Aaron: This episode of the Cascadian Beer Podcast has been made possible by
Aaron: the BC Ale Trail. Arrive thirsty, leave inspired at thebcaletrail.
Aaron: ca.
Aaron: Welcome to the Cascadian Beer Podcast. My name's Aaron and
Aaron: I'm a Cascadian. In this podcast series, I profile the
Aaron: breweries of Cascadia, a region that has a strong presence
Aaron: in the international beer scene.
Aaron: Cascadia is a bioregion in the Pacific Northwest on the North
Aaron: American continent. It's made up of the US States of
Aaron: Washington and Oregon, as well as the Canadian province of
Aaron: British Columbia.
Aaron: If this is your first time here, welcome. I hope
Aaron: you enjoy this episode of the podcast. And if you
Aaron: like it, please hit subscribe in your favorite podcast app.
Aaron: That way you'll never miss an episode.
Aaron: Earlier this year, I was very fortunate to travel to
Aaron: a region of the province I've always wanted to visit. I
Aaron: hit the road and headed north to Valemount, British Columbia.
Aaron: In this small town in the interior, they have an
Aaron: award winning brewery and a pretty awesome beer festival as
Aaron: well. I sat down with the general manager of Three
Aaron: Ranges Brewing.
Michael Lewis: I am Michael Lewis, general manager of Three Ranges Brewing Company.
Aaron: And Three Ranges, yeah, I think this is the farthest north brewery now
Aaron: I've done.
Michael Lewis: Oh really? No, you were in Rupert.
Aaron: Oh yeah, well, okay. Yeah. I really need to work
Aaron: on my geography here.
Michael Lewis: Probably a couple of minutes more north than we are.
Aaron: Okay. Rupert still holds the title. There we go.
Michael Lewis: Yeah. Well, no. Well yeah, Rupert still holds the title,
Michael Lewis: but if you talk to, you won't visit it, but
Michael Lewis: Fort Saint John's going to be here this weekend with
Michael Lewis: Mighty Peace.
Aaron: Yeah. Well yeah, I need to go up there to talk to them too.
Michael Lewis: Just a couple hours more, right?
Aaron: There we go. So the second furthest north brewery to
Aaron: date is on this taping here in beautiful Valemount. So I
Aaron: had a lot of people ask me when I was
Aaron: coming up, " Where is that?" So, I think it's best that a local can try and describe
Aaron: it here. Where are we?
Michael Lewis: We are in the middle of everywhere, close to nowhere.
Aaron: Right. That is a beautiful way to describe where we are.
Michael Lewis: We're three hours north of Kamloops.
Aaron: Yep. That was a beautiful drive up, I literally just did that.
Michael Lewis: Three hours east of Prince George and five hours- ish,
Michael Lewis: just a little under five hours west of Edmonton.
Aaron: Right.
Michael Lewis: Jasper is an hour and a half from here. Beautiful,
Michael Lewis: awesome place. But we're still just super remote in the
Michael Lewis: middle of the mountains.
Aaron: Yeah. And just straight drive up, it was just so
Aaron: beautiful. So, Three Ranges, I guess the obvious question is
Aaron: why did you get the name?
Michael Lewis: Valemount sits very precisely at the junction of three mountain
Michael Lewis: ranges. So to our east you have the Rockies, which
Michael Lewis: continue running a little more kind of north, northwest, to
Michael Lewis: our west you have the Caribous, or the Premiers, as
Michael Lewis: folks call them. And right to the south is the
Michael Lewis: very tip end of the Monashees, the northern tip end of the
Michael Lewis: Monashees. So we have three mountain ranges that converge right
Michael Lewis: on town here.
Aaron: They just all decided to stop here.
Michael Lewis: Yes, yes they did.
Aaron: So then we got to talk about beer now. So
Aaron: how did beer find you?
