Patt Dyck says she is spending a lot of time dancing with Victoria these days.
The part-owner of The Cannery Brewing Company was referring to the amount of paperwork she has to deal with as the craft beer manufacturer prepares to shift operations to their new location on Ellis Street.
Penticton city council directed staff to begin the public consultation process for Cannery Brewing’s brewery lounge at the new location, a necessary step before they can endorse it to the liquor board.
It’s the same process the brewery went through last year to obtain a lounge license at their original location.
“Every time you do anything to the lounge endorsement, you have to go through the same process as if it never happened before,” said Dyck. “The same goes for the manufacturing licence.”
Dyck said construction of the new premises at 198 Ellis St. is going well, and while she doesn’t have a date for when they will be fully open, she hopes they will be brewing in the new building by the end of March.
“The biggest push for us is to have the brew house up and functioning. This is the time of year where we have to start ramping up production to have any hope of meeting the demand of the summer,” said Dyck. “It is absolutely crucial for us that this process go forward.”
The rest of the operation will depend on how construction proceeds, but Dyck hopes to have a seamless operation, with the store remaining open in the Cannery Trade Centre until they are ready to reopen on Ellis Street.
“Our store will hopefully be able to stay open here until such time as we can get some kind of limited tasting room in our new location,” she said, noting that brewing remains the top priority.
“It is a challenge every year for us at this time. I would love to spend January and February, the slow months, stacking beer up to the ceiling so we had lots for July and August,” she said. “You can’t do that with craft beer, it is a fresh product and it has to be fresh. Come April, we start to fill up the pipeline."