Speaker 1: This episode is made possible by the BC Ale Trail.
Speaker 1: Arrive thirsty, Leave inspired at BCAleTrail.ca .
Speaker 1: If you hit a midlife crisis, what's the obvious choice?
Speaker 1: Buy a motorcycle?
Speaker 1: No! You get into brewing beer!
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Cascadian Beer Podcast. My name's Aaron and
Speaker 1: I'm Cascadian. In this podcast series I high profile the unique
Speaker 1: breweries of Cascadia, a region that has a strong presence
Speaker 1: on the international beer scene.
Speaker 1: Cascadia is a bio region in the Pacific Northwest on
Speaker 1: the North American continent. It's made up of the U.
Speaker 1: S states of Washington and Oregon. As well the Canadian province of
Speaker 1: British Columbia.
Speaker 1: If you're enjoying this podcast series I really hope you're subscribed
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Speaker 1: and you'll never miss an episode. And if you enjoy
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Speaker 1: it really helps support and grow this podcast.
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Speaker 1: on social media at Facebook.com/cascadianbeer on Twitter @CascadianBeer and on
Speaker 1: Instagram @CascadianBeerPodcast .
Speaker 1: So in this episode, I was very fortunate to visit
Speaker 1: a beautiful part of British Columbia. I traveled Highway sixteen
Speaker 1: in the northern part of the province recently, and I
Speaker 1: made a stop in the community of Terrace.
Speaker 1: Sherwood Mountain is a brewery focusing mostly on laggers and
Speaker 1: has been quite successful in the local area. On a
Speaker 1: very busy Thursday afternoon, I sat down with Brewer and
Speaker 1: co owner Daryll Tucker.
Speaker 1: Daryl Tucker I'm the owner of Sherwood Mountain and Brewmaster .
Speaker 1: Alright And how long you been open for?
Speaker 2: Opened December nineteenth of twenty fourteen. So a week before Christmas, right?
Speaker 2: Good time to open a brewery if you Ah,
Speaker 2: I want to go in with a bang!
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And where are we? Where we located?
Speaker 1: And the
Speaker 2: points in the northwest part of the province. Terrace BC,
Speaker 1: Right on highway sixteen, Right, Right.
Speaker 2: On highway sixteen to yellow head highway and picture rate
Speaker 2: into Rupert. And from there in the island hided wire.
Speaker 2: Go to Alaska.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it was a beautiful drive coming out. I
Speaker 1: drove in from Smithers today.
Speaker 2: That whole drive from Prince George to the Prince Rupert,
Speaker 2: the highlighted Smither to Prince Rupert in my mind
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, it was beautiful. So how to be
Speaker 1: refined you
Speaker 2: Beer found me in, Ah, midlife crisis. I was forty
Speaker 2: four years old, and, ah had just had a good
Speaker 2: run with a local airline company of the marketing director
Speaker 2: in business
Speaker 2: development Guy and ah, looking for something different and ah,
Speaker 2: my partner and friend said, Well, why don't you be
Speaker 2: a brewmaster? And I thought, What the heck? The broom outside,
Speaker 2: I want a broom out through Just drink beer
Speaker 2: from that I just decided, you know, look into it
Speaker 2: and had a bit of an online brochure from the
Speaker 2: V l B, which is, ah, school in Berlin and, ah,
Speaker 2: some research. And it resonated with me and all beards
Speaker 2: a lot like
Speaker 2: cooking, making something. So I enjoyed cooking to him. I
Speaker 2: enjoyed beer. And then, of course, the other side of ah,
Speaker 2: a beard. You have to sell it and market it
Speaker 2: and put on events. So kind of that sort of
Speaker 2: been my history. Right? So it seemed like a you know,
Speaker 2: it seemed to have a good fit for me. Plus,
Speaker 2: I had the opportunity if I made the thing I'll
Speaker 2: go to Goto live in Ah, in Europe in Berlin
Speaker 2: for six months. And I didn't have any kids or
Speaker 2: a wife, so it didn't work out with me. That
Speaker 2: was going toe bomb. Yeah. You know, I went for
Speaker 1: it. Yeah. So? So you went over to Germany? Yeah,
Speaker 1: for I
Speaker 2: had to get a couple of years and I would
Speaker 2: never I don't have a home brewing background or anything
Speaker 2: like that business. And I was looking for an idea, and,
Speaker 2: like I say, resonated. So
Speaker 2: I went to Ontario a few a few summer back
Speaker 2: and forth from terrorists in the van and learned, Ah,
Speaker 2: the nuts and bolts of brewing at Lake Obeyed Brewing
Speaker 2: Company under ah, couple of good friends now and mentors.
