E-Malt.com News article: Canada, ON: Beyond the Pale Brewing expands

Beyond the Pale Brewing Company, located in the heart of Ottawa’s Hintonburg neighbourhood, will expand floor space to double capacity at its modest digs near Parkdale Farmers’ Market.

Owners signed a lease with the landlord to take on another 1,000 square feet of former locker storage, which they will access by chopping a doorway through the concrete block wall that separates them.

Even then, the added capacity simply won’t satisfy new business as much as it will help partners Shane Clark, Al Clark and Robert McIsaac keep up with the insatiable demand.

“The new space is going to be used mostly for fermentation and storage,” says McIssac.

“We’ll be doubling the number of fermentors we have to 10, each 900-litres, and we’re going for another bright (storage) tank at 900 litres, which takes us to three,” McIssac says.

“We’ve been open three months and didn’t expect to be expanding so soon. We’re doing more than double the sales volume we expected. When we opened, we thought we’d be limited by how much beer we could actually sell, but instead we’re limited by how much we can make. We can’t produce it fast enough.”

“The success of the business has certainly exceeded our expectations. I think Ottawa is playing a bit of catch-up in craft beer, where people are interested in drinking good beer and expanding their palates by trying new ones.”

Beyond the Pale has made 11 different beers so far. It’s three mainstays are Pink Fuzz with grapefruit zest and pulp used in different stages of production; The Darkness, an oatmeal stout; and Rye Guy with full hops in the tradition of India Pale Ale.

Beyond that, brewmaster and partner Shane Clark is likely to try anything whimsical — and he does. “We want to keep it fun and interesting, which is why we’re rolling out different brews all the time.”

Maximum capacity these days (before expansion) is 10 batches of 750-litres each per month. Expansion could theoretically double that.

Beyond the Pale is also at 11 restaurants, which pretty much represents all they can handle for now. “It’s not unusual for us to sell out on weekends. We sell out every week with at least two or three of our beers, if not all our beers,” says brewmaster Clark, who more or less lives at the brewery these days.

Other bold plans include selling a variety four-pack of 22-ounce bottles with Imperial Super Guy, Make’r Super, Darkness and Make’r Dark.

“It’s just fun to do something different,” Clark says.


15 March, 2013