TCB breaks ground on Brandon site

BRANDON — Trans Canada Brewing Co., hopes to open its new Brandon location as early as December, the company’s president says.

Staff and dignitaries held a sod-turning event Wednesday at the future site of the craft brewery, taproom and restaurant at 105 Middleton Ave., just off the Trans-Canada Highway.

“This has been in the works now for well over a year, and to finally break ground today is a pretty exciting opportunity for us. It’s going to be a good one,” Trans Canada president Will Lisson said in an interview.

Construction will cost upwards of $3 million, he said. “It’s a big swing, but one we’re pretty excited about making.”

The company currently has one location in southwest Winnipeg, which first opened in 2017.

“We really want to be a household name in brewing in all of Manitoba, not just Winnipeg,” Lisson said. “Brandon’s such a great beer-loving city. We can’t wait to be here.”

Lisson said the design concept for Brandon will be similar to the Winnipeg operation. At more than 7,000 square feet, it will have room for somewhere between 120 to 150 people, including a 40- to 50-person function room. It will also include a small retail store.

The production facility will brew all of its beer varieties on site, while the store will sell some varieties of beer it doesn’t sell in third-party liquor stores.

“It’s a bit of a smaller production facility than our Kenaston (Boulevard) location is, but we still will have more than enough ample opportunity here to produce all the beer that’s going to be consumed here on site,” Lisson said.

He envisions between 16 and 20 taps of beer flowing on any night of the week, with “everything that you’re drinking here in the glass to be fresh coming out of those tanks right here.”

The location will create about 30 jobs, a mix of full- and part-time positions.

Lisson said the site of the restaurant, near a major highway, is perfect for traffic, while still being a destination for Brandonites.

Lisson said with a bit of good fortune on the construction side, the location could be open at the end of the year.

The company had initially planned to open the facility this spring.

However, Lisson said with it being the first expansion, company leadership “may have been shooting a little bit high” and there were unexpected delays.

— Brandon Sun