In this latest instalment in the Hops Among Friends series, showcasing the people who make up the craft beer scene on the BC Ale Trail, Kim Lawton interviews Alex Jopson from Another Beer Co.
My most recent Hops Among Friends interview was with Matt West-Patrick and Isaiah Archer from Whistle Buoy Brewing. Matt and Isaiah were able to pay it forward, and they picked Alex Jopson, the co-founder of Another Beer Co. for my next Hops Among Friends discussion.
Another Beer Co. was established in 2019 in New Westminster on the North of the Fraser Ale Trail.
Alex and I had a great conversation about craft beer, passions, and the joys and challenges of entrepreneurship. We ended up chatting like old friends for close to two hours. I really enjoyed the conversation and I hope you enjoy getting to know more about Alex and Another Beer Co. I look forward to having “Another Beer” with Alex soon.
You can read through all of my previous Hops Among Friends articles here.
Kim: How did you get started in craft beer?
Alex: I have a bit of a different story than many. I grew up skateboarding and drinking macro beer. But I always felt sick afterwards, so I gave up drinking beer entirely.
Things changed for me when I went on a camping trip with a friend to Washington State. My buddy said, “Let’s go to a brewery for a beer.” I didn’t think there would be anything there for me, but I went with him anyway. And I was shocked. I tried all of these different craft beers and thought to myself, wow, there is so much going on in these beers. My friend said, “You like them, don’t you?” And I did. That trip turned into a camping and brewery crawl through Oregon. This is where I started to understand the many options of craft beer, outside of the macro beers I had been drinking.
That was 20 years ago, and I’ve been a big craft beer nerd ever since. This was also around the time I started selling real estate. Things took an interesting turn about 10 years ago. I was selling a client’s house, and I noticed that the layout of the condo would be great for homebrewing. One day I was doing an open house at this condo and a couple came in. As I was showing them around, I mentioned the home’s many features and randomly threw in that it was also well set up for homebrewing. The customer asked me why I said that.
It sparked a conversation, and we kept chatting. It turned out that the couple, Clete and Jess Hanson, had family opening a brewery in Spokane. We instantly connected. We ended up talking about beer. They didn’t buy that home, but I started showing them other homes. Over this period of time, while they were looking for a new home, we would go and look at homes together, and then go for a beer and talk. When I think back, I don’t know why I brought up the homebrewing opportunity in that home. The one and only time I ever mentioned the homebrewing potential in a home was that time to Clete and Jess.
From there, we would daydream about opening a brewery in New Westminster but really didn’t think more of it than that: a dream. It really was a passion project brewery for both Clete and myself. We both had careers. But we both also wanted to make great beers, and we wanted to set up a brewery like what we were seeing in the States. We looked at these small US breweries that were opening up with 2-barrel systems. They weren’t doing it for the money; they were doing it because they wanted to make great beer.
At that time, Steel & Oak had just opened. 33 Acres and Brassneck had recently opened. We really loved what they were doing. They were more like what I saw in the US — breweries that had tasting rooms and growler fills — and we decided that was what we wanted to do.
We started with a $5,000 homebrew system with all the bells and whistles. We had a warehouse spot that was made available to us to brew in. Just before we moved the equipment in, we found out that a neighbouring warehouse space was opening up. I asked about the monthly rent, and it turned out that it was $1,200/month, so we thought we’d go for it. Even though it wasn’t the perfect spot for a brewery, we thought it would be the right spot to make a small footprint and start a nano-nano-nano operation.
I had just gotten married to Nadine when Clete and I started the brewery. Thankfully, both Clete and I had very supportive partners. That was eight years ago. It took us three years to get open due to our other careers and it being a passion project. And, we’ve been a start-up for these last five years. During this time, it’s been all about the ability to pivot.
Kim: After all of the pivots, how have things changed?
Alex: Fast forward to today, and my wife Nadine is very much involved in the brewery. More so than we both ever thought.
Nadine is from the Alexander Cree Nation in Northern Alberta, so we have done some Indigenous beers. Our first Indigenous beer was a Saison called Askî Oci, which means “From The Land” in Plains Cree. Our brewery’s connection to Indigenous culture and the land has always been important to us.
Nadine will be launching a new business within Another Beer Co.: she will be launching what we believe is the first Indigenous-owned soda brand in Canada called Heart Berry Soda. Heart berry is what Cree call strawberries. These sodas celebrate the Indigenous culture. They are all about the ingredients of the land. There will be four different sodas to start. Lemon and Birch Bark, Strawberry and Rhubarb, Raspberry and Fireweed, and a Ginger Beer with Rosehips.
Kim: Tell me more about the name Another Beer Co.
Alex: We threw around so many names while trying to get something started. Anything that we would all agree on, after a deep dive, we would find that the name was already taken. We thought about how Clete’s family opened a brewery in Spokane called Whistle Punk Brewing. This new brewery would be another brewery for the family. We also knew that we would want to roll numerous beers out on the regular, rather than have “staples” or flagship beers. So we thought there would always be “another beer” on tap that you haven’t tried yet when you come in. We also just liked the name Another, and how you could play with the name. There is lots of tongue-in-cheek play.
