The name will remain the same, but the Cannery Brewing Company will soon have a new home.
Since its first brew in 2000, the craft brewery has made its home in the old Aylmer Fruit and Vegetable Cannery on Fairview Road, now known as the Cannery Trade Centre, even taking its name from the historic building.
But co-owner Patt Dyck said they have purchased land in downtown Penticton to build a new home for the brewery.
“We’re just putting it together,” said Dyck. “We’ve purchased property on Ellis and plan to add on to the building that is there to increase our capacity.”
It will also, she continued, bring the various parts of the operation together.
“Here in the Cannery, as much as we loved all our time here, we are quite scattered throughout the building,” said Dyck, who said they will eventually be leaving the building entirely to meet B.C. Liquor Control and Licensing Branch regulations requiring the operation to be in a single location.
“Unfortunately for us in many ways, it does mean we will have to leave the Cannery,” said Dyck, adding that they will hang on to the Cannery Brewing Company name.
“I can’t give that up, that’s for sure,” she said.
Dyck said they haven’t made an official announcement about the new location because they are still in the planning stages, working with the city, the LCLB and contractors to make sure everything is organized.
She describes planning for the move as a series of incredible logistics.
“It is not like a winery or distillery where I can lay product down for the next five months and then draw on that,” she said, explaining that the brewery has a much smaller time frame for stockpiling product.
“Maybe a couple of months,” said Dyck. “We will certainly do what I call having the pipeline full, meaning that all of the Liquor Distribution Branch warehouses will be as stocked as we can make them and all of the interim steps in how beer gets from us to the consumer will be as full as they can be.
Dyck said they chose the Ellis Street location for a number of reasons. One factor, however, was to support the Cannery’s popular growler refillable jug program.
“We have just had such great response to people wanting to fill up their growlers and join our growler club. You need to be relatively conveniently located for that too happen,” she said. “Also, we like what is going on in the Ellis Street area.
“We like what the city is planning for that, we like the feel of the place; kind of close to downtown but not right in the middle.”
The new location will be at the corner of Ellis Street and Westminster Avenue East, where ANJ Automotive Service is now. Dyck said they are waiting on a foundation permit from the city before beginning work on the new site.
“We are very cognizant of the fact that what we are is a manufacturing facility and I wouldn’t want to put that in the midst of a residential area,” said Dyck, adding that the new location will still have a tasting room and extended lounge.
“For us, it is important that we remain a brewery,” said Dyck. “But our primary focus is to make beer and the tasting room serves as a vehicle to share that with people. But it is not a restaurant with a brewery attached, it’s a brewery with a loungey thing attached.”
The Cannery employs about 12 people in the current location and Dyck said they will likely expand their staff once they are in the new location, though they will doing so slowly and carefully.