Most craft breweries start in a pub or a homebrewery, with a couple of beer passionate people talking about taking their hobby professional. It is not very often when a brewery starts in a classroom. But that is exactly what happened with The Well Brewing Company. Quinn Wilton and Bryton Udy, two 22-year-old Mount Royal University business students in Calgary were tasked last fall in their Entrepreneurship class to develop a business plan for an original business idea. “We came up with the idea of a community-supported brewery”, says Udy. “Why beer? We had been to the Calgary International Beer Festival and were struck by the passion they have. It is bigger than the brewery itself. They supported each other”.

A community-supported brewery takes off from community-supported agriculture, where consumers invest in farm operations and in return get a pre-determined amount of food in return at harvest/slaughter time. They don’t get an ownership share, but receive exclusive benefits and direct sales.

Wilton and Udy saw a space for that model in beer, “Craft beer is great, but most of the time there is no community input into the product. They just get the product in hand and drink it. We want to give customers a say in what they are drinking, in how the beer is made”, says Wilton.

In a way community-supported beer is a hybrid between a coop structure and a standard corporate structure. “We dabbled in a coop structure. But we figured it would be difficult to have a certain direction and have it be streamlined. We figured out best way to keep involvement of coop and still have a solidified direction of a corporation” was the community support model, says Udy.

The model is anchored around membership. People buy a membership and in return get a volume of beer, access to member-only events and, most importantly, a vote on which beer should be brewed and other beer-related decisions. The Well will have three levels of membership. The Cascade level, the most basic, provides a welcome package of swag, four bottles of beer bi-monthly, admission to member events and a vote in beer selection for $175/year. Chinook  ($250/yr) offers all Cascade rewards but adds a t-shirt and ups the beer to 4 every month. Simcoe ($500/yr) adds access to input at the company’s executive meetings.

If all it was about was the beer, that would be a pretty pricey four-pack. But the main benefit is input on what will get made. “We are centering it around membership events, a place to come together and talk about what the next beer should be”, says Wilton. They give an example of the first steps of how the process will work. “Our first main goal is a membership event in August or September. We will have three pilot batches of beer, which will be tasted by members. We will put it to heir vote for which beer we brew. Once they choose, we do a bigger batch of beer and send it to members”.

They are finding people really like the idea of having a say in the beer they drink. “Everyone likes the idea of having a say. When I mention the concept, I get suggestions of everything from a big IPA to ‘I want the fruitiest summer beer you can make’. Everyone has an interest”, says Udy.

In the early days they will make beer for the members only. They plan to brew initially on an existing breweries test brewery, so they will be looking at a couple of kegs-worth at a time. No contract has been signed yet, but at the time of our conversation they were hopeful they could work out something with the Olds College Teaching Brewery, which is largely idle in the summer.

Obviously there goal is to ramp up production for retail sale and, eventually, find a way to build their own brewery. But for now they are starting small. “Right now we are focused just on getting the ball rolling”, says Wilton.

They don’t anticipate a year-round beer, one of the advantages of being member-driven. “We will aim for seasonals. A fall ale, maybe a winter ale. Something more flavourful,” opines Wilton. “IPAs are huge, so maybe something like that,” quickly adding that will be up to the members.

Neither has much experience with beer, but plan on leaning on the contracted brewery and their own brewmaster to handle the beer end of things. Their job will be building support. “Our first goal is getting 25-30 members by the fall which gives us enough to move to the next step,” says Udy.

The name is linked to history. “We stuck with the community-minded aspect and wanted something that reflected those values” says Udy. “In ancient times the well was the place where people would gather. It was the heart of the community. Where people got drinking water to survive. We want to be the modern day well for drinkers, create a place where people are comfortable and be a part of something bigger than themselves”.

Beer drinkers are likely a long time away from being able to sample The Well beer at their local pub. However, if you want to become a member, you can definitely be the first person on your block to drink their beer.

I will follow their progress over the coming months and keep readers apprised.