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 Twin Sails Brewing Co.
Port Moody has come a long way in recent years. From sleepy suburb to booming 
center of culture and excitement, the City of the Arts is contributing to the craft beer explosion in a big way. With two breweries having opened in the last 18 months and another to open in 2016, the tail end 0f 2015 brings with it the opening of Twin Sails Brewing Co – and with it, the introduction of styles new to the neighbourhood.
Like its companion breweries, Twin Sails is located on Murray St – directly across from Rocky Point Park and in this case, right next door to Yellow Dog. It adds to a local scene that is bristling with energy and fervor. The future of an entire city is being shaped around the impact of new faces and new money that the craft brewing economy is breathing into every area it’s established in.
Enter the tasting room, and prepare to catch your breath, for the interior is a gorgeous contrast to the industrial front that is standard for the view street side. Solid, robust brick hugs one side of the building, with tables and seating dispensed comfortably and with generous spacing between one’s neighbours.
I spoke with Cody Allmin, one of the owners of Twin Sails about their opening, the community and what to expect going forward. They had done their hiring carefully, and have launched with a brewing roster bolstered with the pedigree of industry experience. “Clay (Cody’s twin brother) and I were home brewers, but hadn’t ever brewed on a system of this size – we knew we’d need an experienced head brewer to drive things” he remarked. “We interviewed 15-20 people; we came across Dave, who came over from 33 Acres – he’d worked at Parallel 49 before that. He’s a great guy and we got along really well with him. He made great beer and had a solid handle on German style beers. It was pretty much perfect with what we were aiming to do”.
A brewer needs experienced, reliable hands and they had found that in their newest hire, Ryan Voight. “Ryan was previously at Bridge Brewing and came highly recommended”, Cody said. “We have a well rounded crew producing great beers”.
And it’s true. I sampled all four of their offerings: a pilsner, hefeweizen, roggenbier and a marzen (the best marzen I’ve seen made in the province, by far). The team aims to be bottling some of their flagship brews in the next six to eight months too. “We want to put our Pilsner and our Hefeweizen out there first” he mentioned. “Those will be year round offerings”. In a year, we anticipate we’ll be seeing these and more showing up on shelves in our liquor stores. A solid business plan with careful, well thought-out planning.
One of the best things about Twin Sails opening is how natural their inclusion in the community feels. “I think it’s brought a lot of fun back to Port Moody” Cody said. “It’s brought back the ‘socially acceptable’ aspect in getting together for a few beers. It’s not something to look down upon. Meeting up for some beers at the tasting room or at home with your family has become something really very acceptable, something to gather a community around”. It’s true that craft breweries have helped to develop the feeling of community and gathering in a way that most any other industry cannot, and this is not at all lost on this new brewery in such an important time in Port Moody’s history.
Before leaving, I pitched a question to Cody that is a personal favourite of mine: who 
would you want to collaborate with, and what style would you brew? His answer was one of the most inspiring that I’ve ever been given to this question. “We’ve spoken to Yellow Dog and Moody Ales, and we’ve already made plans to work together on a beer that we could brew collaboratively. It’d be a simple style that none of us would normally brew on our own, and the proceeds from that beer would go to a charity or another important community cause.” I found this response to be both exciting and wholly inspiring, in that it represents the efforts and caring of every brewery in the city working together to support their neighbours in the community. In the way they know how, they are giving back to the people that have backed them from the beginning, and that in itself is a point of pride that we can all feel great about.
Twin Sails is open for business 7 days a week, at 2821 Murray St – right next to Yellow Dog and just down the street from Moody Ales – in Port Moody. Quality craft beer with a German-inspired focus is the feature here, and visiting their tasting room is something you’ll want to do at your very next opportunity.
Jeremy Noonan – CAMRA Vancouver Community Liaison
@jerryvillainous
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