Speaker 2: And from that, once they've got the experience and will
Speaker 2: still worked out, Ah, got accepted into the veil, be
Speaker 2: in Berlin and and made the trip over there. And
Speaker 2: I think it was Ah, twenty thirteen. I was there
Speaker 2: for
Speaker 1: that year, right? And then how long until you finish
Speaker 1: the course? And then I had this very open finished
Speaker 1: up the courts have
Speaker 2: done. At the end of June twenty thirteen what went
Speaker 2: backto Ontario and embedded with the folks and family and
Speaker 2: did another, but a month it like a bass brewing.
Speaker 2: And then, ah, and then Thanksgiving came, and I was
Speaker 2: kind of
Speaker 2: make a decision. So I had a house here, but
Speaker 2: I wasn't quite sure if you know, if I had
Speaker 2: it for him, for the business. But I had a
Speaker 2: couple of job offers in the brewing world, but it
Speaker 2: kind of stuck to my gun and ah came back
Speaker 2: to terrorists and we put a business partner, Parker, Linda Parker.
Speaker 2: We put pen to paper in January twenty fourteen. Got
Speaker 2: the place secured in March, ordered up the machine
Speaker 2: machinery and,
Speaker 1: ah, we're open like I say for December, Right, man,
Speaker 1: that's That's actually quite a fast turnaround, considering some other berries. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I look at
Speaker 2: some of the stuff down in the bigger mainland area,
Speaker 2: and I kind of, you know, I count my blessings.
Speaker 2: That could re certainly the stars align for us. And
Speaker 2: the leasing on this property was favorable, so he didn't
Speaker 2: have a whole
Speaker 2: empty building waiting for months to get compliant or get accepted.
Speaker 2: And then we kind of, Ah, kind of just marched through.
Speaker 2: It kind
Speaker 1: of worked out well, All right. And was there another
Speaker 1: berry and terrorists at the time? Or like what? And
Speaker 1: you just wanted to open here because you lived here, right?
Speaker 1: That's right. I
Speaker 2: mean, there was no other burry in town. There is
Speaker 2: a bit of a history of you working with another
Speaker 2: group that wanted open a brewery. Ah, the skin of
Speaker 2: brewing company. But
Speaker 2: they couldn't. They're playing. Couldn't get four, move forward. So
Speaker 2: I kind of kept pushing forward on my own. And Ah,
Speaker 2: and Linda came on board with me, and away we
Speaker 2: went till we open our own space.
Speaker 1: And, ah, where does the name Sherwood Mountain come from? Well,
Speaker 2: sure. What Mountain is a bit of a bit of
Speaker 2: a story to itself. Basically, my last name. Tucker Soil.
Speaker 2: For a long time, I've been called talk and course, Friar,
Speaker 2: Tuck it Come into my end of my world over
Speaker 2: the years growing up on DA. But the truth was
Speaker 2: we're in. Ah, were in London after after schooling of
Speaker 2: Berlin that I spoke about,
Speaker 2: Parker came to visit me and we went over and
Speaker 2: traveled around Europe a bit on the way. We stopped
Speaker 2: in London and we went to a theatrical production called
Speaker 2: The Wicked Wicked and it's the story of the wicked
Speaker 2: witch and how her story was wrongly portrayed. And that
Speaker 2: kind of that show went on about that. And it
Speaker 2: got us thinking, I'm sure what and so sure Whitney
Speaker 2: and all the fire. He had another life. He lives,
Speaker 2: and we lived in the four for this friends over there.
Speaker 2: But in the off season he come Teo
Speaker 2: terrorist BC and the Coast Mountain Range and bruise beer.
Speaker 2: So yeah, the whole another. Ah, another half life
Speaker 1: here, all right. And that's why he's on the bottle, right?
Speaker 2: And that's why he's on the bottle. He's part of
Speaker 2: her part of our story. And then that the tie
Speaker 2: end of May to my dad as well. So there's
Speaker 2: a There's a couple of pieces that tie into the whole.
