Today we sit down with Craig Sorette, owner of Everclear Draught Services. We drink a few beers, exchange a few jabs, and discuss Craig’s 30 history in the Alberta service industry, his terrible case of FOMO, and his predictions for Alberta’s craft beer industry.

There are two things important to know about Craig:

1. He’s old
2. He knows a lot about the industry

Craig says he started in the service industry in 1988 in his last year of high school at the age of two, but something about that timeline doesn’t quite add up. Regardless, he claims to have started as a busboy before soon being promoted to bar assistant, after which he relentlessly hounded the bartending team to let him bartend. By the time graduation rolled around Craig had a good thing going and didn’t much feel like making the transition to university! Craig stayed in the bar and restaurant space but would later grow a little bored of the service side of the industry. Enter a previous guest on the podcast, Alistair Smart, who convinced Craig to join him at Big Rock.

Like we’ve heard from Alistair in his appearance on the show, Big Rock was a true family where everyone on the team was incredibly loyal to each other, and Craig would be no exception. After leaving Big Rock he recalls having probably 7 job offers from other breweries but he turned them all down out of his unwavering loyalty to Big Rock. So instead of signing on with another brewery Craig took the skills he’d learned cleaning lines as a Big Rock sales rep and founded Everclear Draught Services. Everclear is a draught installation and maintenance company that has installed draught lines in nearly every Calgary craft brewery and taproom.

We discuss Craig’s advice for new brewers, what he sees as the biggest challenges for our maturing craft beer scene, and what he loves most about it: the camaraderie. We also discuss the camaraderie in his personal life and what it is that has made his long-lasting friendships possible.
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Everclear Draught Services