They are, without debate, Alberta’s most eastern brewery. 4th Meridian Brewing opened its doors (just outside) Lloydminster a few weeks ago. You can’t get more east in Alberta without finding yourself in Saskatchewan.

Which is why 4th Meridian is called what it is. “It comes from the Dominian Land Survey (DLS) system,” says co-owner Edward James in a recent conversation. “It is the border between Alberta and Saskatchewan,” which runs through the middle of Lloydminster. “I worked in the oilpatch where we use the DLS all the time. Plus it is a name that just sounds appropriate. Everyone in the oilpatch and in Lloydminster would know what it means,” he adds.

“We threw around other names to do with native plants, animals, etc. But so many have done that. How many breweries can you have named after creeks and rivers?”

4th Meridian is the creation of James, his sister Helen Ramful and her husband Brad Hoffman. All three were connected with Alberta’s oil and gas sector; James in Calgary as a project manager, Hoffman with an oil service company in Lloyd and Ramful as an environmental consultant. The economic downturn hit them all hard. James lost his job, Ramful’s work dried up and Hoffman, while still working, found things slower. The time seemed right to pursue their dream.

James had been homebrewing for seven years and, like most of us, fantasized about opening a brewery. “My mom bought me a book with instructions on all-grain brewing [the book was CAMRA’s Brew Your Own British Real Ale], I went for it and got not too bad at it.” As he got more into homebrewing he starting thinking about a brewery, but his day job kept him busy. “But then I got laid off two years ago and asked myself ‘what am I going to do with my life?”

“We got serious in January 2016,” he notes. “We were sitting at my parents’ kitchen table in Edmonton. I didn’t have a job. My sister didn’t have a job. And we had the possibility of free space [at the acreage of Hoffman’s parents outside Lloyd].” So they decided why not?

But they didn’t have tons of capital so they knew they had to do it in an affordable way. They built a 3.5BBL system using only their own money. “We pieced it together a bit here and a bit there.” They have gone with plastic fermenters (for now) along with some “ugly” Grundy tanks (squat, English serving tanks produced 50-60 years ago) as bright tanks. “Dandy Brewing was our inspiration. We felt if they could do it so can we.”

For the moment they have three beer on offer. Bachelor Blond Ale, Re-Session Ale which James describes as “a pale ale, more hoppy than blonde but not super IPA hoppy – about 30 IBUs”, and a recently released Mango Hefeweizen. “I did the Mango as a homebrew. I had mangos lying around and had just made wheat beer, so thought I would try it.” He is well aware releasing a quintessential summer beer in November is a bit crazy, but early reaction has been very positive.

James says that he and Hoffman like their flavourful beer. “We like big IPAs and stouts.” But he knows that Lloydminster is a new craft beer market. It is one of the reason’s they opened there. “We grew up around Lloydminster, but we also knew that it didn’t have brewery. We wouldn’t be stuck up against 15 different breweries who know what they are doing and have market share already. We were confident it would get a good amount of buzz off the start and that the town would embrace having a local brewery,” he says. “We could be the only show in town for at least six months and if we were making decent beer we should be okay.”

Photo courtesy of dailybeer.ca

But they also knew Lloydminster posed challenges. “It tends to be  pale lager country, so we have to be careful what we start with. They won’t embrace imperial barrel-aged stouts right off the bat. So we are starting not with our personal preferred beer because we need the customer base to like it.”

But James says the biggest challenge may be that they are only allowed to sell their beer in one-half of the town. Saskatchewan beer rules prevent them from being able to sell their beer on the east side of town. “We will miss out on some of the big festivals and events in town because they are on the Saskatchewan side.”

They are starting small because it gives them flexibility to decide how to proceed next. A lot of their approach is about playing it by ear. “Our initial plan is to operate out of shop we are in, make beer, and get up and running and see what interest we generate,” he offers. “If it goes well, we will expand a bit to craft beer places in Edmonton and Calgary, although Lloydminster is our priority.” They plan in mid-2017 to move the brewery into Lloydminster proper and open up a tap room with pint sales and growler fills. For the moment there is no interest in bottling. “We do a little bottling in 650ml bombers, but we do it by hand,” says James. “We don’t have a lot of capacity for bottling. I don’t want to spend hours hand-bottling – it isn’t fun.”

Given that they are in early days, It is not surprising that when I ask James about his hopes for five years from now, his answer is modest. “We will still be in Lloydminster and be a bit bigger. I want it to be a full time job,” he says. “If we put in the effort we will be able to make a good brewery, build a decent brand name that people recognize. We hope when they drink it they will know it didn’t come out of a machine – somebody made it, stayed up until 2AM filling bottles.” He also adds that he hopes they will be a “proper brewery” that produces “quality Alberta craft beer.”

Can’t criticize that ambition. Now only if they can find a way to sell their beer in the other half of Lloydminster.