INDUSTRY PANEL | cover
Lara: We developed a home delivery service and an online store. Byron: The brewhouse isn't any busier than last year but all things considered, we're really happy with how things are going for us this year. Nick: To be honest it would be kind of nice not being balls to the wall crazy busy [packaging beer], because that would let me focus on specialty one-offs rather than just trying to keep up with the large demand for our core beers (in cans).
Reopening to a smaller crowd Lara: In the summer, we reopened and ran with beers and small snacks, "old school tasting room" style. A large part of the Kamloops tourism scene is the Rocky Mountaineer train, which did not run this year, so we certainly saw a slowdown there.
Brendan: Traffic was good in the summer and early fall. We were able to maintain a large number of seats on our patio and still maintain proper distancing, which helped a lot. We are now making the best of a reduced capacity (74 patrons) and liquor service stopping at 10:00 pm. Ben: I think inside and out we can theoretically seat about 40 people, but only if they all happen to arrive in groups of six, which as you can imagine, has never once happened. Kellie: We’ve managed to maintain steady traffic through the pandemic. However our capacity inside has been reduced from 65 to 43. Byron: We were working on a taproom and patio expansion last Winter that finished up right as COVID hit, so even with distancing measures our capacity stayed around 50 people. Hannah: Earlier this year we converted the parking lot at our Fort Langley Eatery into an outdoor patio for 50 additional seats.
Michael: Our normal taproom capacity is 51, but with the restrictions and our safety protocols in place we’re down to 20 seats inside.
Cole/Kellie: We’ve put up plexiglass inside, and fortunately we have a pretty big Tasting Room that gives our customers lots of room for social distancing.
Nick: Traffic is steady most days and we even get a line on Fridays, but going down from 66 to 26 does hurt quite a bit.
We’ve done a lot of work on COVID safety additions to the tasting room that actually enhance its look and feel. We’re so happy with how things turned out that we’ll probably leave them up after this is all over.
Sean: Our capacity was reduced by about 35%.
Continued on page 34
W I N T E R 2020 WHAT'S BREWING 9
