Hidden between the custom car shops occupying the distinctive yellow-brick industrial building in New West lives Another Beer Co. The space serves as a laboratory for experimenting and perfecting brews of vision and fantasy, and invites visitors to sample their frequently rotating small-batch creations.
Co-owner, director and tri-cities local Alex Jopson shares with us the experiences of him and his small team of inspired beer imagineers.
Tell us your story, how was Another Beer Co. born?
It happened organically really. My business partners family had opened a brewery in Spokane Washington and he felt like he was missing out. We fell into a space that was small and modest, and we thought this could work as a brewery. We started planning and things seemed to click. We wanted something small with lots of varieties, and never be forced to make a beer we didn’t like or didn’t think met a high standard of quality.
My personal favourite beer of yours is the Poolside Hefe. What is your favourite brew?
Right now it would be our Italian Pilsner, likely because we’ve run out of it and eagerly anticipate the beer coming back soon. But usually it’s our IPAs that is my go to.
What would you be doing in an alternate universe if ABC didn’t exist?
I do currently sell real estate full time. ABC is a passion project and a way for me personally to put forth some creative ideas that I can’t do in Real Estate. So ultimately I would likely have found another way to work in the art world or marketing world. I’m very thrilled to have partnered with Clete on ABC. He takes the lead on the major side and has some amazing talents in coming up with great recipes.
What’s the most interesting thing that’s happened to you so far?
That’s a hard one. But the first thing I think of is the artists that we’ve been able to work with over our first year. I mean we didn’t have a reputation yet and the artist who’ve I’ve been big fans of, were getting excited about working with us. And the list keeps growing, particularly because of all those first artists who took a chance on us.
Covid has affected us all in different ways. If you’re comfortable, can you share with us how this time has affected you and your business? And do you have a message to share with the community?
First and foremost, we were certainly concerned with the public, our staff, and our own safety, and we wanted to make sure we were doing everything we could. The environment was a bit tough with the ever-changing information and direction. I would say the beer industry had a great help from our guild, and it was nice to have everyone on board in the industry. We were saddened to have to lay off a number of our staff during that time, but we check in regularly with everyone and are looking forward to bringing them all back in July.
We are also very thankful to our community and followers who were a great support and we were very overwhelmed by how many people made use of the delivery option that we had available. We ran out of beer on the regular. And the kinds words from everyone meant so much to Clete and I. Thank you to everyone who were a support!
What advice do you have for someone wanting to start their own business? What is something you wish someone had told you?
“Knowledge is Power. Surround yourself with a great team. Have people who will tell you the truth. Know what you want and where you want to end up. Take the information given to you and make the decisions that make sense to your goals.
We signed up to a few contracts with businesses that said one thing but did another. They seemed to be predatory with businesses like ours. Looking back I think I would have asked more questions to our friends who have done this before. After the fact what we went through seemed common and we should have just asked someone. “
What’s coming up for you? (new product releases, development, events)
“Well it’s going to sound Vague, but we have new beers being released on the regular so it’s tough to highlight one. Best to follow us on Instagram for our new releases.
We do have some collage coming up with a few friends including one with North Paw that should be a very tasty beer.
We are now working on a few events but because of the current world of COVID and the uncertainty, we’re taking it one day at a time.
We also do have a few things we are working on with the city, but right now we are thrilled to have opened our patio and looking forward to this year of permanent patios”
ABC Shares some Fun Facts:
- We have equipment that we bought from another brewery, Moody Ales in Port Moody. They became a vital resource during our build out and even more recently helped us out with canning our product during the initial stages of Covid where you could only sell your beer in cans.
- Clete Hansen’s Family (the co owner of ABC), owns the brewery called Whistle Punk Brewing in Spokane. It was originally called Hansen Brothers Brewing. They had a well-known boy band send them a cease and desist. And although you can’t own a trademark on a family name, they wanted to move on and stop the lawyer fees and decided to let them have the name. The Hansen Brothers band went on to release a beer called mmmmmmmhops.
- We always wanted to open a cocktail bar in New Westminster, even a speakeasy. When we opened ABC we wanted to have cocktails as an option for those who came along with friends to ABC but didn’t like or couldn’t drink beer. Our bar manager Nique, is from Detroit and has learned a lot over the years working in cocktail bars there. He still to this day goes back to visit his family and will work with local establishments to get new ideas. He has made some cocktails that I’ve never even known could exist. He makes beer cocktails that I actually want to drink! (I say that because I find beer cocktails always taste like a radler more then a cocktail). We are excited to welcome him back in July.
- Our brewery is literally on wheels. Almost everything we have is movable so that we can maximize our small footprint.
For more info:
Website: anotherbeerco.com
Instagram: @anotherbeerco
Facebook: anotherbeerco
Twitter: @anotherbeerco