As I’m sure your Facebook Feed has told you 2016 was a terrible year.
Now I’m not here to disagree with the fact that a lot of awful things happened around the world this past year. I’m not here to express sadness that an actor, actress or musician that was beloved by all passed away. I’m not here to utter anger that politicians are crooked and that often good doesn’t seem like it’s overcoming evil.
I’m here to talk about beer. And 2016 was a pretty awesome one for S&O.
2016, much like 2015 and 2014 was a year of growth for our little (but now not feeling so little) brewery on Third Ave. and Stewardson Way. We doubled our capacity once again from 2015 to 2016, expanded our beer’s territory into the interior and touched down in Alberta, introduced our first can to the marketplace and grew our own S&O team considerably. We created, we collaborated, we were recognized for beers that we’ve made from day one, and we continued to experiment and improve upon beers that will lead us into the future.
2016 wasn’t all sunshine and Smoked Hefe however. We felt a pinch in production like we’ve never experienced before. We struggled to keep up during the summer months and were forced to run a very skinny lineup just to keep Red Pilsner and Royal City Ale available. This pinch made our Tasting Room one of the more boring ones as we fought to keep enough beer on tap to fill our local customer’s growlers while not shorting our draft and liquor store customers with the flagship brews they need to fill their shelves with.
Those days should be behind us now as we received a new tank just a couple months ago that will allow us to brew an extra 130,000L/year and as long as they are on time (fingers crossed) we’ll be adding another 2 tanks for an extra 260,000L/year production capability before the summer.
Not only will this mean that Dark Lager, Red Pilsner, Royal City Ale, and ESB will always be on the shelves and in the Tasting Room but it will free up our smaller tanks to do more of the stuff we love. Small, unique and experimental batches of beer to really geek out on.
I’m looking forward to 2017. Steel & Oak has never had a more creative team than it does today and I can’t wait to show you what we’re going to be brewing.
So now the real question. Will we finally make an IPA?
I’ll tell you next year.
-Jorden
