While I was in Quebec, my latest Planet S column ran. It is a profile of Saskatchewan’s newest micro-brewery, Brecknock. I spoke with the owner, former Sask Party MLA Jason Dearborn, some months ago, but held back on writing up the piece to see where things went with the brewery. As is not surprising for a year-old venture, they are not out of the wood yet by any means. I have heard rumblings that they are running into some cash flow problems in recent weeks.

However, the beer is selling, although I suspect not at levels hoped for by the Dearborn, which means they might just make a go of it. Their beer is available in Alberta, at Sherbrooke and possibly elsewhere, but their main focus continues to be Saskatchewan.

The organic angle adds a nice dimension to the story – although it is only the malt that is organic, not the hops. The beer itself, as I discuss in the article, is clean, well-made and certainly drinkable. It may not knock the socks off a beer geek, but I won’t complain about another decent craft brewery on the scene.

The under-story of the profile is my concern that their ambitious plans for a malting plant and net zero footprint and all that. If they focussed solely on putting out good beer, I suspect they could make a decent go of it. However, how much of their energy is going to be sunk down the rabbit hole that is a malting plant with no clear evidence of pent-up demand to fill?

Only they can answer that question. Read the full article here.