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Brothers grow beer from ground up

First estate brewery in Canada launches as first pints poured

By: Geoff Kirbyson

Posted: 04/14/2012 1:00 AM | Comments: 0

The owners of Luxalune Gastropub have taken an important step toward the opening of Canada's first-ever estate brewery.

Brothers Chris and Lawrence Warwaruk poured the first pints of their first beer recipe Wednesday afternoon, a still-unnamed light lager, and may tinker with it as they receive customer feedback at their Osborne Street pub.

Once their beer passes muster, they intend to make it available to other restaurants and pubs, ideally in time for the busy summer beer-drinking season.

The beer is being co-produced at a brewery in B.C., but the Warwaruks will take over the brewing duties as soon as the Farmery Estate Brewery opens up in Neepawa.

Estate breweries are different from traditional breweries -- Manitoba has two traditional ones, Half Pints and Fort Garry -- because the ingredients that go into the bottles are grown on the estate or farm.

Changes to Manitoba liquor laws, which passed last June, opened the door for the Warwaruks to pursue the concept. The two biggest changes in the new legislation enable restaurateurs to brew beer on site by creating brew pubs and allowing customers to take their own bottle of wine to participating restaurants.

The Warwaruks don't have a firm timetable for cutting the ribbon on the Farmery. They plan to build a malt plant this summer and then begin construction on the estate brewery.

Their first batch of barley was harvested last year and their malting-barley seed and hops are ready to go into the ground this month.

"We're going to get our hands dirty and be part of the growing process. We're farmers at heart," Chris said.

Lawrence, who recently moved his family to Neepawa, said he's optimistic their beer will be popular in Manitoba, where Bud Light is the top seller and there's a small but devoted community of craft-beer fanatics.

"We can't grow grapes for a wine industry. The irony is (the Prairies) are the heart of where malt and barley that goes into beers as far away as Japan is grown, but there's no small-scale estate brewery on the Prairies," he said.

"What people want nowadays is choice. If they don't have choice, they don't realize what else is out there. We're trying to broaden people's horizons."

Following in the footsteps of beers around the world that are served in unique draught glasses, the Warwaruks serve theirs in a Mason jar.

"We didn't want a pilsner glass. This is a sealer jar that we drank coffee or tea out of when we were on the farm. We wanted to have something more rustic and memorable," Chris said, adding their beer will initially be available in kegs, but they also plan to bottle it.

Craft brewing is the fastest-growing segment of the beer industry. Five-year-old Luxalune offers 150 different beers in both bottles and draught.

geoff.kirbyson@freepreess.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition April 14, 2012 B2

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