“It sure is,” said David Beardsell, the then founder of Bear Brewing (now known as Red Collar). The year was 1995 and Beardsell had opened one of the first breweries of its kind on the West Coast.

“It was the second brewery in the Interior and I think it was the 15th or 16th brewery in BC, a new craft thing. Trying to sell a product that no one had had and weren’t used to, it was a tough slog,” Beardsell said.

And now here he is, three decades later and the craft beer industry is one of the strongest in the country. With approx. 200 breweries in BC and six in Kamloops alone, beer lovers have their range of choices. But, there is one particular and specific offering from Bear Brewing customers request.

“I remember people coming up and saying, ‘Hey, I remember this great brewery in Kamloops, Bear Brewing?’ or, ‘Hey, do you know David Beardsell?’ and I would say, ‘Yeah, that’s my Dad,’” Lara Beardsell recounts. “They’d say, ‘Do you remember Black Bear? That was so amazing,’ or, ‘That was the first craft beer I ever had,’ or, ‘That was the first beer I ever liked.’ And then they’d say, ‘Well can you make it?’”

Lara and the brew team at Red Collar finally decided to give the people what they want. Last week Kamloops celebrated the return of Black Bear Ale — with a slight difference to the recipe.

“I’ve had not a great deal to do with this,” David explains. “Nick, our brewer, has really put most of it together – Nick and Lara.”

“Well, I mean we really delved as deep as we possibly could into your memory,” Lara told CFJC Today. 

“The fact that this was the second beer we brought out, with Bear, it kind of blows my mind,” David said. “It’s not in any way, shape, or form a traditional product. It’s not a gateway product for anyone. It’s an English/Belgian beer that had fruit in it. It was not done… I don’t think anyone was doing a fruit beer in BC. I’m thinking, ‘What the hell was I thinking?’ I don’t think it was a great business decision.”

“It was, though” Lara said.

“In the end — I think at one point, by about 2000, [Black Bear Ale] was about 50 percent of our production,” David adds.

“Back in the ’90s, you had to take someone that was a Molson’s or a Labatt’s drinker, and you basically had to break their arms and say, ‘Just try this!’” David said. “Now it’s super easy to get people to try it. The challenge is that you’ve got to get them on board and you’ve got to keep them believing.”

Photo courtesy of Red Collar Brewing Co.