The craft beer tsunami that seems to be hitting Calgary this spring just hit shore in the historic neighbourhood of Inglewood. On the verge of heating up their brew kettle to sate the long pent up beer needs of local residents are the trio behind Cold Garden Beverage Company. Blake Belding, Dan Allard and Kris Fiorentino are the brains and the brawn behind Calgary’s soon-to-be latest pint-sized brewery.

Belding and Allard met in university and kept touch over the years, regularly musing about a business project they could do together (both have business degrees). Belding had begun homebrewing about seven years ago at the tail end of college.  “At first it was about how cheap I could make beer”, he sheepishly admits (dude, we have all been there). “But as time goes on you get into the hobby and soon enough quality and taste are paramount over cost”.

He always just saw it has a pleasurable hobby and then – in what is quickly coming a common refrain – the AGLC scrapped the minimum production capacity requirements, and suddenly the ground shifted. “When they changed the minimums that is when I got serious about it. I had thought about doing it all through college” and the rules made it more do-able.

Belding and Allard started working on a business plan for a small, neighbourhood-focussed brewery which mostly consisted of the two of them “sitting in various pubs drinking beer and taking notes”. After months of tasting, noting and talking they met Fiorentino, who has a background in marketing. They met with her to discuss the plans and “within two days she had written ten pages of gold”, says Belding. It was her focus and drive that got thing moving. “After that, the three of us, away we went”.

The three are all keeping their day jobs for now, meaning they have really long work weeks. But they are hopeful as things progress there will be room to move into a full-time operation.

Their vision is to create a brewery that is part of community. Inglewood is the home of the now long-shuttered, historic Molson Brewery (originally Calgary & Malting which opened in 1892). “We want to bring beer back to the neighbourhood. The whole idea was brewing in the shadow of the old Molson Brewery, to bring beer back as part of the community fabric,” says Belding. “We want to be a Calgary place featuring the arts and culture of Inglewood”.

The size of the brewery reflects the vision. They have a 5-barrel direct fire brewhouse with four 10-barrel fermenters and 4-bright tanks. The smaller size, Belding argues, creates both more flexibility and a stronger community feel. They also have a “funky single-head canning machine that we named ‘Can Solo'”.

They plan to package – one at a time, mind you – with four sizes of cans: 250 ml, 355 ml, 473 ml and 946 ml. Initially they see it as more of a “crowler” arrangement where the beer is filled as you go. Growler fills will also be a mainstay with some keg sales to outside accounts to supplement.

The anchor of the space will be a small taproom that will allow locals to “do a growler fill, have a pint and take cans away”. Once they are up and running they hope to sell the 473-ml cans as off-sales.

The name, which may seem unusual at first, Belding says links to Calgary’s etymological origins – another link to local. Calgary is named after a small town on the Island of Mull in Scotland. As it turns out the word “Calgary” originates from the Norse words kald and gart, which roughly translate into “Cold Garden”. Hence the name. (For the record, there is a competing theory about the word’s origins, but I won’t go there today.)

“We were really searching for a name and stumbled across the story of how Calgary was named and thought it was pretty cool,” remarks Belding.

They are waiting for the last couple permits and permissions from the AGLC, but anticipate having beer for sale in the next 4-6 weeks. They will launch with seven beer with plans for a cider and up to four rotating taps shortly after. If that sounds like a lot, it is. “Everyone told us not to do so many, but I am exciting for what we can put out. I like the idea of brewing a lot of varieties”, he says. Proving his point, he adds, “even the seven are not cast in stone. It depends on feedback and what whim I am on that day. I read an article and get obsessed to brew that beer”.

Belding says their approach is a “mix of classic styles and Americanized styles”. For now the seven regulars include Dandelion’s Blonde, This Must be the IPA, The All-Nighter Vanilla Cappuccino Porter, Red Smashed in Buffalo Jump,  One Summer in Saskatoon (a Saison with saskatoons), East Calgary Lager (a Vienna lager) and Cake Face which Belding describes as a maltier version of an amber lager that “tastes like birthday cake”. Belding has lots of ideas for the rotating taps and is currently working on a kettle-sour porter.

Belding thinks it is a very exciting time for craft beer in Calgary. “People see opportunity. There is a huge desire for good beer in city right now. Customers love variety and it is like a gold rush. We are in the middle of the bulge, there will be a tonne of us opening in the next year and a half. I can’t wait!”