COURTENAY – Forbidden Brewing Co. keeps its operation hyper-local.
First, their award winning beer is currently only available in their lounge/brewery located at the Westerly Hotel in Courtenay.
Second, as they were seeking equipment to upgrade from the nano brewhouse to a micro brewhouse, they stayed local.
Innovative Stainless Solutions, also of Courtenay, was chosen to custom manufacture their new 1000 liter Boil Kettle and Mash Tun.
A new 1000 liter boil kettle for Forbidden Brewing in Courtenay is being constructed by Courtenay’s Innovative Stainless Solutions.
“It feels really good to keep the money in the Valley” says Michael Vincent, CEO of Forbidden, “It has been a pleasure working with Innovative Stainless Solutions, we can hardly wait to start brewing on the new equipment”.
Rounding out the brewhouse upgrade will be a “home brewed” mash tun, donated to Forbidden by Wolf Brewing, and modified into a hot liquor tank by another local craftsperson, Chris Wilson.
“We have been recycling equipment from the start, which we feel is both economically and environmentally responsible,” Vincent said.
“We re-purposed a u-brew to build our initial brewery, and have been doing the same since we took possession of our current location July of 2014. Cleanliness is a priority here at Forbidden, we disassemble, refit, and sanitize all of our recycled equipment.”
The new boil kettle and mash tun will be the second significant addition of new equipment to the brewery. Forbidden hopes that this added brewing capacity will allow them to start distributing locally early this year.
Forbidden Brewing Co. is located at 1590 Cliffe Avenue, in the Best Western Westerly Hotel on the south side of their front entrance. Their lounge is open for by the glass sales and growler fills Wednesday through Sunday from noon until late.
On Friday evenings, they offer live jazz music starting at 8 p.m., featuring two local jazz bands.