Twin Sails Beer Sets Sail in Port Moody

Although it is difficult to picture it at this point in time, Cody and Clay Allmin, the twin brothers behind Twin Sails Beer believe that in three weeks time they will be brewing a selection of German inspired beers in their new Port Moody craft brewery.

I say it is difficult to picture because when I visited the brewery today it was a hive of construction activity; a welder welding the stainless tanks, guys putting in windows and framing them, drywalling, floors and walls being built. It is a hive of construction activity.

The plan for the main floor of the brewery is to have a growler filling station with a tasting lounge upstairs. Having the tasting lounge in the upstairs will separate people waiting for a growler refill from the people who want to sit at a bar and enjoy a glass of beer.

The upstairs tasting room which will look out over top of the brewery tanks and process, is going to have a long bar where people can sit and drink glasses or flights of beer.

I asked Cody how he sees Twin Sails fitting into the craft brewing market in Port Moody. The fact is, right next-door is Yellow Dog Brewing and a couple blocks down the road is Moody Ales. Both are very successful craft breweries who have staked their share of the market.

Cody told me that they spent nearly a year developing their business plan before proceeding or putting any money into construction. The fact that a couple of their investors are chartered accountants speaks to the thoroughness and the quality of their business plan.

Part of their business plan is to NOT be in competition with their neighboring craft breweries. They have decided to focus on German inspired beers. They see this as a way of staking a claim to their share of the market.

Cody and Clay believe that having three craft breweries within very close proximity to each other and the soon to open Evergreen Line are actually positives that will draw people to the area and to sample the work of the breweries.

The plan is for Twin Sails to be brewing by mid-August and open to the beer drinking public in September. I will follow along and see how they progress.

Brewing beer consumes a significant amount of water and seeing as we are in the middle of drought-like conditions, water conservation was a serious consideration as they were designing and building the brewery.

To that end, Twin Sails has designed their production to have a number of water recycling systems; water that is used in the heat exchange process is not dumped. The water that is heated during the cooling of the beer is used in the production of the next batch of beer. This reduces the amount of water flow-through the brewery as well as reduces the energy consumption of the brewery.

Also, the water used for cleaning and washing out the stainless steel tanks will be contained in a somewhat closed loop system minimizing the input of fresh city water.

Of course they will still require water from the city but the design of this brewery has made it so that the water and energy consumption will lower their ecological footprint significantly.

Speaking of lowering the ecological footprint, Twin Sails has arranged to have a farmer from Maple Ridge come to their facility to take away the “spent grain” – the waste stuff. This way they will not have to landfill or compost the spent grain and the farmer in Maple Ridge will have a premium quality feed for his cattle.

I will definitely be checking in to see how the construction progresses and I will update you as they progress.

Twin Sails Beer (or Brewing) is located at 2821 Murray St, Port Moody, BC V3H 1X3 which is almost directly across from Port Moody’s Rocky Point Park.