“You are about to be hit by a tsunami of people. You have no idea how much Maple Ridge needs this.”
Those were the words spoken to Michael Friesen, head brewer at The Patch Brewery in Maple Ridge, by a fellow brewer shortly before their grand opening in August 2024. One year later, as the brewery celebrates its first anniversary, that brewer’s words seem prophetic. I sat down with Michael and co-owner Rebecca Laity to chat about The Patch’s first year and plans for the future.
A Slow Burn: Opening a Farm-Based Family Brewery
Rumours of The Patch were circulating years before their opening day. As other farm brewery owners will understand only too well, the bureaucratic hurdles required to open The Patch were substantial.
The Laity family has lived and run businesses in the area for generations. However, it wasn’t until around 2017 that brothers Doug and Jeff Laity, along with their wives Kaitlyn and Rebecca, considered the possibility of a farm brewery. The hard work that Persephone Brewing in Gibsons did to change the laws around agricultural land use inspired them. “We have this land, we could start a brewery!” Rebecca remembers the family thinking.
It didn’t happen right away. They planted barley and hops and hired an architect to design the brewery buildings, but had to contract-brew out of Taylight and Locality while they slowly hacked away at bureaucratic red tape. At last, in summer 2024, they received final approval for opening their brewery.
This delay wasn’t all negative, though. Rebecca recalls how those years of planning revealed the welcoming and collegial nature of the craft beer community. She and Jeff visited almost every brewery in the lower mainland – and others overseas – and at each one, Jeff would try to talk to the owner. “Everyone was so open and collaborative,” Rebecca says. “They were all willing to help us out.”
A Year of Challenges and Celebrations
Once The Patch opened its doors, that prediction about a tsunami of people came true. The huge outdoor patio space that welcomes children and dogs, combined with a solid taplist and delicious pizzas, immediately drew in the crowds. On busy weekends, parking attendants were on duty to facilitate the flow of traffic. Speaking as a regular brewery patron myself, I’ve rarely seen this kind of popularity. The Patch must be doing something right.
A large customer base is great, but every benefit has its drawbacks. “There were non-stop adjustments, and staffing was one of our biggest challenges,” Rebecca says. “We had to hire 50 additional staff within the first week of opening.” And the hiring has continued – along with the additional work required for staff training. The hundreds of customer seats available mean that they need more staff if they want to optimize their space.
Providing efficient customer service as they welcome people in is another priority. The brewery’s popularity required a waitlist system almost immediately. Rebecca remembers that they began with a handwritten waitlist, then moved to a texting system, and now they use an online program. Customers can now add themselves to the waitlist while they’re still at home and check their spot before they head out. It’s been a game-changer.
Once patrons were inside the brewery, there were other difficulties to sort out. The flow of customers from counter to table – and the different options, like table service or counter service – has gone through several iterations. Rebecca acknowledges that this can be frustrating for repeat customers, who may have experienced different “rules” during different visits. It’s also difficult for staff. However, they’ve now found a good balance, and they plan to stick with it.
A final hurdle of their first exciting year was the beer supply. They were selling almost all of their beer directly to customers at the counter. This is great news for any brewery, but it meant that they didn’t have enough beer to fill the cans in their off-sales fridge. Increasing production within their existing brewhouse space required a skilled game of fermentation tank Tetris.
What Makes The Patch Unique?
A craft brewery won’t find success just by brewing fantastic beer or having a trendy taproom. It needs to hit that perfect balance of high-quality beer (and food, if offered), a welcoming, community-oriented space, and staff who care about the customers. The Patch seems to have found that balance in their first year.
Head brewer Michael Friesen is passionate about this brewery and what it can offer to Maple Ridge. He’s designed the brewhouse for top efficiency, using large serving tanks rather than kegs for the front of house taps (trust me when I say this saves a great deal of time and hassle) and piping the lines underground to feed the taps in the little “Beer Barn” outside. He’s also crafted a taplist that embodies local flavours and histories within a range of beer styles that will appeal to the brewery’s broad demographic.
It starts with a good lager. “Gotta have a good house lager,” he told me. A lager is a good litmus test for a brewery; you can’t hide any flaws. The Laity Lager is excellent. It’s crisp, clean, and approachable – not too “crafty” for the folks who are used to macro lagers, but a quality beer that craft beer nerds will appreciate. Another popular lager on tap is the 1879 Patch Pilsner, Michael’s twist on a Czech pilsner. It’s named after the year in which the Laity family settled in the region. To Michael, understanding both local history and beer history are crucial if you’re a brewer. “Brewers should have a core knowledge of traditional beer styles,” he says. “They have their foot planted in the past – they know the history. But they should also be aware of innovations happening in beer. Once you know what the rules are, then you can break them.”