Kim: What makes Another Beer Co. unique?
Alex: We don’t do big productions. We are a tiny brewery, and we do small-batch beers. Nothing unique there. However, we try to be experimental, and being this size, we can be. We can pivot our schedule each week. We are always changing things up and introducing new beers. We are experimenting with new styles of beers, experimenting with new hops, and hopping techniques, or working with other friends on collaborations when it works to do so.
Keeping our ears to the ground, and keeping in touch with our brew friends in other places, or Clete talking with his brother Matt at Whistle Punk, we look for new trends and ideas that align with our interests. Clete and his brother Matt own two different breweries in two different countries. This is unique because there is a constant level of sharing amongst these two beer nerds. I think this is a super unique relationship, and we need to do a better job at telling this side of the story.
Kim: What do you have coming up at Another Beer Co?
Alex: June 2 is our 5th-anniversary party at Another Beer Co. Heart Berry Soda will make her debut on this day too.
Also, we recently had a collaboration brewing day at Another Beer Co. On May 20, we had the first brew of our three-way, three-beer collaboration series called Obtuse. Every year we will pick a third brewery for a three-way collab with Whistle Punk Brewing. So, it will be Whistle Punk, Another Beer Co., and a third brewery. It is called Obtuse, because all three breweries will form an obtuse triangle. Plus, we like the double-entendre meaning of being obtuse too.
This year, the third brewery is Structures Brewing in Bellingham, Washington.
We’ll make three different three-way collab beers this year, one in Bellingham, one in Spokane, and this first one in New West. We’re excited about this series because it’s cross-border. Although people will have to cross the border to try the other two beers in the series, or get their friends involved in Washington to help them get some into their hands.
We are doing this together because we all share a passion for what we do. We are fans of what these breweries are doing, and that’s why we want to collaborate this way.
The Obtuse collab will launch in June as part of our fifth anniversary celebration month. This Obtuse collab beer will be a West Coast-style pilsner. It will be available in cans and on tap. We’ll have other fun releases coming out during this month too.
Kim: What do you love most about the craft beer industry?
Alex: I’m proud to be in the BC craft beer industry.
I try to apply the collaborative mindset in other areas of my life and business too.
During the big craft beer boom, you could make almost any beer and it would sell and be successful. Now, with things being a bit tougher for the industry, my hope is that the breweries will come out and be more innovative and that they will create more high-profile beers to make people support their local breweries. This was why I fell in love with craft beer, and I feel that maybe that was lost a bit during all the successes. Getting more involved in the communities will be vital, and our neighbours will support us and celebrate us.
Kim: Tell me more about your setup at Another Beer Co.
Alex: We have a 10-barrel, 12 hectolitre system. We got the old system from Moody Ales when they upgraded. It’s a hoot because we have their old milk container that was made into a mash tun that you have to shovel out. Everything is on wheels because we have such a small space, and we have to be able to move things around.
When we opened, we didn’t do growler fills or flights. Our biggest tank is smaller than most breweries’ smallest tanks. We didn’t have the proper system to do growler fills. To this day, we still don’t do growler fills or flights. We did get a lot of “hate mail” along with bad reviews and people walking out. But there were reasons why we didn’t do flights or growler fills, and still don’t.
Clete and I personally didn’t use growlers anymore and saw that down south the numbers were dropping off with who was using them. And that cans were becoming the norm for reliable consumption. I felt that people might feel the need to overindulge once a growler was opened to make sure the beer didn’t spoil, or they let the beer spoil and it was a bad representation of the beer. At the time we opened, adding the right setup to have growlers was expensive and if the use of growlers was trending down, it just didn’t seem like the right investment.
Flights are something that we do now but with a twist. We offer half pours of our beers, which is an 8 oz beer pour. We do this so that you have a decent amount of beer. Enough so that you can get a taste of the true profile and enjoy it. It’s recommended that you take three sips or drinks of an item to get its true flavour and mouthfeel. We want people to slow down and enjoy the beer. We felt that flights can be a bit chaotic and even rushed at times. But again, those are our feelings. We want to present our beers the way we feel puts their best foot forward.
Kim: What else are you working on at Another Beer Co.?
Alex: We always have something in the works. We are trying to line up some fun collabs to coincide with the Canada Beer Cup being held in New West in October. We’d like to do something fun for people coming in for that.
Kim: Tell me something you are proud of at Another Beer Co.
Alex: Honestly, just opening the brewery itself. Does that sound lame? It really is true though. As a beer nerd, I have so much appreciation for all of the breweries that are doing their thing and everything that they had to deal with. As a patron, you don’t know what it takes to open a brewery. It’s not easy.
Hug a brewery owner today.
Also, I’m proud of surviving. We aren’t making money here. Some would argue that we aren’t great business people because we aren’t making money. But we are looking down the road long term. We are doing this because of our passion. We didn’t get into this for the money, but if it eventually comes, that would be great.
