In an inspiring tale of resilience and renewal, Bomber Brewing, founded by Don Farion in 2014, has come full circle as Farion recently repurchased the brewery from the Donnelly Group in October 2024, following periods of corporate ownership and market challenges. After surviving his own battle with throat cancer, Farion is steering Bomber back to its community-focused roots with a renewed emphasis on balanced, quality brewing and local connections. The story of Bomber Brewing exemplifies the enduring spirit of craft beer culture, demonstrating how passion, community ties, and a return to fundamentals can revitalize a neighbourhood brewery.
Bomber’s back, baby!
Well…it never really left. But let me tell the whole story.
Beginnings
When Don Farion agreed to jump in as a spare for his friend Blair Calibaba’s local hockey team one night in the early 2010s, he didn’t realize that that decision would take his life in a new direction. The guys were cracking bottles of homebrew in the parking lot after the game, and Blair’s pilsner blew Don away. Inspired by his love of Pilsner Urquell, Blair had created a homebrew version that had the perfect balance of hoppy bite and malty backbone. Within a year and a half, Blair was the head brewer for Don’s new craft brewery and that pilsner was one of their flagship beers. Oh, and the men’s rec team they played for? The Bombers.
This was the beginning of Bomber Brewing. However, it wasn’t the beginning of Don’s love of beer. While a young man in Montreal, Don came to love that city’s Belgian-style craft breweries. Upon moving to Vancouver in 1992, food and drink were on his mind. He opened Incendio Pizzeria in Gastown in 1996, but eventually turned back to beer. He and his longtime business partner, Dean Mallel, founded BierCraft, an iconic Vancouver restaurant. Like many, I had my first true Belgian beer experiences during excursions to BierCraft, where the staff were able to explain to me – a beer newbie back then – the difference between a tripel and a dubbel, and what the “lees” was. BierCraft converted people not only to Belgian beer but eventually to craft beer.
But the success of BierCraft wasn’t enough. As a homebrewer and a Certified Cicerone (it’s like a beer sommelier), the possibility of his own brewery kept tugging at Don’s mind. He didn’t want to be the brewer – “I don’t have delusions of grandeur!” he laughs – but he wanted a brewery whose story and space he could create.
“Breweries are all about stories,” he tells me. “That’s what draws people in.”
The story of Bomber was seeded in that first evening of hockey and homebrew: friends (new and old), sports, community, sharing a drink in a parking lot. Upon opening in 2014, Bomber Brewing quickly established itself as a beloved fixture in East Vancouver.
A Fork in the Road
By 2018, the craft beer industry in Vancouver was booming – to the point of saturation, some thought. Bomber was profiting and at high production levels, brewing 7800 hectolitres of their 10,000 Hl capacity. However, this was a difficult pace to maintain, so when the Donnelly Group (now the Freehouse Collective as of spring 2024), owner of multiple Vancouver restaurants and pubs, offered to buy Bomber, it was appealing. Dean had been battling cancer since 2011, and Don didn’t feel positive about the industry at the time, despite Bomber’s popularity: “We saw the changes in the market. We were one of the first to sell.” Their value was high and it seemed to make sense, given their personal circumstances. However, co-owner Cam Andrews, in a 2019 interview with Vancouver is Awesome, admitted that the sale caught him by surprise. It caught the public by surprise as well.
Response to the sale was mostly negative. Craft beer fans liked the Bomber they knew – the Bomber owned by local folks and not a large corporation. Donnelly’s rebranding of the brewery, done without input from the founders and without clear communication, was also received badly. Gone were the old labels – skylines of different cities, the vintage-style font – and in their place was the black dive-bombing seagull and a modern, all-caps logo. Comments on Reddit (r/VancouverCraftBeer) disparaged this new version of Bomber.
But despite the backlash, in reality, Bomber didn’t change all that much. Aside from the rebranding, Donnelly Group was almost entirely hands-off; they kept Don on as General Manager, and he ran the brewery and tasting room just as he had before. Decisions about the beer were in his hands. In fact, Don is very positive about the Donnelly Group and their management: “I want to give kudos to Donnelly – they were amazing in the time they’ve run it [Bomber]. They don’t get enough credit for what they’ve done for craft beer in the province.” And as Chair of the BC Craft Brewers Guild, Don knows what he’s talking about. Craft beer fans often dislike corporate brewery ownership, but some of those corporations have given craft beer much-needed exposure.
After the Donnelly purchase, the pressure on Bomber to be profitable rose, not simply because of the new ownership structure but because the local craft beer market itself was becoming more crowded. The pandemic added a new layer of economic stress. By 2023, Donnelly was in financial trouble. Long story short, Bomber was on the market again that year. In early 2024, Don was battling throat cancer and business matters were the last thing on his mind. However, by summer 2024 he was with his family at his cabin in the Cariboo, celebrating his recent cancer-free diagnosis. The day after he learned that good news, he got a call from Jeff Donnelly, who reminded him that Bomber was still for sale and encouraged him to put in an offer.
Rebirth and Return
On receiving that call, Don felt the same pull as when he first tasted Blair’s homebrew pilsner out in the parking lot. Was this a possibility? He didn’t want Bomber to disappear, and he didn’t want his employees to lose their jobs. Bomber had a place in the East Van community. So he recruited several friends and together, the five of them made an offer. With the support of Jeff Donnelly and Reid Ogdon of the Donnelly Group, it all fell into place. By October 2024, Don Farion was again the owner of Bomber Brewing.
Don is entering this new era with a different outlook. “I remember making beer when it was fun,” he says, looking back to the first days of Bomber. “Brewing has always been fun but now the business has changed.” That rat-race he remembered from the years following 2018 – chasing volume, constantly having to calculate ROI over love of the job and the beer – is no longer one he wants to run. “Our new thought is being happy at 4500 hl. That’s comfortable for us.” Their core business will be scaled down in order to rekindle their joy in making and selling beer.
Other planned changes are more like returns. “We’re going back to the way Bomber was,” Don puts it. “We’re going to be talking about the beer again – not the branding. And we don’t focus on the technical stuff, IBUs and all that. It’s really about balance. We want to make balanced beer. Our IPA is only 6.3% because that’s where it tastes best. We did a 4.8% Pilsner when no one was making lagers.” Their upcoming branding, while not yet unveiled, will return Bomber to something similar to their original model, but with a focus on duality and balance. They will also be expanding their core beer list. Their original flagships will remain (Skyline Lager, Avant Garde Pilsner, Outspoken IPA, Georgie’s Best ESB), but a second string of cores will be added: Reverie Hazy Pale, Furio Italian Pilsner, and Miramar West Coast IPA.
Bomber will also be renewing its grassroots marketing and community connections. They’ve continued their tradition of brewing a special beer for the East Van Panto at the York Theatre. Since this year’s panto is Robin Hood, Bomber’s beer for the event is Maid Marionberry Ale – with a very charming label!
Ultimately, the new Bomber Brewing under Don’s leadership will be very similar to the old Bomber Brewing, but with a renewed sense of priorities. Having looked his own mortality in the face through his battle with cancer, Don isn’t interested in chasing profit or volume. He wants to make good beer for his neighbourhood, host hockey nights at the taproom, and keep his colleagues employed. He wants brewing to be fun again. Bomber’s back!