Speaker 2: Sure would think
Speaker 2: that's kind of a little more unique than justice. Just ah,
Speaker 2: something else like Sakina.
Speaker 1: Great. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm in conversation with Daryl Tucker from Sherwood Mountain,
Speaker 1: so I was really excited to visit Northern BC and
Speaker 1: It was my first time up there, and I was
Speaker 1: kind of wondering where to begin. Well, you know what
Speaker 1: helped the BC Ale Trail at the BCL Trail dossier,
Speaker 1: you'LL find the newly launched A ll trail for the
Speaker 1: northern BC, where you will not only get suggestions for
Speaker 1: what berries you should visit, but also pubs and local
Speaker 1: restaurants and other activities the area has to offer. And
Speaker 1: there are a lot of them while on the website
Speaker 1: you'LL find a comprehensive list of every craft brewery, NBC,
Speaker 1: a calendar with beer events and a blogger featuring the
Speaker 1: stories of B C's craft beer scene. So whether you're
Speaker 1: planning a visit or being a tourist in your own backyard,
Speaker 1: let the BCL trail guide you to your next beer adventure.
Speaker 1: Arrive thirsty Leave inspired at bcl trail dot c A.
Speaker 1: And thanks so much for supporting this podcast, guys.
Speaker 1: All right, let's jump back into conversation with Darryl had
Speaker 1: short mountain at the side of the bird house there
Speaker 1: and and who made it for
Speaker 2: us? We We opened up with a fifteen barrel to
Speaker 2: vessel brew hosts and ah made in biker Beller, North America,
Speaker 2: a Canadian company and the
Speaker 2: That's kind of where we were at. We really wanted
Speaker 2: to support Canadian companies that much as we could North
Speaker 2: American after that. So Ah, we ah, you know, we
Speaker 2: got our quotes in and ah, for us, Theo.
Speaker 2: The decision was made with two U's Carella equipment, so
Speaker 2: we started off with that to vessel brewhouse and three
Speaker 2: fermenter thirty barrel per mentors in a in a single
Speaker 2: thirty barrel bright. So
Speaker 1: that's our That was where we opened with that menu
Speaker 1: expanded since then.
Speaker 2: Since then, we've added a couple of more thirty thirty
Speaker 2: barrel for mentors. The single bright We've got two more
Speaker 2: forty five barrels coming this fall
Speaker 2: kind of get the production up. We recently added a
Speaker 2: while the goose scanning system tau our system plus a
Speaker 2: little machine to had filler so we can bolland cake now.
Speaker 2: So it's Ah yeah, good little system that
Speaker 1: we've got going in where he's sending that product to
Speaker 1: definitely
Speaker 2: were. The core of our business is right here out
Speaker 2: of the brew house. And then we're we stretch over
Speaker 2: to the hide Agwai, the Queen Charlotte Islands, Prince
Speaker 1: Rupert. It's actually the first place where I had your
Speaker 1: beer was on high to glide when I was
Speaker 2: that in that we're not all. There's only a handful
Speaker 2: of places that sell himto tossed him to here. You know,
Speaker 2: it's really, really exciting. Teo be able to sell in
Speaker 2: Heidi Quiet. Give me a good love going over there.
Speaker 2: But if you throw a little bit this into it, too,
Speaker 2: it's not much sweeter.