We are also trying our best to be sustainable within our footprint. Taking grain to the local farm to make their cows jump for joy, and looking at working with a local producer to turn our grain into bokashi to use in our gardens, and to offer to our patrons. Collecting back the PakTech holders from our customers and rewarding them for bringing them in. We look for anything we can do to make improvements.
Kim: What are some of the challenges you are dealing with now?
Alex: There are a lot of challenges. Figuring out what is working and what is not working is a challenge. Money is a struggle. We wanted to do an expansion. We had the money about two years ago, but there were always other things we had to spend money on, so we didn’t have the funds to do the expansion we wanted to do. But that will come. So stay tuned.
We know people are holding onto their dollars more, and looking for healthier options. And honestly, that’s great, and we want folks to be healthy, and drink in moderation. We just need to do a better job at earning their buys and making healthier or other options that they want to have once in a while.
Larger breweries are reducing the price of their beers to be more affordable for everyone. Bigger craft breweries and macro breweries can do this. They can look for ways to be more efficient. This is harder for us to do because we make more expensive beers than most. Also, because of our size and the quality of the beers we are making, it’s hard for us to reduce our pricing.
There has been a lot of doom and gloom talk, but I’m positive if we adapt and make great beer, there will always be customers. We just need to pull up our socks and do our best to shake hands and get out there.
Kim: What have you done to address these challenges?
Alex: We are changing the things we can. A good example is that I never wanted to do trivia nights, but we are doing them now. Also, we didn’t want to have the hockey game on. We felt that the beer was always enough. But now as money is tight for people, they are going out less. If they want to watch the hockey game and have a beer, we’ll offer that.
The space is for the community, and I don’t want to be the gatekeeper for this space. We want to let this space meet the needs of our customers. We want our place to be an open space for our community to hang out. When we do collabs, we want to let people know about our collabs so brewing folks can come and meet up with the other brewery folks. We have an open-door policy.
Kim: What are some of your favourite beers right now?
Alex: I like our Cold IPAs. We were apparently the first brewery in Canada to do a Cold IPA. Cold IPAs are crisp, clear, and crushable like a lager, and yet also flavourful like a West Coast IPA. I like a well-balanced hybrid beer.
I’m on a stout kick these days, so when I can, I splurge on a Superflux Indulgeousness and watch my blood sugar spike. I’m always interested in what Tristan is doing over at Temporal, and grabbing a bottle when I can.
Kim: Beer festival season is here. What are your favourite craft beer festivals?
Alex: Hands down, Farmhouse Fest. The reason why Farmhouse Fest works is because the beer list is so well curated and meets the needs of the people who attend. Doing the same thing all the time doesn’t work.
I am game to support any festival put on by our local breweries. We love parking lot fests. When I know the owners of a brewery and they put on a fest, I’m on board with that.
Kim: What are some hidden gems in the New West area?
Alex: The new təməsew̓txʷ Aquatic and Community Centre. It’s a great place to go for a swim. It’s a state-of-the-art aquatic centre.
The New Media Gallery is an absolute hidden gem. The shows and exhibits they put on are top-notch. If it was in downtown Vancouver, it would be the place to go. It might not get the reach it should here in New West, but we love it and we celebrate it locally. We are thrilled to work with them on some of their projects.
Sapperton Landing Park is also a hidden gem. I would encourage people to check out the bike trails around our brewery.
Mood Swing Coffee on Front Street is another hidden gem. The folks there are good friends of ours. It’s a vegetarian coffee shop that turns into a little cocktail bar at night. They have our beer on tap and an awesome wine list.
There are also lots of great parks in New West. There is an awesome skatepark in Queen’s Park. You can get lost in there. It’s a beautiful park with so many things including a petting zoo, the New West Art Gallery and a rose garden.
I’d also suggest going for a walk along the boardwalk and checking out the Fraser River.
I love living in New West where there is great diversity in architecture. I love wandering around. There is lots of awesome architecture in Queen’s Park, Downtown and beyond. There are lots of old historical buildings to check out. New West was the first capital of BC, so its history is pretty interesting. My wife and I would wander on photography walks when we were dating, and the spots in New Westminster never disappointed. This is part of the reason we started the Another Photography Club meetup at ABC on the first Saturday of each month.
Of course, I also think we have a pretty cool beer scene here in New West. There is a lot of brewing history here. We really wanted to be in the Brewery District because there wasn’t a brewery in the Brewery District when we opened. We are really pleased to be able to celebrate the rich history of New West.
Kim: Who else in the craft beer industry do you find interesting and why?
Alex: I think co-owners Andy Hamer and Melanie MacInnes at Locality Brewing in Langley are very interesting. I’d like you to interview Melanie next. She is Indigenous and she is one of the main owners. We bonded over skateboarding. They have their own farm and produce their own grains. They are really passionate about BC beer, and they want to elevate BC beer. I love what they are doing farm-to-table, plus they are such a rad couple.
Stay tuned for the next instalment of the Hops Among Friends blog series, where I speak with Melanie from Locality Brewing in Langley, on the Langley Ale Trail. Until then, cheers!
