“You have to be the entertainment and relief for the guy who's already stuck on deerfoot, he knows it sucks, he drives it every day, 'make me laugh rodeo clown!'” - JD Lewis, Morning Host on CJAY92 is this week’s guest on Let’s Meet For A Beer. We talk about his history in radio, his advice for people struggling with mental health, and Calgary radio legend Gerry Forbes.

JD’s love for radio started early. Growing up in a traditional household in Rocky Mountain House he spent evenings listening to hockey games on the radio and staying up late after the post-game to hear the old 1940s and 1950s radio shows on 630CHED or QR77. From a young age he knew he wanted to work in radio despite his guidance counsellor’s best wishes, but admits that at the time he didn’t realize it would mean waking up at 3:15 am! His career in radio began in Drumheller but his time there would be shortlived, JD was dealt a major blow when he was fired from his first radio job.

Realizing he had lost sight of his priorities JD would move to Red Deer and take a shot at delivering pizza while he decided what to do next. He realized after a single day he wasn’t cut out for it and headed down to the local rock station, Zed 99, to beg for a job. His pleading would eventually pay off and net him a job at the station, working his way through a number of roles and eventually moving on to a Top 40 station in Edmonton. From there he would join the crew at CJAY and later getting to co-host the morning show with local radio icon Gerry Forbes, a man JD describes as “a lunatic in all the best ways”, and finally taking over the show after Gerry’s retirement last year.

Later JD opens up with us about his struggles with mental health, what he thinks people who also struggle can do to help cope, and what he does to work past it. We talk about how his journey with mental health has impacted him throughout his life and coming back from feeling like he was “beyond repair”, as well as how a frank conversation with his dad helped turn things around for him.

Let’s Meet For A Beer!

Alberta Beer Festivals: website | twitter | instagram

JD Lewis: website | twitter | instagram

This week we meet for a beer with Kyle Geeraert of Origin Malting & Brewing, one of the few breweries in the world that are truly farm to table. We discuss the century long history of the family business including their enormous contribution to soil conservation in Alberta and how they continue to innovate today.

Origin Malting & Brewing’s operations might be seen as the estate winery of the beer world. They grow their own barley on their fifth generation family farm which was settled in 1910, and have been malting their barley in a state of the art facility since November of 2017. The majority of their 12,500 acres stretching from the south-east of Calgary to nearly Drumheller is seeded primarily with canola, wheat, and of course barley. The wheat goes to Roger’s Milling in BC every single stalk of barley is grown for malting and eventually beer. While some of the barley will end up in the Origin Malthouse much of it is also sold to Rahr and Red Shed who also provide world class Alberta malt barley for breweries here and around the world.

Kyle’s family has been growing barley on their farm since 1960, but only just recently begun malting their own barley and brewing their own beer. The malting operation was originally conceptualized as a form of vertical integration on the farm once they were no longer required to sell all their barley to the Canadian Wheat Board, and the brewery would allow them to showcase for brewers and consumers alike the great beer that comes from Alberta Barley. We also discuss his family’s contribution to farming practices in Alberta, how science plays a role in the sustainability of their farm, and get a brief lesson clearing up the misconceptions of GMOs.

Let’s Meet For A Beer!

Alberta Beer Festivals: website | twitter | instagram

Origin Malting & Brewing: website | twitter | instagram

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

This week's guest on Let’s Meet For A Beer is the inspiring Krystal Kitchen. Krysytal and Mark first met in 2017 when she registered to participate in the Ride To Conquer Cancer as part of Mark’s Wednesday Beer Night Cycling team. Just one day after being fitted for her team cycling kit and sending out emails to her friends and family asking them to sponsor her ride she would receive her own cancer diagnosis. We discuss her courageous journey through recovery and getting back on her bike, and her commitment to raising kind, respectful, and caring humans.

Krystal first picked up cycling in 2014 when she bought her first road bike so she could participate in the Ride To Conquer Cancer. She rode on a team with two of Mark’s brothers, but seeing the Wednesday Beer Night team’s kits she felt jealous of how great they looked and would later join Mark’s team in 2017. However, Krystal would find herself unable to participate in the ride after receiving her own cancer diagnosis. Having just been to the doctor to remove a cyst and being told there was less than a 2% chance she had cancer she knew in her heart something was wrong, and tells us her doctor had cared while giving her the news.

By the time the 2017 Ride To Conquer Cancer rolled around Krystal still hadn’t been cleared to get back on the bike, being only two weeks out of surgery. However, the Wednesday Beer Night Cycling team didn’t feel right crossing the finish line without her, so the entire team gathered at the top of the hill at Winsport and walked across the finish line together with Krystal leading them. It’s now two years since Krystal walked the finish line with the team, and we discuss her experience finally being able to cross the finish line on her bike. With another three years before she can be declared cancer-free and in remission she still visits the cancer centre every six months, and describes how the visits have become comforting and reassuring.

