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. This week’s spotlight is on Off The Rail Brewing Co.
Steven Forsythe has spent 28 years building to this moment. For decades, the Railway Club was the go to bar for locally brewed craft beer. Steven spent years advocating for and serving local beer to his loyal clients there. In 2008, he made the decision to sell and focus on some land that his family owned in Mission. Amongst the things growing on this farmland were hops. Steven became a local supplier of hops for members of a budding beer community. Then one day, it all kind of happened: “I started brewing on my own four years ago. Turns out I loved it. I woke up one morning and turned to my wife and said ‘this is what I should do, I should start a brewery.” That conversation happened about 2 years ago. Steven reached out to Trigger Segal – a colleague from the Railway Club who brought about 30 years of bar management and entertainment related experience – into the fold as a business partner. Before they knew it, they were underway in East Vancouver.
Now, I’m sure some people see another brewery opening in east Vancouver and the first thing they think is ‘Oh, no. The other breweries are not going to like that.’ Trigger is quick to explain the opposite: “Everyone has been great, be it David at Powell Street, Graham at Parallel 49, James at Storm. You can phone someone, they pop in see how it’s going. It’s just a different business experience than most people are used to.” Steven adds, “No one here looks at this as a competition. Most brewers look at it as the growing of a whole community which just benefits everybody.” That being said, there must be something that is going to make them stand out in a very tightly knit community. Steven says that is probably their focus on more traditional styles. “What I have seen over the years in this community is a lot of variety. Given that I have grown hops and worked with them in brewing, I can tell you there are a lot of hops. That’s why we are seeing such a shortage these days. I’ve kind of gone back and over the last four years focused on my recipes that don’t have such a hop profile, and more of a malt profile.” So we can expect a focus on traditional styles. Expect to see a usage of English malts, Czech malts and more old-style ingredients.
While I visiting a did get a chance to try a few beers. One – ironically enough based on my last paragraph – was a mild IPA. Brewed with Topaz, Mosaic and Centennial hops, it’s for people that don’t like a “hop bomb”, Steven explained. It had a nice hop kick and a very clean finish that isn’t going to leave new IPA drinkers wondering if they have destroyed their tastebuds. I also had the opportunity to try a smoked Porter. Now, usually I’m pretty picky about smoked beers, I find they tend to be over-the-top and difficult to handle. This, and the other hand, I fell in love with; a medium bodied porter coupled with a thick campfire-esque smokiness that isn’t overbearing. The malt characters really are highlighted as it warmed, trouble is I enjoyed it so quickly that I didn’t let it warm as much as I would have liked. In all, Off the Rail plans to have 5 beers available when they open in a few weeks. They have a capacity for 14 taps, including 2 Nitro taps. Speaking to his reasoning for such a robust system, Steven says: “I love going somewhere that has a lot of taps, because as a consumer I get such a brilliant choice of beer to try. That’s something we decided a long time ago – to put in as many taps as we could fit in. Because we knew between myself and Mike Evans, one of our brewers, we’ve got tons of recipes and will have no trouble filling them.”
The tasting room itself is a great little place, I really suggest you all head out and support these new brewers on the scene. While there isn’t a hard date, expect them to be open by mid-February. As if the fantastic beer and radiant personalities of the owners isn’t enough, Steven and Trigger are happy to offer a 10% CAMRA discount on purchases at the brewery, so show up with your card and enjoy a nice discount on your beer! Looking forward to seeing you at 1351 Adanac St.
David Perry – @davidjp87
Community Liaison – CAMRA BC, Vancouver Chapter
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For more information on Off The Rail, visit their website and check out their Twitter and Facebook.
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