Inglewood microbreweries extend the beaten path

New micro and nano breweries are popping up everywhere since Alberta Gaming and Liquor Commission regulations removed minimum production requirements back in 2013.

Two of the city's newest additions are blocks away from each other in Inglewood, taking over unused back alley spaces slightly off the beaten path.

Cold Garden

On the edge of Ramsay, just five metres from the train tracks, Cold Garden opened just a month ago, in a warehouse space behind the Smithbilt Hats factory that was once a Mr. Goodbar shop.

It has been nearly a two-year process for owners Kris Fiorentino, Blake Belding and Dan Allard, partly due to lack of structural information on the old building itself, but also because they did everything to build the brewery and tasting room themselves.

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"It was a blessing in disguise," says Fiorentino, who still holds down her day job doing marketing for a hotel chain.

"It gave us time to watch other breweries open and take notes. We wanted our personal touch on everything in here. The tasting room culture is so new, we really wanted to do it right, to showcase what it can be and help grow the scene in Alberta."

The room is open and inviting, with a corner full of games and couches, two long communal tables and the tanks themselves brightened up with colourful pool noodles to insulate the glycol lines.

"Nothing could describe what we're all about better than that," Fiorentino says, of their noodle decor.

"It's bright, eclectic, fun and conversational, and that's what beer is about fun and socializing."

Neighbours have contributed to the vibe by bringing crocheted blankets and bar stools as the space came together. The place rumbles as the trains go by. There's no sidewalk out front and the entrance is up a gravel driveway and through doors beside stacks of pallets and other evidence of the brewing going on inside.

Served on the tips of old skis

Yet on a recent Thursday afternoon, the tables and couches in the tasting room were full of people cheersing the end of a work day with $5 pints and $6 flights, all served on the tips of old skis.

With mixed backgrounds in commercial real estate, sales and marketing, but a shared passion for good beer, the three friends honed their craft like many other microbreweries do, in one of their garages.

Brewmaster Blake Belding had been making home brews for about nine years.

There are seven constant brews in their lineup and one seasonal rotation.

They include some unique pours, like a farmhouse-style Saison brewed with saskatoon berries, a vanilla cappuccino porter, a Cakeface, and a Marzen-style lager brewed with vanilla beans that tastes like birthday cake.

"We wanted a variety, with some standards and some eccentric beers," Fiorentino explained.

And the name?

"One iteration of the nomenclature of Calgary, is that it gets its name from a town of the same name on the coast of Mull, Scotland," she says.

"Calgary gets its name from the Old Norse words kald and gart, which translates to cold garden."

High Line

Over on Ninth Avenue, the main drag running through Inglewood, High Line Brewing (HLB) opened its doors just before Christmas in a small space behind Minh Chau Vietnamese restaurant. The front of their small 23-seat tasting room opens to the parking lot.

"This space is what makes High Line," says Graham Dolce, who opened the brewery with friends Kurt Wikel and William "JJ" Mathison.

Dolce is from Vermont, Wikel from Montana and JJ is from Ontario. They all met in Calgary and recognized an opportunity for the city to catch up with what's happening in the U.S.

Finding an inner city space that could accommodate their production was a challenge. Earning the support of the Inglewood redevelopment committee and learning of a small change in the zoning bylaw provided an opportunity for the three to persuade the city they were a good fit.

"It took a lot of convincing," Dolce says. "But we were able to find the people we needed to guide us through."

'I remember the day I got let go'

Although they had been tossing around the idea of opening a brewery, it was Mathison, now their head brewer, being laid off from his construction job that got the ball rolling.

"I remember the day I got let go because of the bad economy, I called Kurt and Graham and said, let's do this thing. I do not want to be out looking for another job,'" he says.

Mathison was passionate about home brewing before he became friends with Wikel and Dolce. They all upped their home-brewing game by working on the recipes they offer now: Four mainstays and a few in rotation.

"We put $1,500 into a system that could brew a keg at a time in our backyard, which was a good call," Dolce explains. "It scaled very well into this size system."

HLB offers a small evolving selection of craft beers, with up to eight on tap at a time, including a unique gluten-free alternative, fermented Yerba Mat tea, with notes of grapefruit and a caffeine kick. Yerba Mat also shows up in their pale ale.

The demand for Inglewood-brewed beer is high. By the end of their second weekend, they ran out and had to close up shop to make more.

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"The week after our grand opening I worked 120 hours in seven days, just to fill up all the tanks again," says Mathison.

Their tasting room is kid-friendly. They have three kids between them, and so offer juice boxes and other distractions. There's the option to bring your own food, they've even had pizza deliveries from nearby Without Papers.

Both have beers on tap at restaurants around town, particularly in Inglewood, but there's no reason not to stop by their tasting rooms and get to know a few new brews and the people who make them.