Michael Lewis: Oh, I'm a retired US military guy and I met
Michael Lewis: a Canadian girl as I was retiring and moved to
Michael Lewis: Canada. And I came up here to meet her folks
Michael Lewis: the first time and I looked around and I went, "
Michael Lewis: Man, what a beautiful place." If you come here though,
Michael Lewis: there's no jobs. So semi- retirement, what's the job you
Michael Lewis: bring? And about halfway on our drive home, she said, "
Michael Lewis: You drink enough beer, why don't you make it?"
Aaron: Brilliant.
Michael Lewis: And I went, " Okay. Game on." So we built what
Michael Lewis: was kind of a poorly structured 10 year plan to
Michael Lewis: start a brewery, because it was semi not very serious.
Aaron: The life passion project, right? Was that the idea?
Michael Lewis: Yeah, essentially, because she worked for federal parks, and in the
Michael Lewis: budget cuts of 2012 her job was eliminated. So we
Michael Lewis: all of a sudden ended up with a 10 year
Michael Lewis: plan to execute in two years. And here we are.
Aaron: Here we are. So how long have you been open then?
Michael Lewis: December, 2013.
Aaron: December, 2013.
Michael Lewis: Five and a half years.
Aaron: Five and a half years now. I mean, this is a beautiful building.
Aaron: Fifth Avenue, that's the main-
Michael Lewis: That's the main drag.
Aaron: That's the main drag.
Michael Lewis: It's actually main street. But it's not really the name.
Aaron: But nobody uses it.
Michael Lewis: Yeah. Well, no people do. But Fifth Avenue is now
Michael Lewis: the main drag, because they repositioned the highway some 40
Michael Lewis: years ago or 30 years ago.
Aaron: Okay. Right. And so what's the size of your tasting
Aaron: room out the front?
Michael Lewis: Currently we have 72 seats and we're adding 28 more
Michael Lewis: as soon as our patio expansion gets approved.
Aaron: All right, cool. And what is the size of this brewhouse?
Michael Lewis: The brewhouse is a three hectoliter brewhouse. So we do
Michael Lewis: 300 liters at a pop. And we have five 12-
Michael Lewis: hectoliters fermentors and one 650... Or sorry. Yeah, 12-hectoliter fermentors
Michael Lewis: and one six and a half hec.
Aaron: So kind of home brew advanced, right?
Michael Lewis: Well, it started out very home brew. So if you see that
Michael Lewis: little plastic, that's our grist hopper. But that was the
Michael Lewis: size of our first fermentors. So we were single batching and then
Michael Lewis: I had one double batch tank, and in four months
Michael Lewis: we pulled two of the little singles out and added
Michael Lewis: two double batch and two months after that we added
Michael Lewis: two double batch. And then now it's grown to our,
Michael Lewis: first full year in business we did 320 hectoliters. I
Michael Lewis: think last year we did 1, 050.
Aaron: Right. So you're pumping out beer now. Yeah.
Michael Lewis: And it's just been a situation of like a lot
Michael Lewis: of challenges that just came at us from different angles
Michael Lewis: that you don't really expect. But I feel like we've
Michael Lewis: hopefully gotten our worst challenges out of the way in
Michael Lewis: the first couple of years of business. But it puts us in a
Michael Lewis: position, like we brew three batches a day to fill
Michael Lewis: a single fermentor and we do that three to four
Michael Lewis: days a week in the summer.
Aaron: Right. Then so talking about challenges, I mean, I'm sure
Aaron: one of the challenges would be this community because there
Aaron: was no other brewery here, right?
Michael Lewis: Oh, yeah.
Aaron: And being craft, I mean, just kind of by nature
Aaron: there's more flavor in the beer. So what were you
Aaron: thinking in terms of the styles of beers when you
Aaron: first opened? Where was that middle ground almost of trying
Aaron: to serve the local community but then also be crafty?