We also discuss Krystal’s passion for caring for others, including the plans she once had to go into nursing, and the admiration Mark has for the emotionally challenging jobs that nurses and other medical staff do every day. While Krystal didn’t end up going into nursing, she still gets to help people all the time in her job as a teacher and in her goal to raise her three children to be kind, caring, and respectful humans. She tells us that “as a measure of a parent, as long as you’re raising nice people, you’re doing a decent job."

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Wednesday Beer Night Cycling Team

Our guest this week is Abi Moore, Brand Manager for Fernie Brewing Company and Founder of Stag Leap Running Company. At the time of recording, we’ve just completed Abi’s gruelling Tears and Gears event, and we sat down to chat about her journey to Fernie from the UK as well as her journey of falling in love with running.

Abi first started running while living in London. At the time she worked with an interactive media agency and her role involved a lot of “interactive meetings” (ciders at the pub!) and the running became a measure to offset the amount of time she spent at the pub in those meetings. Growing up she skied lots with her family, but with a serious lack of ski hills they would make the trip to France to get on a proper ski hill.

This passion for skiing played a big part in her decision to move to Fernie rather than “somewhere warm like Australia” as Mark puts it. At the time Fernie was just getting onto the map as a great ski town and Abi spent her first year working guest services at the ski hill and met her now husband in her first winter. She alter sought an extension on her work visa to stay and work as a ski instructor, and later started work with Fernie Brewing Co. in 2009. In the ten years she’s spent at the still family owned and operated brewery a lot has changed, but Abi says that’s what she loves about her role: you never feel stagnant, and there’s always changes afoot!

Abi’s passion for running didn’t come quite as naturally as as her love for skiing, but her husband running the Sinister Seven inspired her (along with the help of a few drinks!) to join him and register for the run in 2012. Since then her love for running has grown so much she wanted to share it with others and help grow the running community in Fernie, so the Stag Leap Running Company was born. Named for one of Abi’s favourite runs at the ski hill, Stag Leap Running Co. is known for organizing events such as the Lone Wolf - a last man standing running circuit that ends with a Fernie Brewing Lone Wolf IPA. To Abi the link between running and mental health is clear: “You never regret a run … It always makes me feel better!"

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Stag Leap Running Co.
Fernie Brewing Co.

This week we sit down with Head Brewer of Blind Enthusiasm's Monolith, Doug Checknita. At only 27 years old Doug is a highly accomplished brewer despite being a relatively new player in the industry, and his work at Blind Enthusiasm's huge, menacing Monolith brewing facility is unique not just for Alberta, but for the entire continent.

Doug grew up in a DIY household full of “doers.” With a third birthday present of a bucket of nails, a bucket of scrap wood, and a set of real tools Doug would soon develop a desire to work hard and make things himself. His heavy appetite for hard work led to diving into Alberta’s craft beer industry in two places at once: Craft Beer Market, where he would have the opportunity to meet people in the industry, and Brew Brothers, where he would get his foot in the door as a brewer.

At the time the Old’s College brewing course was still yet to be, and Doug made the drive down while they were still under construction to voice his interest in joining the program. After joining the program Doug would have the opportunity to move to Quebec for a brewing internship, and he jumped on the opportunity. Despite not speaking any French, he says is was the best decision of his life.

His work with Blind Enthusiasm would start with a misunderstanding. Arriving to meet with owner Greg Zeschuk for what he thought was just a chat over beers, a touch hungover and clad in a metal band t-shirt from the show the night before, Doug would discover it was in fact a job interview. After putting everything on the table about the beer he wanted to make, Doug and Greg would set out on a years-long journey of Doug always asking for me, which led to Blind Enthusiasm as we know it today: A brewery and restaurant in Edmonton’s Ritchie Market, and the massive 3-story concrete brewing facility aptly called The Monolith.

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Blind Enthusiasm

This week we sat down on at the original Edmonton location of Brewsters with Don Mcdonald, a 23 year Brewsters veteran and their Director of Sales.

Don is a true lover of the industry and beer in general, and says “I can go to anything if there’s going to be beer.” He’s been going to Brewsters for over two decades, not just because of their great beer but the great relationships he’s built with the staff and with the guests and clientele in his many positions at the classic Alberta brewpubs.

Brewsters was founded in 1989 is Saskatchewan and in 1991 Michael Lanigan brought the brand to Alberta, when at the time one of the only craft brewery around was Big Rock, and the brewpub concept was still brand new for the province. For decades Brewsters has pushed the envelope of beer taste in the province, and Don credits this to Michael’s style of letting the team try anything once, as long as they weren’t making the same mistakes twice.

