You might be forgiven for getting a bit confused if someone offers you a beer made theoretically. How can a beer be theoretical? But then, that confusion might be because you hadn’t yet heard of Theoretically Brewing, Lethbridge’s newest (and first in years) craft brewery.

Theoretically, which opened in December, is the brainchild and product of the sweat and tears of Kelti Boissonneault and Kris Fischer. The duo are both the most and least likely pair of burgeoning craft brewers you might find. Kris is an instructor of chemistry and biochemistry at the University of Lethbridge. He is also a homebrewer of around 20 years (that biochem background likely comes in handy). Kelti is a History graduate with no experience in beer or homebrewing, who met Kris when she was an undergraduate a few years ago. “We would try his homebrew and I thought it was great,” she says.  “We were joking around and saying you should sell this”. At the time neither took the thought seriously – Alberta’s laws at the time were prohibitive for small start-ups.

But then the rules changed a couple of years ago and Kelti and Kris got thinking. “We started doing research and it showed that Lethbridge had a good opportunity,” says Kelti. “There was no other micro in town, so we took a long look at it”. At the time what is now Coulee Brewing (not yet producing) was only in the planning stages. Plus, Kelti says, “We uncovered that Lethbridge has an old history of brewing,” referring to Sick’s Brewing, which at the time of its closure was owned by Molson. “A lot of people who worked in the plant wanted the beer history back. They were excited and that community support helped us make the jump”.

The duo decided early on to start small. Really small. They have a 500-litre brewhouse (5HL) with five fermenters. They bottle condition everything – including their kegs (keg condition?), and hand fill every bottle.

“We tried force carbonating the first couple of batches, but it was too much work. We had to stand there and shake kegs” says Kelti. It wasn’t so bad for their 20-litre kegs, but the 56-litres were simply too hard. They are quite glad they settled on bottle-conditioning. “Through research we learned that beer lasts longer due to live yeast. The flavour will change over time, but we found it friendly for manpower and making initial batches last longer”. The advantages of bottle-conditioning are not lost on any hardy homebrewer.

Currently they are doing most of their sales out of the brewery, in 650-ml bombers and growler fills, although their list of Lethbridge liquor stores grows regularly. The brewery is open for retail  Thursday to Saturday from 2:00 to 6:00, although they might agree to sales outside that time by appointment only.

Kelti has jumped to working full time at the brewery, while Kris keeps his day job. They are currently brewing twice a week, Thursday evenings and Saturdays, but have the ability to up that a bit more “but we would need another staff before that” says Kelti. At the moment “we are holding a good balance between demand and production”.

While they are starting very small, that is not their end point. Their vision seessomething a bit more substantial, but not too big. “We would like to grow. Eventually we would like to move into a custom brew facility with shiny toys,” she suggests. “But what is important for us is to maintain everything local oriented. We are all about the community.” Kelti says they are trying to locally source as many of their ingredients as possible and they see Lethbridge as their primary audience.

But they are not opposed to getting a bit bigger. “We wouldn’t be unhappy if we saw something like Wild Rose “. But they are not rushing it. “We’ll see what happens with the pace”. On that note for now they are happy with bombers. “Bombers are popular. We have a large student population and they like large volumes”. They do plan to move to smaller bottles when resources allow.

The overall vision of the brewery is to “bridge gap between domestic drinkers and the craft beer drinker. We really appreciate craft beer drinkers, but recognize our primary market in Lethbridge grew up drinking domestic lagers”. Kelti says they know it will take time and so they see one of their primary goals is to educate the consumer, to tell them “this is craft beer, and this is why it tastes the way it does”.

As for the beer, they are offering four regular offerings, plus rotating experiments. The permanent line-up includes: Curiousity Amber Ale, Quantum Wheat Ale, BHB (Black Hole Beer) Stout and Publish or Perish Porter (I particularly like the name of the last one…). As you may be able to tell there is a distinct playfulness in the names that tip their hat to academia and science geekiness. That is because both Kris and Kelti are avowed science nerds.

“We took a science angle because of Kris’ science background,” says Kelti. “We are giant nerds, and are taking the nerdiest approach to building a brewery”. Part of that nerdiness means a solid commitment to scientific principles. “We are taking a high quality, scientific approach to brewing beer”.

They acknowledge their beer isn’t pushing boundaries quite yet. “For the moment the profile is safer but we look forward to opportunities to experiment with flavours and combinations in the near future”. When I spoke to Kelti they were about to brew their first pale ale, which they call “Experimental Pale Ale”, and they have many other styles in mind for the future.

For now they are the little brewery that could, but they have dreams of being something more – a brewery that can not only quench Lethbridge’s needs for craft beer but other parts of Alberta as well.

But for the moment, if you want to try their beer, you gotta find your way to Lethbridge.