Michael Lewis: Yeah. And at the time, in our business research a
Michael Lewis: little bit I had driven up to Smithers and visited
Michael Lewis: Plan B Brewing. And Mark shut down the January before
Michael Lewis: we opened, and so trying to kind of look at
Michael Lewis: a little bit of what he had done and figuring
Michael Lewis: out the North. And then I did a lot of
Michael Lewis: intense market research. I got essentially 1/ 10th of the population
Michael Lewis: of Valemount, between online and standing in front of the
Michael Lewis: liquor store. And I understood that I needed a light
Michael Lewis: beer because it was a Budweiser town, so we came
Michael Lewis: out with a Pilsner right off the bat. I need
Michael Lewis: a nice compliment of other flavorful beers. So we started
Michael Lewis: out with the pale and the brown ale as well,
Michael Lewis: kind of standard fare, especially five years ago. I'm an
Michael Lewis: IPA drinker, my wife's an IPA drinker.
Aaron: You won first place for your IPA.
Michael Lewis: Thanks.
Aaron: At the BC Beer Awards.
Michael Lewis: Thank you. And we had just moved up from Victoria
Michael Lewis: up to here.
Aaron: Which it's kind of an IPA town.
Michael Lewis: It is. It is a bit of an IPA town. So yeah,
Michael Lewis: coming up here that was kind of my beer of
Michael Lewis: choice at the time. So I made the Pilsner knowing
Michael Lewis: that it would help pay for the IPA.
Aaron: Right. But then, how long did it take for the IPA
Aaron: to catch on then?
Michael Lewis: It has been a really good seller right from the
Michael Lewis: get go, but I would say last year before the
Michael Lewis: BC Beer Awards, so like towards the middle to end
Michael Lewis: of summer, our IPA became our number one seller. And
Michael Lewis: yeah, people love it. Right now we've taken the Pilsner
Michael Lewis: off for the summer because I need that extra time
Michael Lewis: in the tank as a consumer. So we've started doing
Michael Lewis: a Kolsch for the summer, and those two are pretty
Michael Lewis: neck and neck any given day in the tap room.
Michael Lewis: And we probably brew each one of those beers every
Michael Lewis: week, if not every other week.
Aaron: Yeah, especially on the size that you're at, right?
Michael Lewis: Well, exactly.
Aaron: So expansion plans are in the works, no doubt. Right?
Michael Lewis: I'm working on it. I'm working on it. We have
Michael Lewis: to make a small addition because I have to get an electrical
Michael Lewis: upgrade and a few other things, and then it's a
Michael Lewis: matter of shoehorning a big brewhouse.
Aaron: Right. Cool. I'm in conversation with Michael from Three Ranges.
Aaron: I just want to thank the BC Ale Trail real quick for making this episode
Aaron: possible. And you can check them out at thebcaletrail. ca.
Aaron: There's recommended itineraries for local things you can do in
Aaron: different regions of the province, there's a blog with lots
Aaron: of great stories, and a calendar of all the beer
Aaron: events that are going on around BC. So whether you're
Aaron: planning your next trip to visit us here in British
Aaron: Columbia or you're just wanting to be a tourist in
Aaron: your own backyard, let the BC Ale Trail guide you
Aaron: to your next beer adventure. Arrive thirsty, leave inspired at thebcaletrail.
Aaron: ca. Now let's jump back into the conversation with Three
Aaron: Ranges Brewing. So breweries like this, like you are the
Aaron: brewery here for quite a while, right?
Michael Lewis: Oh yeah.
Aaron: Yeah. In terms of driving distance. And with that, becomes
Aaron: quite the communal hub. So what do you guys do
Aaron: in participating with the local community?
