Local craft brewery Beyond the Pale is moving its expanding business to a new Centretown location.
With its new 8,000-sq-ft. brewery to be set up at 250 City Centre Ave., BTP will be able to produce more beer than at its current facility in the Civic Hospital area. Along with the new building, Beyond the Pale will be installing a new brewing system that’s four times the size of its existing operation at 5 Hamilton Ave.
Co-owner Rob McIsaac says he hopes to be running the new operation by August, a move expected to cost about $500,000.
“We can’t make as much beer as people are asking for,” says McIsaac. He says the goal is to expand to the LCBO market, but to do so, BTP must meet a minimum brewing requirement, something the new facility will help achieve.
"We just haven't figured out the timing yet," says co-owner Shane Clark. "We have to get caught up first."
LCBO owns 50.8 per cent of Ontario’s alcohol market, leaving the other half to independently owned retailers such as The Beer Store and on-site breweries such as BTP. Statistics Canada reports the demand for micro-brews has been on a steady rise in the last decade, particularly in Ontario.
Sixty per cent of BTP’s sales comes from its retail store on Hamilton Avenue. The company’s products are available throughout Ottawa including Union 613 on Somerset and Sir John A Pub on Elgin.
Though McIsaac and Clark say the expansion should help boost their business, they say their main focus is to continue to produce a high-quality product.
“On one extreme you’re going to have the big breweries that are trying to squeeze every penny out of the business,” says McIsaac. “And although we are a business, we’re of the mindset that making the best beer possible in the long run will lead to a better financial situation.”
BTP was founded in 2012 in the neighbourhood where all three owners were born and raised.
It boasts products including Darkerness, Party Animal, and Pink Fuzz.
Breaking Bitter, a bitter beer, is the personal favourite of Andrew Cunningham, an Ottawa resident and beer enthusiast. He says curiosity led him to try BTP for the first time.
“I’m kind of an adventurous beer drinker so I just took a chance at it,” he says. “I go back to it over and over again because it’s different and it's good.”