Alberta’s small but growing group of craft brewers will soon have one more member in their midst. Half Hitch Brewing Company is currently under construction in Cochrane, a town of about 18,000 residents just northwest of Calgary. The brewery is currently under construction and they hope to have the first beer rolling out of the brewery in late spring 2015 (just one cold winter away).

Half Hitch has been in the planning stages since 2011 and there have been no shortage of rumours and talk about their operation. To cut through the hearsay, I had a chat recently with co-owner and head brewer (and only paid staff member at the moment), Chris Heier.

The first thing Heier explains is why the lengthy planning stage. He says it is mostly due to slow approval processes, “in particular at the municipal level”. Getting the land sale approved, receiving development approval and other regulatory details moved much slower than Heier had hoped. The complication is that Half Hitch is building their brewery from scratch on a half-acre parcel of land in Cochrane. The brewery site will include a full-service restaurant.

But Heier can see clear sailing now “we just poured the concrete floor and soon will be building the timber frame”. The brewing equipment, a 20-barrel brewhouse with a series of 40-barrel fermenters, will be delivered in February.

The Heier Family Getting an Advance Taste

Once they are up and running, Half Hitch’s priorities will be “family and community”. The brewery actively promotes that it is entirely family-owned and operated (the family is self-financing the project as well), and they are working hard to be a good citizen in Cochrane. Other members of the family are assisting with the brewery including handling website and social media and one brother doing all the woodwork, including custom designed tables, for the restaurant. They pay homage to Cochrane’s western heritage (and present) throughout the operation.The brewery building is being designed as a Monitor-style barn, which is a classic horse barn design with a two-story centre portion and two lower, sloping outer wings (admission: this city slicker had to google that to find out what it was). Even the name is linked to community. “The half hitch is a knot you use to tie up horses. Be we interpret it more about how the business will operate,” says Heier. “It is the bind that brings the family and community together. We use it as a symbol of being part of the community.”

The beer names and branding continue this association. Heier sees them as a trilogy, three parts of a farming story. With the product branding “we wanted to be humorous but still keep it western-style. We want to tell a story with the beer.” The three beer are Farmer’s Daughter Pale Ale, Fire N’ Fury Red Ale and Shotgun Wedding Brown Ale. Heier explains: “the labels are like panels in a cartoon. It starts with farmer’s daughter, to the father’s reaction at what he is seeing going on in the barn, and then finally to the shotgun wedding”, he says with a chuckle.

The three beer can also be seen as a trilogy stylistically-speaking as well. “If you look at BJCP, they are a Category 10 trio of beer”. Category 10, in the current BJCP guidelines, is American Ale, with Pale, Amber and Brown Ale subcategories. Heier describes them as stylistically circling that category “with our own particular way of going about it.” He says the Farmer’s Daughter (at 4.5%) will be “drinkable with a crystal malt backbone and well hopped, citrusy flavour and aroma”. The Fire N’ Fury will have “a heavy caramelly flavour, but it will keep North American hoppiness”, while the Shotgun Wedding will be heavier (5.5%) and “may approach something of an India Brown Ale, we are going to get a bit more bitterness in there”.

The three mainstay beer will be sold in cans, growlers and on tap. Heier also plans to do seasonals and limited releases which they will manually bottle in bombers (650-ml bottles). The seasonals are still under development. “I have various different recipes I want to try at scale. There will be other interesting concoctions, I am not afraid to experiment”.

While they are getting close, there are still many steps left to go, and Heier is doing his best to remain patient. “I am itching to brew. It has been a long time coming”. For Heier and Alberta consumers both. Only a few more months before we can hitch ourselves up to a pint of Half Hitch beer.