Together We're Bitter

[rangersfan]

Getting hopped up on brewing
Dec 4, 2014 | Laurie Snell | Kitchener Post | LINK

If there ever was any doubt about the popularity of craft beer, Together We’re Bitter just proved it’s all the rage in this city.

“This is a market that is ready for it and underserved in terms of craft beer,” said Aleksandra Szaflarska, co-owner and worker of Together We’re Bitter Co-operative Brewing, or TWB.

“People who like craft beer tend to want to try different flavours,” she said.

They already have several recipes under their belt, but in order to keep those batches brewing, they needed an additional fermenter to try out new flavours to expand their brand.

“What I’d like to do is develop … something that is unique enough to call our own,” Culum Canally, the TWB brewer, said.

With that, The People’s Fermenter, a Kickstarter campaign to raise $10,000 for a new fermenter, was born. By understanding the craft beer popularity, the campaign — which was an all-or-nothing format — seemed to be low-risk with a good pay-off for the purchase.

Unsurprisingly, it took just eight short days before they reached their goal — and then some. As of Dec. 4, the campaign raised more than $13,000, and donors will receive TWB merchandise, dependent on donation amounts, as promised.

The additional contributions will allow the purchasing of extra barrels to start their barrel-aging program right away.

But brewing batches of one-of-a-kind beer isn’t the only goal. The team is actively searching for a site to launch a quirky brew pub in the downtown core. The location needs to have durable, cement floors to hold heavy equipment and be within proper zoning — something far more difficult than it sounds.

Being a co-operative model maintains the team effort because, “nobody has an inordinate say of who runs the company … to make sure everything keeps running in a very transparent, democratic manor,” Canally said. He added that the idea for a co-operative brew pub, rather than a more traditional business model came from his experiences with wage discrepancies in the tourism and development field.

“We wanted to have a co-operatively owned business where the goal is to make good paying jobs, instead of having one person make all the money and decisions … (this way) workers get paid well and we can grow the business in a sustainable manor,” Canally said.

Lindsay Woodside, the company’s president, told the Post, “(TWB) fits very well for the existing redevelopment plans that they have taking place in the city right now…it’s really just one of those core elements of the arts and entertainment cluster that would really fit well within the core,” Woodside said.

Until the location has been locked down, Together We’re Bitter will continue brewing out of its Guelph Street home, which is serving as a base, in Kitchener. They plan to open in the brew pub in the summer of 2015.