Speaker 2: The glide, the furthers west, obviously. And then we go
Speaker 2: all the way over to, Ah, Prince George and do
Speaker 2: some time runs herself. But our actual distribution stopped that
Speaker 2: cute in which of the other side of Smithers kid
Speaker 2: amount and then different seasons. We go up north and
Speaker 2: you know, from time to time people come through and
Speaker 2: take product down to other reaches. But that's not a
Speaker 2: regular regular stops.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so when do you first opened your doors? What
Speaker 1: was the community's response to you guys opening
Speaker 2: when we first opened the doors? Like I say with
Speaker 2: December nineteenth and the mean
Speaker 2: and you're building breweries and bringing in big tanks people,
Speaker 2: they're curious and watching and paying attention. And when we
Speaker 2: open the door or just Linda and I we kind of,
Speaker 2: you know, one day you have to just open. There's
Speaker 2: always more you, Khun D'Oh, no. Yeah, but we opened
Speaker 2: it up. It would shut before Christmas and nobody had
Speaker 2: a growler, You know, he knew what a growler
Speaker 1: was. Yet then did you have some? Instead, we
Speaker 2: had a lot of girls way ordered tons of growler,
Speaker 2: since I don't know I mean, they're starting to slow
Speaker 2: down now,
Speaker 1: but we've done a lot of
Speaker 2: growlers and and we still film every day regularly. When
Speaker 2: the doors opening with Let's crazy we ended up calling
Speaker 2: friends and family. We just couldn't couldn't keep up. So
Speaker 2: and that was kind of that whole whole Christmas trade
Speaker 2: up to New Year's. And there's a little bit of
Speaker 2: a reprieve on January two or three. But the interest
Speaker 2: was high that first year, so we kind of the
Speaker 2: barn doors were swung wide open away. We went
Speaker 1: right. Did you run out of beer? Didn't ran. I
Speaker 1: don't recall running
Speaker 2: out of beer. Hate running at a beer, and I
Speaker 2: don't try to do that very often. Court to run
Speaker 2: it a brand from time to time, we'd never physically
Speaker 2: not hot beer, right? Yeah. No, that's good. Can't sell
Speaker 2: often empty shelf that the body would say,
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. So where you guys going from here?
Speaker 1: He said. There's just a little bit of expansion coming.
Speaker 1: I mean, do you want to kind of just distribute
Speaker 1: Mohr amongst the province or like, what's with the plan? Well,
Speaker 1: we have to
Speaker 2: broom or beer because of the canning machine and that basically,
Speaker 2: those in the business, it's, you know, it's all about volume,
Speaker 2: and there you make a little bit off each six
Speaker 2: packs or whatever. So so right now, if we're just
Speaker 2: really trying to fill up the pipe from Guild buildup
Speaker 2: in inventory and with our, you know, our five vessels
Speaker 2: right now we have been over the Philip the pipe
Speaker 2: and get an inventory buildup. So really, with the next
Speaker 2: to it, just a matter of building up inventory and
Speaker 2: then maybe take on a few more accounts in our region.
Speaker 2: But I don't have any aspirations of going beyond
Speaker 2: Prince George anytime soon. I'm just kind of like doing
Speaker 2: what we're doing here,
Speaker 2: not necessarily off the radar. Faras further but a lot
Speaker 2: of great beer, NBC. So, yeah, you know, kind of
Speaker 2: keep her closer to
Speaker 1: home. So you're mentioning inventory there and how nobody had
Speaker 1: a growler in this town. So what are the styles
Speaker 1: that you focus on? And whatever he found has been
Speaker 1: kind of your most popular beer To make sure the
Speaker 1: local community
Speaker 2: for us? Well, hands down. We probably do more loggers
Speaker 2: and most BC bird. I'm not sure, but yeah, up
Speaker 2: in here we are the one that turns on the light.
Speaker 2: Daily is it's an easy drink and light Loggers four
Speaker 2: point seven percent alcoholic
Speaker 2: twelve fifteen I booze. It's Justin. Like I say, you
Speaker 2: could drink that one and still worked along Mauritz. But
Speaker 2: it's it's fit, the one that keeps flying. And then
Speaker 2: we did a I did in Munich logger behind that one.
Speaker 2: That kind of was a one off, and it just
Speaker 2: took off from people just want a little bit of color,
Speaker 2: and I'm just a little bit more flavor. But again,
Speaker 2: it's not a heavy hitter, and it's not a heavy
Speaker 2: I beg you
Speaker 2: and then my favorite, the pilgrim, because I
Speaker 2: why brew that regularly to, and that's a German. You
Speaker 2: know you're going to Germany, you gotta learn how to
Speaker 2: brew the pills or and this is the way they
Speaker 2: want you to do it. No, nothing, Right? Right. So
Speaker 2: that one and then we do a red ale that
Speaker 2: pretty popular, too. All right, And then we have two
Speaker 2: regular fleet of Ai pus and one offs and things
Speaker 2: like that browns.
Speaker 1: So if somebody was to come and visit you here,
Speaker 1: what are some of the other attractions outside of your
Speaker 1: berry and terrorist that people can enjoy?
