Oxus unyoked and growing fast

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This article was published 07/01/2022 (1528 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The beer is flowing at Oxus Brewing Company, which finds itself at the fore of a burgeoning industry as so many others struggle to find their footing in a shaky market.

The company recently underwent a large-scale expansion. Owner Sean Shoyoqubov said, in the past year, his company has upped its production about 15-fold.

“We grew from doing three tonnes per month to close to 45 tonnes,” Shoyoqubov said. “It is a very significant expansion.”

It’s good news for a craft beer industry still taking its first steps in this province.

Not long ago, Manitoba beer meant Half Pints or Fort Garry. Liquor laws squeezed out smaller brewers seeking to eke out a spot in the market, leaving beer drinkers in this province gawking at the wealth of local options after trips to places such as Montreal or Vancouver.

But since laws relaxed in 2016, craft brewers have begun to sprout up, sure as barley in a Manitoban field, one after the other.

Shoyoqubov said he’s ecstatic to be part of Winnipeg’s growing beer culture.

“It’s pretty dope,” Shoyoqubov said with a laugh. “Because when I decided to go professional with my hobby — because at the time it was just a hobby — there were a few other people in town who were also trying to start breweries. So, we all met up, and we formed the Manitoba Brewers Association.”

As a founding member of the association, which has grown to include 11 brewers, of which all but two are inside the Perimeter Highway, Shoyoqubov and Oxus Brewing Company watched the industry grow from its germinal stage.

“I have witnessed how all other breweries were built and the challenges everybody went through, and it’s amazing to see how the industry is exploding,” Shoyoqubov said. “And then being part of that explosion — it was pretty cool.”

The entrepreneur said he discovered a love for craft beers while studying in Portland, Ore. He’d just emigrated from Tajikistan (“The smallest of the -stans,” Shoyoqubov joked), and when he eventually moved to Winnipeg, he took up the hobby that would become his business.

Perhaps it’s because Winnipeg brewers are still so fresh from their hobbyist roots, but whatever the reason, Shoyoqubov said Winnipeg’s craft beer industry is friendlier than most.

“When brewery owners meet, it’s always a very warm atmosphere, where people share a pint and everybody is in chill mode,” he said. “But it is business. And it’s a competition.”

To bring in more dollars, but also to support the growth of the local industry, Oxus Brewing Company contracts out their services to even smaller brewers. These “contract brewers” come to Shoyoqubov with a small capital investment and a recipe, and Shoyoqubov supplies the rest, effectively democratizing the industry even further.

Beer enthusiast and Bookstore Brewing Company owner Parris Filbert is a contract brewer with Oxus Brewing Company.

He credits the service as one reason why Winnipeggers are seeing ever more local options at vendors and pubs and praises Shoyoqubov for smoothing his transition into commercial beer making.

“It’s been fantastic. Sean’s an incredible straight shooter. He’s all about fairness … he’s a very honest businessman,” Filbert said.

Oxus Brewing Company is located at 1180 Sanford St. and has a taproom for the public.