THUNDER BAY -- If you’ve ever wondered what happens when two high school buddies take a hobby to the next level, look no further than Dawson Trail Craft Brewery.
Co-owners George Renner and Jon Kivinen had been home-brewing for six years when they decided to make a go of it as a business. “The idea was to open the smallest brewery we could and not go crazy,” says Renner. “For one, we were home brewers, and for another, we didn’t have a ton of money.”
Brewing is “equal parts chemistry, art and janitorial work,” says Renner. Neither chose craft beer as their first careers (Renner is an animation artist and Kivinen went to university to study electrical engineering) but the growing popularity of craft beers encouraged them to go into brewing full-time.
“The year that we started thinking about doing this, we went around town trying to see how many craft beers we could get, and that number doubled within that year. It’s exciting to see things picking up.”
For their beer, Dawson Trail Craft Brewery uses city water, which is very soft and excellent for darker beers. Light beers require harder water, so they add mineral salts.
The micro-brewery and taproom on Copper Cr. opened its doors in January 2016. “The space we got was a little bigger than we wanted, but it’s starting to get a little smaller,” Renner explains as new tanks are being installed.
From brewing 5-gallon batches in their kitchens, they have gone on to producing close to 3,500 litres a month. Their beer can be found in about a dozen locations in town, such as the Madhouse, Bight, the Silver Birch, the Caribou and Daytona’s.
If you want some to take home, the only place to get it is at their store, where they sell jugs of it. “We’re hoping to start bottling later this year. But even when we start that, we’re not at the scale to be able to sell at the beer store or LCBO yet. We need to be able to produce a lot more than we do.”
Scaling up isn’t a priority for now. The two are happy doing what they do now; making a batch of beer and seeing if people like it. “When you start a craft brewery, you’re not sure if it’s going to work. Even the fact that we’re open, that we can keep the lights on, that’s great.”
