{"id":147,"date":"2022-10-21T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-10-21T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/staging.projectsota.com\/fox6\/townsite-brewing-1\/"},"modified":"2026-09-02T17:56:05","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T21:56:05","slug":"townsite-brewing-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.projectsota.com\/fox6\/townsite-brewing-1\/","title":{"rendered":"If You Brew It, They Will Come"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cEverybody was standing at the edge of the pool and we were like \u2018We\u2019re doing it, we\u2019re jumping,\u201d says Chloe Smith, co-owner and general manager of Townsite Brewing. The metaphorical pool she is referring to is the Townsite district in Powell River, British Columbia on the territory of the Tla\u2019amin Nation, roughly a 170-kilometre drive and two ferry rides from Vancouver. Dropping a brewery into an old post office in a sleepy part of a remote town with less than 14,000 residents might look like dropping a plastic kiddie pool on a patio and hoping for a water park turnout, but that would be underestimating the power of craft beer and community.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The idea for a brewery began, well, brewing in 2010. Craving options beyond Labatt and Lucky, locals Michelle Zutz and Karen Skadsheim pitched Steven Brooks, a senior systems analyst who had been investing and revitalizing Townsite properties, on opening a brewery in the Federal Building he\u2019d bought in 2008. He said yes, and helped with the business plan and seed money. Smith and Cedric Dauchot, brewers in search of a spot to open a brewpub, joined in, along with a sixth partner Ulrich Herl, and by Spring 2012, they were filling growlers.<\/p>\n

\"Townsite<\/a>
Image courtesy: @townsitebrewing<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Ten years on, Townsite Brewing<\/a> has doubled their revenue, tripled the size of their team, earned Economus\u00e9e<\/a> status, brought a kombucha brand into the fold, and added a beer garden. It\u2019s attracted other businesses to the area and become a major tourist draw in addition to a resident Cheers<\/a>. Brooks has seen the brewery \u201cseal the deal\u201d for Vancouverites and Islanders contemplating a move here. Smith says, \u201cIt\u2019s a reminder that small business can reinvigorate a small town.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like a saison or stout, the making of a small-town brewery has its own recipe. There are the brass tacks. \u201cI keep threatening to write a book titled Do Open a Brewery in a Historic Building, But Also Don’t,\u201d says Smith, laughing, \u201cIt\u2019s a concrete and brick building, which is amazing because we create a lot of steam, but then the Wi-Fi is terrible.\u201d In other words, determining the physical requirements is key, with a priority on pliability. \u201cOur industry is constantly evolving, so the space needs to be flexible in the same way.\u201d In hindsight, Smith wishes they\u2019d also partnered with a whiz at navigating regulatory bodies. \u201cIf there’s somebody who understands how government works, municipally, provincially or federally, that’s a huge asset.\u201d<\/p>\n

The brewery was that seed that was planted, and from there, other branches grow. We kind of ended up becoming the first thing that was seen as viable in this space.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The proverbial umbrella over everything though is community. \u201cHaving roots or ties in the community already lends legitimacy,\u201d says Brandon Frey, sales and marketing manager. Smith adds, \u201cI think craft beer is highly focused on community as opposed to consumerism.\u201d Townsite is hard at work developing those roots, and the mission to further a sense of place, including a Growler Program that supports local nonprofits and brews named after regional landmarks to fuel pride and exploration. Frey mentions their Mystery Reef IPA. \u201cThat\u2019s an actual spot that\u2019s just off the coast here. In naming our beers, we\u2019re actually looking at a map and seeing what we want to highlight next.\u201d They dove deeper with their Hulks series which references the World War I and II concrete ships that form a floating breakwater in Malaspina Strait. With imagery by local artists, the limited-edition beers borrow the surnames of the vessels\u2019 former captains, including Vidal Eupen Lager, Quartz Blended Wild Ale, and Charleston Triple Abbey Tripel. \u201cEverybody in town and the lower Sunshine Coast would know what we\u2019re doing,\u201d says Frey. \u201cThat direction is very hyper-local.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Image courtesy: @townsitebrewing<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Image courtesy: @townsitebrewing<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

While locality is baked into Townsite releases, Smith sees their industry as inherently community-focused. \u201cCraft beer is a community glue,\u201d she says, \u201cWe just collectively have a mindset of providing for the communities that we\u2019re in, for working towards being inclusive, for being leaders in how businesses are run now. We are not only creating products and marketing, but also spaces.\u201d<\/p>\n

I think craft beer is highly focused on community as opposed to consumerism.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What makes their space different from, say, a coffee shop is that time-honoured pub mentality, or as Frey puts it, \u201cWe\u2019re where you go after your 9 to 5 and shed the stress of the day.\u201d Local or tourist, imbiber or teetotaler, with kids or dogs in tow, Townsite is an end-of-day and weekend rallying point unlike any other. In many ways, the neighbourhood brewery is a new kind of town square, one that\u2019s decidedly less square.<\/p>\n

Townsite Brewing Packaging Designs
\nIllustrations: ROAM Media Inc<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Dropping a brewery into an old post office in a sleepy part of a remote town with less than 14,000 residents might look like dropping a plastic kiddie pool on a patio and hoping for a water park turnout, but that would be underestimating the power of craft beer and community.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":148,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.projectsota.com\/fox6\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.projectsota.com\/fox6\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.projectsota.com\/fox6\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.projectsota.com\/fox6\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.projectsota.com\/fox6\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/staging.projectsota.com\/fox6\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":157,"href":"https:\/\/staging.projectsota.com\/fox6\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147\/revisions\/157"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.projectsota.com\/fox6\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.projectsota.com\/fox6\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.projectsota.com\/fox6\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.projectsota.com\/fox6\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}