We reminisce a bit about the successes and challenges of previous beer festivals, and Don eloquently sums up what makes Alberta’s fast growing craft beer industry so great: “Part of what makes our industry so good and so successful is that people persevere"

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Brewsters

This week we chat with Chad Hason, owner of Hason Haynes Woods and Candid Marcom. He and his partners in the firm have known each other since childhood, and the combination of Chad’s expertise in marketing strategy along with their design and production studio made for a perfect combination. Together they’ve worked with companies such as Lamlee’s and New Leaf Cannabis.

Chad previously had a career as a restaurant opener, which he assures Mark is not a term he made up himself. His role was to head into soon to be opened restaurants, hire and train a staff, set up, and move on once it’s up and running. He also explains his reasoning for opening restaurants but not running them was manyfold, but rooted in what he describes as an industry wide “sketchiness” at the time, nearly two decades ago.

Today in addition to his work with his agencies Candid Marcom and Hason Haynes Woods he is working in the cannabis industry with CanadaBis, a multi-faceted Canadian cannabis company with four pillars: hemp, research & development, retail, and cultivation. Chad is a massive supporter of the cannabis industry and cannabis in general, and it takes no encouragement whatsoever to get him to open up about it. We discuss how perception of cannabis has changed world-wide, from the old-school “reefer madness” to Canada’s recent embrace of medicinal and legal cannabis, and what he hopes to see in the future.

Chad’s also a proud member of Rotary Club, an organization that is known worldwide for their work to eradicate polio, and here in Calgary for their volunteer work with the dream home during the Stampede. Chad is a big believer in the saying “if you’re the smartest person in the room, you’re in the wrong room” and says that Rotary fixes that problem for him forever: “I will never be the smartest person in that room!” In addition to being able to give back to the community, it also allows him to mingle with some of the most influential people in the city. And as rumour has it, people are more than willing to mingle with Chad knowing there’s a chance to get a sample of his lasagna, which is claims is the world’s best.

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Hason Haynes Woods
Candid Marcom
CanadaBis

Monks have a tradition of brewing beer, and Red Deer’s Troubled Monk wanted to bring that tradition into the present. Troubled by the perfection of the beer they produce, our guests this week are Troubled Monk co-founder Charlie Bredo and head of sales Bud Kelly.

Just a year after pouring their first pint in 2015 Troubled Monk won the silver medal at the 2016 Wold Beer Cup in Philadelphia for their Open Road Brown Ale, a huge achievement for any brewery, and especially for one as new as theirs. Since then Troubled Monk has expanding out into spirits, sodas, and other ready to drink beverages, pursuing whatever excites them, and whatever inspires other people and attracts them to their craft.

As the co-founder, Charlie has been with Troubled Monk since the very beginning, and like many successful business owners on the podcast he recognizes the importance of having a strong team and playing to his team’s strengths. This plays a big part in Bud’s role as head of sales, who in many ways has become the face of the business for their customers.

Charlie has a unique look on failure: “One of the worst things is early success, because you don't learn how to adapt to failure, and don’t know how to react when you first fail.” He also shares an early failure at Troubled Monk: having to dump over $200,000 worth of beer because of a quality issue and having no product in the market for a month. But they knew that it would be better to have no beer than to sell bad beer and leave a bad taste in the mouths of their early customers. This led to them adding an in-house lab for more extensive testing, and better beer every day.

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Troubled Monk

Today we sit down with Kevin Wood, the Owner and Brewer at Red Deer’s Something Brewing and Drummond Brewing. Kevin is an Alberta craft beer original having incorporated in April of 2004, and being situated right in the rivalry neutral zone between Edmonton and Calgary allows him to focus strictly on more beer and better beer.

Kevin’s presence in Alberta’s liquor industry was cemented long before reviving the Drummond Brewing name and participating in Mark’s first ever Alberta Beer Festival. He was voted “most likely to be a beer rep” in high school, and after moving to Calgary he quickly found himself working at The Drink, later meeting his longtime business partner Cody while working for the same chain of nightclubs. Together he and Cody founded their own successful nightclub, Desperados, and we learn how their club’s eventual closing down would lead to them acquiring the Drummond name and trying their hand at brewing.

After 15 years of Drummond and the years before with Desperados, Kevin and his business partner Cody (who are not brothers, despite the rumours!) have been a successful team, and Kevin explains how important it is to know each other’s strengths and weaknesses in order to achieve this. Another important practice in their success is always learning, and Kevin has traveled to more than 700 breweries to learn from them. “There’s a reason something’s being done that way. Can you learn from it?"

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Drummond Brewing
Something Brewing