The Glen Robertson micro-brewery, Wood Brothers Brewing, has tripled in size since tapping its first keg when they opened their doors in April 2019. Owners Mark and Natasha Rickerd and partners Louis Castonguay, Dan Whitehead and Kurt MacSweyn are facing such a high demand for their brew:
“(It’s been) insane – we have lineups over an hour to two hours long now to get in on Saturdays,” says Mark Rickerd.“The lineups sometimes start at 10 in the morning and the doors only open at noon – it’s pretty crazy what’s going on.”
The brewery sees about 500 customers in a weekend.
“With craft beer there’s half a dozen breweries selling out non-stop and then there’s everybody else fighting for market share,” Rickerd explains. “We are very fortunate that we’re in those five right now, where everything we make is basically bought before it’s even been bottled. Craft beer has kind of a cult following – either you have what people want, or you don’t.”
As craft beer has seen an increased demand over the years, companies like Wood Brothers Brewing (located in Eastern Ontario) have expanded over the past year, going from 1,000 to 3,000 square feet and adding a large outdoor patio. As most businesses during the height of the pandemic, they were shut down with the outdoor space reopening on June 20.
“There’s just so much demand that we can’t make enough beer,” replies Rickerd. Adding, they only sell their beer at the brewery and always sell everything they make.
Rickerd also credits their success to an untapped website:
“There is a site called Untappd that everybody rates their beers on and they have us ranked second in Canada and I think 35th in the world, so people are driving 15 to 20 hours just to get our beer – it’s crazy.”
On a typical Saturday the brewery will have eight different beers on tap for customers to try out, the majority of which are New England-style India Pale Ales. Specializing in IPA’s, out of the Top-10 in Canada, Wood Brothers Brewing holds five of them.
“They are very expensive beers to make – that’s why most breweries don’t make them,” says Rickard, noting the company’s products have been most appreciated by beer drinkers from Quebec. “Almost all (our visitors) are from Montreal – maybe 99%. If you’re in Montreal and you want to get to the country for an afternoon we’re not too far. We’re all bilingual, so we all speak French. We’ve done collaborations with other breweries and we’re kind of a part of the Quebec beer scene – those are our buddies.”