Speaker 2: Well, I think what people find when they come to
Speaker 2: terrorist is when the you know when it's when it's
Speaker 2: a sunny day. It's stunning, stunning seeing the Coast Mountains
Speaker 2: and the you know, the drive. They're awesome for me
Speaker 2: and for a lot of people that come more recently,
Speaker 2: the young people that the outdoor lifestyle it's that Shane
Speaker 2: mountain skiing and the back country around here is awesome. Ah,
Speaker 2: skiing at a big thing and then court. There's a
Speaker 2: snowmobiling crowd, but internationally, people are are coming here
Speaker 2: mainly for the sport. Fishing of salmon,
Speaker 2: different Europeans like the hiking in the in the mountains
Speaker 2: and and that, But it's, Ah, it's a sport fishing
Speaker 2: for salmon over there, coming to terrorists on the, you know,
Speaker 2: on the they talk rubber tire traffic, people driving through
Speaker 2: here or coming. Either way, he's the west, west to
Speaker 2: east because they're jumping on the fairies either there going
Speaker 2: over to hide Agwai or they're heading up to Alaska
Speaker 2: or there going down Vancouver Island. You know, whatever direction
Speaker 2: they're heading, that you got the BC coach line here
Speaker 2: in the Alaska Coach lines So big World tourism destination
Speaker 2: that those places,
Speaker 1: right? If somebody's lying to go down the path of
Speaker 1: opening up their own bury what would be some device
Speaker 1: that you give him
Speaker 2: opening up a brewery? Jeez, I think Think where we
Speaker 2: re really? Ah, well, put us on. The right track
Speaker 2: is really taking the time to put together a decent
Speaker 2: and strong Did that plan and really trying to work
Speaker 2: out the volumes and the numbers as best you can.
Speaker 2: I mean, I was lucky in the fact that I
Speaker 2: worked in the breweries and we're you know, we're we're
Speaker 2: older folks, so to speak, so we kind of had
Speaker 2: some business experience behind us, and ah, and I had
Speaker 2: access to information that but that was it was It
Speaker 2: was a known thing when I was working out like
Speaker 2: a bee's a lake Obey that. I was going in
Speaker 2: for open a brewery. So they started shared some numbers,
Speaker 2: and I was able to see things firsthand. So if
Speaker 2: you get that practical experience and and and you Khun,
Speaker 2: work with the numbers, that's only going to help you
Speaker 2: in the long day.
Speaker 1: All right. Well, thank you so much for your time.
Speaker 1: Like it's It's a busy day here, so I really
Speaker 1: appreciate you sin sitting down and chatting.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you came. I'm going a little days. Everything just
Speaker 2: going on right now.
Speaker 1: Thank you. All right. There.
Speaker 1: Big, big, big Thank you to Darryl. Really appreciate it.
Speaker 1: I mean, it was a very busy day. I think
Speaker 1: something
Speaker 1: one of the pumps broke or something that day, and
Speaker 1: he
Speaker 1: and he took a minute out of his day to
Speaker 1: speak with me. And it was a very, very, very
Speaker 1: grateful it'd on DH. Yeah. I love their beers. Love
Speaker 1: what they're doing up there. I just wish I could
Speaker 1: get it down in the lower mainland more often. So
Speaker 1: I guess that means I'll have to go back and
Speaker 1: visit soon. Thank you so much for listening to this
Speaker 1: episode of cascading your podcast. I do hope you're subscribed
Speaker 1: wherever you listen to podcasts or you can go to
Speaker 1: the website cascadian dot beard. Find out how
Speaker 1: big thanks to the BCL Trail for also supporting this episode,
Speaker 1: check him out at the BCL Trail dossier. There's a
Speaker 1: lot of great stuff coming in the pipeline this year,
Speaker 1: so be sure to keep checking in website. And did
Speaker 1: you know they had a mobile app Now? Yeah, you
Speaker 1: can go download the BC Ale Trail happened Now
Speaker 1: the details are on their website BBC Ale trail dot
Speaker 1: C A. If you want to keep up with this
Speaker 1: podcast series, you can through social media. We're on facebook
Speaker 1: dot com for its last Cascadian beer on Twitter at
Speaker 1: Cascadian Beer and on Instagram at Cascadian Beer Podcast. For
Speaker 1: more information, follow this podcast theories. See, some shone out,
Speaker 1: see some photos of me and Darryl at the brewery
Speaker 1: had to cascadian dot beer.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for listening. I really do appreciate it.
Speaker 1: And until next time, remember, support your local