Luke Wooldridge knows the brewing end of beer. The former Paddock Wood head brewer, who holds a Masters in Brewing and Distilling from Harriet Watt University in Edinburgh, can work his way around a brew kettle. The marketing and retail side of the business are a bit new to him, though.

“My experience is in the production side. Sales is a new experience for me,” he admits during a phone interview when I relay my surprise to find his Six Corners Brew Works beer on the Sherbrooke Liquor Store shelf last week. Wooldridge acknowledges he has been so busy planning the brewery that he has not focused enough yet on getting the word out.

Wooldridge is so busy because his dreamed-of brewery does not exist yet. He has long wanted to open a brewery in Okotoks, a town about 30 minutes south of Calgary. He grew up near Okotoks and still has deep family roots in the area. For now, he plans to “chase contract brewing capacity here and there” to get some beer on the shelf. “I turned to contract brewing to get the ball rolling so I was not starting at ground zero when the brewery opened”, he explains.

Wooldridge’s experience tells him being a gypsy brewer is not conducive to consistency. “Developing a consistent brand and moving from brewery to brewery will be difficult. The beer will be different when you move anyway, so I decided why bother.” Instead, until the brewery is built, he plans on releasing one-off beer under the brand name to get consumer’s palates wet. “Isn’t one of the exciting things about being a brewer is making different beer?”

The first contract release, brewed by Wooldridge at the new brewhouse in Original Joe’s in Saskatoon (“I traded expertise and advice for some time on the system”) is Trailhead IPA. He describes it as a single hop beer using a new, experimental variety from SS Steiner. It is so new it doesn’t yet have name, going only by #07270. “I wanted to make a beer I was excited about, and thought a single hop IPA would be an interesting first release,” he says. “It is heavily dry hopped, and a lot of late hop additions. The malt bill is simple, some caramunich, malted rye”. The next one-off will likely be a Saison, he predicts.

The brewery is likely “a year or two away”, Wooldridge notes because of the hurdles he still has to clear. “Okotoks is a water sensitive town. They have to decide they have enough water for you to get started”. Wooldridge is confident municipal approval is about to be granted, and then it will be on to constructing the brewery, AGLC requirements and moving forward.

While he is still exploring options, Wooldridge expects when the brewery (which he anticipates will be in the 20 to 30 hectolitre capacity range) is fully functional it will produce a range of styles with a leaning toward IPAs. “I am a devoted hophead, I love the range of flavours you get from varieties of hops and hopping techniques”. One decision he has made is that he will use whole cone hops in his brewery as he likes its effects on beer.

Both the business and the brewery name, Six Corners, are linked to the region and to his history. He comes from a family of six, and six was his favourite number as a kid. It also refers to a “crossroad near where I grew up that brought roads from Longview, High River and Okotoks. Three roads come together and create six corners. The locals know where it is”.

Wooldridge is building Six Corners as a family affair. “It will be a family business. I am quarterbacking, but I couldn’t do it without my family and three younger brothers who have skills that will come in handy”. One is a welder, another a millwright, and the third a land agent. All very useful areas of expertise when building a brewery.

Wooldridge knows there is much work to be done, but he looks forward to the day when he can settle back into brewing. “I feel I have been writing business plans for two years,” he sighs. “It will be nice to get back to brewing again.”