Mike and I Had the chance to tour Townsite Brewing in Powell River, BC over the weekend.
Housed in the old Federal Building in the hidtoric Townsite district you can still see the old post office drop boxes still on the outside. Built mostly of brick and concrete it was almost ready to move brewing equipment in right away, with little wood structure that steam and CO2 could warp and rot. The fermenters are all custom designed by the brewmaster and built in Abbotsford so that they can be housed in the building, which has very low ceilings for a brewery. It was very interesting to see the normally massive tanks scaled down to barely taller than me. The entire brewing process is housed in one room about 20m by 30m with the climate control done by opening or closing doors to the outside. Only Ale yeasts are used because they are happier at the higher temperatures in the brewery.
They have 3 beers being bottled and sold thorough BC Liquor Stores now: Tinhat IPA, Golden Blonde Ale and Pow Town Porter. 2 more are in the works with Sun Coast Pale Ale already available in growlers at the Brewery and Westview Wheat getting ready to go into production.
