Farmery to begin brewing in Neepawa this spring

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Published on Thursday, February 25, 2016

Banner file photo. Last September, Chris (left) and Lawrence (right) Warwaruk stood with Bob Mazer (centre) to announce the purchase of the former Mazergroup building in Neepawa. Brewing equipment will be installed in the building starting in April.

By Kate Jackman-Atkinson

Neepawa Banner/Neepawa Press

Chris and Lawrence Warwaruk’s dream will come one step closer to reality this spring. In 2011, the brothers set out to build Canada’s first estate brewery, which they called Farmery, and at the end of April, they will take delivery of their new brewing equipment. Not only is Farmery a microbrewery, all of the inputs used to make the beer are grown on their Arden-area farm. 

The Farmery brewery will be established in their new building, which was formerly Mazergroup’s Neepawa location, on Highway 5 north.  “We’re excited to just bring everything back to Manitoba and have more control over it,” said Lawrence.

Lawrence said that once they receive their equipment, which was built in PEI, it’ll take them a couple of weeks to get it all installed.  Their facility must then be approved by the government and then they can begin brewing their first batch of beer.

Lawrence explains that they have to make some modifications to the back of the building, where the brewing equipment will be installed, such as refinishing the floors and walls and ensuring that all surfaces are washable, in order to meet government guidelines for food production.  The beer is produced in small batches, each kept separately, from start to finish.

Currently, Farmery has eight full time employees.  With the opening of the brewery, Lawrence said they plan to add a full time brewer and full time brewer’s helper.  They also plan to hire a couple of part time staff to help with tasks like packaging the beer. He added that when they move to double batches a day in peak periods, they expect to need additional staff. There will also be staff needed once their front of house concept has been finalized.

Filling excess capacity

While the brewing facility is on target to begin operation this spring, Lawrence says that they haven’t finalized their plans for the front of the building. “Right now, we’re going to meet with the architects to find a concept of how we’re going to develop the front of the space… That won’t be ready on day one, what we’d like to do is create a space that would be exactly what people are expecting Farmery to represent.” This space will serve as a reception area and event space. 

As they’ve been working on getting their own brewery built, Lawrence explains that they’ve been working with partner brewers Muskoka, in Ontario, and Ribstone Creek, in Alberta, and using their excess capacity. “One thing that’s held us back is that we are filling up excess brewing capacity of our partner brewers,” said Lawrence.  However, at this time, they plan to continue working with Ribstone, which will brew the new Farmery Ale for the Alberta market, while the Neepawa plant will concentrate on the lager and the needs of the Manitoba and Saskatchewan markets.  

Typically, each brew will take between four and eight hours, depending on the type of beer being made, and they plan to do one to two brews per day. In the summer, when demand is higher, Lawrence expects that they’ll be brewing more.

A unique attraction

Right from the beginning, the brothers wanted to be able to bring people to the fields where the hops and barley for the beer are grown. “People don’t really get a chance to get up close to a barley field.  This is what I think is distinctive about Farmery, it’s so unique and different from any other microbrewery, which is typically in an urban setting,” explained Lawrence. They began offering tours last summer, Lawrence said, “because there was a need and a want to do tours out at the hop yard… [that] gave us a taste of what people wanted to see and what we wanted to showcase.” In addition to the tours, they plan to offer special events like lunch in the field or beer in the field.  They hope to create an attraction that will tap into a thriving market for microbrewery tourism and draw people not just from Manitoba, but across North America.  Lawrence added, “With Riding Mountain National Park in close proximity, we can be a stop on the drive or a day trip from Clear Lake.”

While estate wineries are somewhat common, the estate brewery concept is unique.  “So unique that there have been writers from Germany who have come to Canada and they’re taking the story of the Farmery estate brewery back to Germany,” explained Lawrence.

The estate brewery concept ties in nicely with the province’s increased interest in promoting Made in Manitoba attractions.  “It’s very timely in the fact that Manitoba wants to promote what Manitoba does best… We’re not trying to be something different. It’s where the buffalo roamed, it’s about where the Indigenous people came from, its about where the farmers and the settlers started growing fields of barley and wheat and oats. And really, this is just the evolution of all that. People from other countries really want to come and see all that stuff. It’s what we’re about too,” he said.

Increasing value at the farm gate

While Farmery is known for its beer, the company has started to expand into other products as well.  They recently introduced their flour line, which is a line of mixes, such as pancake and cake. The mixes include flour made from their barley, stonemilled in Manitoba. Lawrence explained, “Farmery is more than just brewing beer, the primary emphasis of Farmery is to take a product that has really limited value at the farm gate and take it to new markets. Normally, what farmers do is take it to the elevator, then it goes to another secondary processor, which adds extra value to it away from the farm gate… To extend that idea further, what other things can we do with our barley? [One thing] is to mill it, so that’s what we’ve done and crated flour mixes.”

Another new product is the Farmery Ale, which was developed with a brewery in Florida. It came into the market just after Christmas. Lawrence explained that it’s a brew that they can easily make with the ingredients they produce locally and has a citrus flavour. The ale features Cascade hops, which are the primary variety of hops grown on their farm. 

Having their own decided brewing capacity will also allow them to expand their offering. Lawrence said, “When doing contract brewing with someone else, they’re controlling the process and for most of our use, it fits perfectly with what we needed, but as we grow, we would like to have extra things brewed, that’s where it gets restrictive.” He added, “Once we do have our own brewery, then we’ll be able to offer different products, different styles potentially and that’s going to be an exciting part for us.” 

Longer than expected

The idea of Farmery Brewery was first announced in 2011.  Lawrence said that at that time, they hadn’t planned to go public with the idea, but the Winnipeg Free Press found out and the announcement was made earlier than planned.  At that time, it was still early in the project’s development.

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While the Farmery concept hasn’t changed over time, they did ultimately change the planned location of the brewery.  Initially, the brothers planned to build on their farm in Arden, but when the building in Neepawa became available, they changed their plan. It took about a year to actually secure the building. “I’m happy that the building in Neepawa came up for sale,” said Lawrence, adding that it suits their needs and is already serviced with municipal water, sewer and hydro, all of which would have had to have been built at their farm. He added, “That came at a cost, but that gave us the chance to move forward, probably a year ahead.”

Lawrence said that the process has taken a little longer than expected, but during the last five years, they have been busy developing a recipe, working with other brewers to get their beer in the marketplace, establishing a market for their brand, establishing their hop yards, growing barley and understanding all the logistics. Lawrence said, “I expected to be brewing a year ago, it just took that much longer to get the building secured and work through all those details.”

As the brothers prepare to take the next step with Farmery, they have decided to close their Winnipeg gastropub, Luxalune. They had their last day on Feb. 13, and while it’s sad to say good bye to staff who have been with them for up to eight years, Lawrence said, “Everyone has to eventually move on, we knew we had to move away from our pub concept in Winnipeg and concentrate full time on Farmery, which we are doing… Everyone wanted to see the evolution of Farmery, we’re evolving and moving forward and honing in on what we believe in.”

It’s been a long road but Lawrence said, “Everything takes its time, but it’s really exciting to be at this stage where we can see everything coming together, at a point where now, we can actually show people what we’ve been working on over the last year and a half, two years…We really want to have the support of the town behind our concept. We know that a lot of people don’t understand what we’re really about.”