E-Malt.com News article: Canada, AB: Minhas Craft Brewery to open Calgary location

For brother-and-sister team Ravinder and Manjit Minhas, opening a micro brewery in Calgary is not only the culmination of a long-term goal, it’s also a homecoming of sorts, Calgary Herald reported on June, 20.

The owners of Minhas Craft Brewery - perhaps best known for trademark brand Mountain Crest Lager - were born and raised in the city, graduated from the University of Calgary, and got their start in business here. But while the company’s head office is located in Calgary, Minhas beer has, until now, been brewed in Wisconsin.

The opening of the Calgary location also marks 10 years in the beer industry for the Minhas siblings. The import liquor business they started as a pair of young engineering students really came of age in 2002, when they introduced Mountain Crest Lager. Though the dominance of big names like Molson and Labatt made the Canadian beer business a difficult one to break into, Ravinder and Manjit managed to carve out a small slice for themselves by tapping into consumer demand for discount beer.

By 2006, the siblings were successful enough to purchase an existing brewery in Monroe, Wisconsin that had already been producing Minhas beer on a contract basis. They ramped up production levels, and six years later, their beers are available in four provinces and 25 U.S. states.

“We don’t have marketing backgrounds, we’re not MBAs - we’ve never even taken an accounting course. It was all based on what we had read, or what we had seen, or what we thought would work,” Manjit said.

The new Calgary facility will produce about 400,000 bottles of beer in its first year, about one-fifth what the Wisconsin facility produces. But the emphasis here will not be on standard lagers and ales, but on craft beer. Chocolate Bunny Stout, Mystical Jack Traditional Ale, Imperial Jack Double IPA, and a special gluten-free beer called Lazy Mutt are some of the recipes dreamed up by the Minhas siblings and their brewmaster Kris Kalav.

It’s a conscious effort to tap into the latest trend for unique flavours and small batch beers, especially among younger drinkers. In fact, statistics show large beer companies are rapidly losing market share to local craft brewery products.

“We felt that we were ready now to do it in our backyard, and do it with a different product that we can produce here and use to expand our portfolio,” Manjit said. “The consumers’ tastes are becoming more sophisticated, and they’re also realizing that beer can be a sophisticated drink.”

Minhas Micro Brewery is a $5.2 mln project that will employ 35 people to start.


22 June, 2012