After 23 years in the military, what does one do with their spare time and energy post-retirement? If you are Kevin Moore and his partner, you open a brewery. Kevin spent 23-years in the Canadian Armed Forces and his partner Keith Edwards served for the same time in the British Royal Air Force (and now works in the Alberta oil patch). A longtime homebrewer with a professional-grade 1/2 barrel system in his garage, Kevin had long contemplated opening a brewery upon retirement. Well, that time has come!

Kevin and Keith have created Two Sergeants Brewing in Fort Saskatchewan (a small suburban city northeast of Edmonton), which will be that city’s first brewery in history. The name, and accompanying logo, are obvious. The initial plan was to establish Two Sergeants as a brewpub in Fort Sask with additional retail sales elsewhere. They were well on their way, securing a location and putting an order on a 7-hectolitre system and seemed destined for a June 2015 opening.

Then the price of oil tanked, placing some pressure on their seed capital. Rather than junk a lifelong ambition, they instead re-tooled. “With the downturn we have re-examined the scale of the start-up,” says Moore. They scaled back the planned brewhouse to under 5 hl, and scrapped the full-scale kitchen. Taking advantage of rules recently announced allowing breweries to sell full pints, the new plan is to open a full-size tasting room instead of a restaurant. “We save a lot in terms of kitchen and serving staff and on up-front capital on the brewhouse”.

But to hear Moore talk, it seems like the elimination of the kitchen actually added opportunities for the brewery. In the coming weeks they will be launching a series of promotional items to get the brand name out, including a clever military-style canteen growler. They will be launching a social media campaign as well. They intend on hitting the spring Craft Beer Festivals with “preview” batches of their flagship beer followed by appearances at select beer pubs. They hope for a full opening sometime in the summer.

As for the beer, their flagship will be Bangalore Torpedo IPA. “A Bangalore torpedo is a breaching charge used by military engineers,” explains Moore. “It gained worldwide infamy during D-Day to help troops breach wire obstacles on the beach – help them gain a beachhead”. Moore says he finds it a bit “ironic to use it for our initial flagship”, as it will create something of a beachhead for the new operation. Other beer planned for the initial line-up include as-yet unnamed Witbier and Pilsner.

Moore wants to grow the company assertively but not too quickly. He sees within a couple years making about 600-800 hl per year. So we are not talking Big Rock here. However as with any new brewery, if the demand is there they will find a way to expand.

The brewery isn’t open yet, but given that the two partners are both ex-military men, I think we can fully expect that brew days will be run with utmost precision and accuracy – two good things in a brewhouse. Stay tuned for more on the launch of Two Sergeants.