Michael Lewis: Well, I'm huge into our local community. I couldn't survive
Michael Lewis: without our community. And it's kind of funny because I'm
Michael Lewis: very beholden to the people that keep us alive, and
Michael Lewis: that for us in the winters are outside accounts and
Michael Lewis: throughout the year is our front of house sales when
Michael Lewis: it comes to our locals. Like we have a Mug
Michael Lewis: Club. We try to hold about a monthly event that
Michael Lewis: engages with the community, gets people in here and brings
Michael Lewis: a certain attention to our community as well. We support
Michael Lewis: our bike park. We've got a really growing bike park
Michael Lewis: that kind of really kicked off two years ago. So
Michael Lewis: we have a beer we make just for the bike park.
Aaron: Is that a private operation or just kind of like
Aaron: a communal run thing?
Michael Lewis: Well, no. I mean, it's run by our Valemount Area
Michael Lewis: Recreation Development Association. Their website is ridevalemount, and they manage
Michael Lewis: both sledding in the winter and biking in the summer.
Michael Lewis: And they do a great job of it. It's really
Michael Lewis: well organized and really well managed, and you couldn't ask
Michael Lewis: for anything better. The amount of bike traffic that we've
Michael Lewis: gotten through here in the brewery, because it's just a
Michael Lewis: natural tie together, it's amazing. And then the other thing we
Michael Lewis: support, I'm a veteran so we're a huge advocate for
Michael Lewis: veterans causes and raising money for veterans charities and so forth.
Aaron: Yeah. Fantastic. With the brewery here and everything else in
Aaron: Valemount, I'm up here because there's quite a big event
Aaron: going on this weekend, but also I wanted to come
Aaron: up and visit you guys. I've met you a couple
Aaron: of times now at some different festivals. But just quietly, a lot
Aaron: of the breweries that I've been visiting in the last
Aaron: couple of years have been like, " Oh, you got to
Aaron: go to Valemount. It's the best festival. It's the best festival." So
Aaron: tell me a little bit about the Valemount Craft Beer Experience. How did that happen?
Michael Lewis: So I had this idea that I thought it would
Michael Lewis: be great to have a beer festival. And for me, initially
Michael Lewis: it was dedicated to raise money for veterans charities. That
Michael Lewis: was the whole thought behind it and I kind of offhandedly
Michael Lewis: mentioned it to someone in our tourism office. And I
Michael Lewis: thought, you know, in another year or two this would be
Michael Lewis: something really great we could put on and we could
Michael Lewis: bring a bunch of breweries in and have people and
Michael Lewis: we could do it at this location. And I got
Michael Lewis: a phone call the next day from the economic development
Michael Lewis: officer. He was like, " Hey, we want you to come
Michael Lewis: in and tell us about the festival."
Aaron: Give us your pitch. Yeah.
Michael Lewis: Exactly. I want to say that was in November, and
Michael Lewis: lo and behold, we put the first one on the
Michael Lewis: next June, with lots of chaos and lots of craziness
Michael Lewis: and just learning. Same way it's been with business. I
Michael Lewis: was a government employee for 20 years and now I
Michael Lewis: run a business.
Aaron: And so what year is this again?
Michael Lewis: This will be year three for the festival.
Aaron: Year three. Awesome. And we're really looking forward to it.
Michael Lewis: Well, thanks. It's a great event there. Some of the
Michael Lewis: breweries who, if they had their druthers, they might not
Michael Lewis: ever do another event but come to this one. And
Michael Lewis: we keep it very small because as a brewer, I
Michael Lewis: know what it's like going to do all these events,
Michael Lewis: and I want to make it really a positive-
Aaron: Even just getting to the event, right?
Michael Lewis: Well, exactly.
Aaron: Yeah, yeah.
Michael Lewis: But in the same respect too, in the North we're
Michael Lewis: super tight. But Wheelhouse drives down here every year for
Michael Lewis: it and they won't ever miss it. And I love
Michael Lewis: them for it because I know it's a lot of
Michael Lewis: work to get it done.
Aaron: Yeah. I did that in a straight shot on the
Aaron: way back last time and I'm like, "Holy moly, this is a
Aaron: long drive."
