. These are  not the only things going on: we also have several members wanting to start hosting educational events for both the home brewer and craft beer enthusiasts. There are always more ideas being put out there, however, so who knows what else might come up.

Some of your members have been able to showcase their brews by way of guest taps at local breweries; Moody’s Intrepid Matcha Saison immediately comes to mind. Are there other club brews that will be seen on tap at breweries in the near future? 

The same member that made the Matcha Saison (Steve Sheldon) also won a completion that the club did with Hearthstone brewing and should have a beer out with them in the next few months. We also had a couple guys (Steve Thomas & Geoff Nelson) do a pilot batch with Yellow Dog as a prize for another competition. Warren Boyer –  who is also a club member –  recently brewed with Old Abbey and has a beer on the go with Parallel 49 that should be out in a few weeks. We have also had several other members brew at Moody Ales over the last year and one brew with Elysian, so there is some great beer coming out of these club members.

How large is the TCBC member base? Based on its’ history to date, where do you see the club in a years’ time? Additionally, in what ways would you like to see the club engage the community in general? 

The club is now 170 facebook members and hopefully we can grow to 250 in a year’s time. I think I answered the rest in the previous question.

If you could have any member brew in collaboration with a professional brewery, who, and what style of beer would it be? 

This is a very hard question for me as there are many very talented brewers in the club, all with very different styles and skillets, and we have had several members produce very good collaborations. Connor Gillan would be one person I would love to see be let loose to create a beer with a brewery, and for those that know him, this part is not a surprise. He has an incredible ability to add some funk to his beers. I would go with a sour, but any style he chose to funkify would be good.

Visit Beyond The Grape’s website to shop for brewing equipment, ingredients and more. CAMRA members receive 10 % off of Craft Beer 202 / All-grain brewing classes at BTG. 

Jeremy Noonan
@jerryvillainous

CAMRA BC – Vancouver Branch Community Liaison