And he’s done a bit of breaking with the 1879 Patch Pilsner. Using imported European floor-malted barley, he puts the wort through an extra-long boil, ages it for three weeks in a foeder (a big wooden barrel), then krausens it to allow natural carbonation, then does a final dry hop. It’s served with a traditional Czech side-pull tap. The subtle vanilla and toffee notes drawn from the wood aging stop it from being a conventional Czech pilsner, but that’s part of its charm; this pilsner is the Laity version of the traditional Czech beer.
Other core beers, like the Fat Tractor Hazy IPA and the Three Peaks West Coast IPA, evoke local landmarks and sights. Early in our conversation, Michael and Rebecca described the haze that settled over the fields in early August, when the barley was being harvested. I thought of that when I picked up a can of Fat Tractor and looked out the window to see the farm’s tractor sitting in the freshly shorn fields. The rotating taps, including the Sour Patch series and the hefeweizen, reflect seasonal aspects of the local landscape – berries, wheat fields, mountains.
There are plenty of non-alcoholic options as well, including Phillips Brewing’s non-alcoholic beers, Ole mocktails, and lemonade, iced tea, and Italian sodas. However, one unique inclusion is their coffee bar – a big draw for tired parents who stop by when the brewery opens at 10 am. After discovering an amazing coffee shop on Vancouver Island, Drumroasters, the Laitys went into partnership with the owners. Drumroasters supplies their espresso machine and makes a special roast for The Patch based on Maple Ridge’s water chemistry. You can get anything from a drip coffee to flavoured lattes to matcha to cold brew to hot chocolate.
And finally – food! If you’re in the mood for more than something to sip on, The Patch has you covered with their new menu. While they started with pizza as their mainstay, they’ve expanded to include muffins and pastries, fried chicken, burgers (there are vegan options for these latter two), and salads. A large food truck out back expands their kitchen facilities and helps feed the hundreds of hungry patrons who enter their doors each day.
Looking to the Future
After one year of beautiful chaos and smashing success, The Patch has found its place in the Maple Ridge community. It’s giving the locals something that they’ll come back for repeatedly. Open air, good beer and food, play space for kids and dogs…it’s all here. After a year of consistent pivoting and adjustments to make things work, what does the future look like?
Rebecca feels like they’re just getting started. “We’ve done a lot, but there’s so much more we’d like to do,” she says. “We’d like to expand our food menu and host more events.” An Oktoberfest celebration is currently in the works, although fairly laid-back; business as usual, but with some fun additions. “It’s not a ticketed event,” Rebecca emphasizes, although ticketed events are likely a future possibility. They will also continue to build up their staff in order to ensure quality customer service and good management.
On the brewing side, one thing that isn’t in the immediate future is wider distribution. They’ll continue to focus on selling beer to the customers who come to them for that farm brewery experience. From Michael’s perspective, this is the dream for a brewer. They don’t feel like they’re brewing for a sales team; they’re brewing for their customers, and they’re brewing styles they love. “We can brew the beer the best we can and get instant feedback from people coming in,” says Michael. “We use our passion and creativity.”
At the same time, as both Michael and Rebecca emphasize, the brewer’s passion must align with the customer base for the brewery. “We had to learn about our audience, and I think we’ve done a great job of making very approachable beers,” says Rebecca. Combining creativity with approachability is something Michael’s done well. He anticipates introducing a barrel-aging program in future, so keep an eye out for that!
A Beer to Celebrate One Year: the Anniversary Brew
Today, The Patch is releasing its much-anticipated first anniversary beer – their “One Year Beer”, a cold-lagered IPA that’s similar to a West Coast IPA but crisper and cleaner. Using a superpowered lager yeast strain (for the brewing science nerds, the superpowers involve biotransformation caused by the release of thiols), Michael brewed the beer with BC-grown Saaz and Cascade hops, fermented it, dry-hopped it with tropical New Zealand hops, aged it in a foeder, krausened it in a stainless steel tank, then double dry-hopped it.
If that sounds a bit confusing and complicated to make – it is. But it’s definitely worth drinking! This beer has a lager’s beautiful golden clarity, but its fruity aroma and first sip suggest a hazy IPA with melon, grapefruit, guava, and peach notes. Mid-palate, that sip takes a turn to West Coast IPA territory with citrus pith and pine. The finish is satisfying; clean and fairly quick, with just a bit of lingering piney bitterness. As Michael puts it, this beer takes you on a journey. It will sell out quickly, so make sure you get down to the taproom ASAP.
Congratulations to the owners and staff of The Patch on a brilliantly successful first year. We’re all looking forward to seeing what you do next!
Every Pint Tells a Story