Michael Lewis: It is. It is. No, we have a really good
Michael Lewis: event. The town loves it. I don't think they'd ever
Michael Lewis: really seen anything like it before, and well, you'll see
Michael Lewis: tonight. It's out in the middle of nowhere. It's very
Michael Lewis: reminiscent. We bus everybody out to the airport and they
Michael Lewis: get to hang out on the apron, look at the
Michael Lewis: mountains, watch the sunset, listen to music and drink great beer.
Aaron: Beautiful. Really looking forward to it. So if somebody was
Aaron: wanting to open up their own brewery in a community
Aaron: kind of like this size or something, what would be
Aaron: some advice that you can give them? You're shaking your
Aaron: head so much at that question.
Michael Lewis: No. You know what? I love this job and I
Michael Lewis: love our business. I don't think people ever realize how
Michael Lewis: challenging it is in this industry, and especially in the
Michael Lewis: explosion piece where the market is being hammered with all
Michael Lewis: amazing beers. And so trying to figure out your products
Michael Lewis: and figure out your niche and things like that are
Michael Lewis: really challenging, so you really got to do your research.
Michael Lewis: And you've got to be honest too. We just went
Michael Lewis: to the Great Okanagan Beer Festival a couple of weeks
Michael Lewis: ago and it was an awesome event. And you get out
Michael Lewis: there and you see beers that I of course never
Michael Lewis: see up here. So I get her around and you're
Michael Lewis: tasting a beer here, a beer there, and you're thinking,
Michael Lewis: man, holy smokes. You got to realize that if you're
Michael Lewis: going to do a small community brewery, you need to
Michael Lewis: be a small community brewery. In your local market is
Michael Lewis: where your niche is, and the struggle is getting real
Michael Lewis: in so much that there's so many of us. And
Michael Lewis: it's awesome to see and it's awesome to see this
Michael Lewis: conversion though. You know, I think we still hold steady
Michael Lewis: at around 10% of the market share across the board,
Michael Lewis: but it seems like this mass conversion of people coming
Michael Lewis: into craft beer. And I love every one of my
Michael Lewis: brothers and sisters in brewing that helped create that because
Michael Lewis: every one of them turns into a customer for me,
Michael Lewis: and I do the same for them. And it's just
Michael Lewis: that fact of like, if you're going to do it and you want to succeed, what's
Michael Lewis: your niche? Where do you fit in the pie?
Aaron: Yep. Well, thank you so much Michael for your time.
Aaron: This is just lovely and I've only been here like
Aaron: 20 minutes now. I'm really looking forward to the festival
Aaron: tonight. So happy to finally make it up to your
Aaron: brewery too, and I think I need a beer.
Michael Lewis: Well, thank you very much for coming, and I can
Michael Lewis: do that.
Aaron: Thanks. Big thank you to Michael and the rest of
Aaron: the Three Ranges crew, and also all the volunteers that
Aaron: made the Valemount Craft Beer Experience happen and all the breweries that turned
Aaron: up. That was such a great weekend. And a little
Aaron: update though, for 2020, they're going to skip this year
Aaron: for the festival and hopefully it'll be back in 2021.
Aaron: But it was such a great time and I can't thank everyone
Aaron: enough for just an amazing weekend up there in Valemount.
Aaron: Big thanks again to the BC Ale Trail for making
Aaron: this episode possible. And you can check them out at thebcaletrail.
Aaron: ca. I hope you hit subscribe in your favorite podcast
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Aaron: appreciate it. If you want to follow us along on
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Aaron: We're on Twitter @ cascadianbeer and on Instagram @ cascadianbeerpodcast. You can
Aaron: also check out the website for previous episodes and a
Aaron: whole lot more by going to cascadian. beer. Thank you
Aaron: so much again for your time. I really do appreciate
Aaron: it. And until next time, have fun, be safe, and
Aaron: remember, support your local.