A Dragon’s Den star who heads up a massive beer, wine and spirits empire. The only female master distiller in the province. And production manager at the 2021 Canadian Brewery of the Year. The spirits and beer scene is going strong in Calgary, and women are front and centre, as I discover during a recent visit. .
An hour’s drive south of Calgary, in the bucolic town of Turner Valley, Winnipeg-born, Scotland-raised Caitlin Quinn is the master distiller at Eau Claire Distillery, the first boutique distillery in Alberta.
Quinn got an undergrad degree chemistry, but quickly realized it wouldn’t lead to the kind of career she wanted.
“I didn’t want to spend my life working in a lab,” she said.
She enrolled at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, where she earned a master’s degree in brewing and distilling.
Caitlin Quinn is master distiller at Eau Claire Distillery in Turner Valley, Alberta. JIM BYERS PHOTO
“At the end of the day, distilling is still chemistry,” she tells me, with a smile. “But you get to drink what you make.”
Quinn hadn’t planned on moving back to Canada. But she read that Eau Claire’s owner, David Farran, was looking for a master distiller and applied.
“I got the job offer the day I walked into my last exam,” she says. “I came here in 2015 and told myself I’d give it a year. But I haven’t left. I love the sun and the blue skies.”
Since then, Eau Claire has grown from a small roadside shack to a major operation. They make a variety of products, including gin, vodka and whisky, as well as canned and bottled cocktails.
“There are so many more opportunities here for women and younger people,” compared to Scotland, Quinn tells me during our chat in the Eau Claire speakeasy bar, next to the tasting room. “There you work 50 years, train an apprentice, and then they take over. It’s much easier to make your mark here.”
Quinn says people are a bit shocked when she tells them she’s the master distiller.
“Not in a bad way — they just don’t expect it.”
The next day I drive a few minutes north of downtown Calgary to meet Manjit Minhas, the co-founder and CEO of Minhas Breweries, Distilleries and Wineries. She’s also been a regular on “Dragons’ Den” for eight years, so she’s seen a thing or two. Maybe three.
“There’s definitely a breaking of the norm” in Alberta, she tells me. “We like to chart new paths, and I think Calgary is very entrepreneurial.”
The Minhas Breweries story is quite astonishing. She and her younger brother, Ravinder, started in the spirits biz in 1999 with Mountain Crest Liquors Inc. She was 19, he was 18.
Manjit Minhas. Photo Courtesy Minhas Brewing Co.
In 2002, they started Mountain Crest Brewing Company. Four years later they bought the Joseph Huber Brewing Company in Monroe, Wisc., and renamed it Minhas Craft Brewery. That made them the youngest brewery owners in the world.
They branched out into the wine business a few years ago with Dragon’s Tears wines, and also have an award-winning restaurant in north Calgary called Pizza Brew, with pizza, sandwiches and snacks.
A look at the shelves lining Pizza Brew reveals a vast number of Minas brands, including Blarney’s Irish cream liqueur, Punjabi Club rye whisky, Lazy Mutt beer and Artingstall’s (a London dry gin they make in conjunction with Hollywood director Paul Feig). They also make white-label liquors for the likes of Costco and Sam’s Club.
“People sometimes say to me, ‘I’ve never tried your products,’” Minhas tells me. “I say, ‘Yes, you have — you just didn’t know it.’”
Minhas said she tastes their products before they go to supermarket shelves but that she doesn’t get too involved.
“At the end of the day you don’t want me making the decision on your beer or your gin” she says with a shake of her head, which shows off a pair of shiny Chanel earrings.
Not only to do they make distilled products, but the company also owns trucking and construction companies so they can better control their destiny.
My last boozy stop in Calgary is the Establishment Brewing Company, headed up by production manager Natasha Peiskar. The Establishment was named Brewery of the Year at the 2021 Canadian Brewing Awards, just a few months after she arrived.
Natalie Peiskar, Establishment Brewing. Photo Courtesy The Establishment Brewing Co.
We sample a flight of beers, including a hazy New England pale ale called Afternoon Delight, with a crisp bouquet and a nice bite from the Citra hops. We also try a purple-coloured blackberry sour with vanilla called Jam Rock, and a Berliner Weisse beer .
A lot of research goes into producing a new beer, Peiskar says. “We have an extremely collaborative team. And we talk to other brewers to find out how they do things.”
Still, it’s an industry dominated by men. And that can lead to trouble. “There’s definitely some microaggression,” she tells me. “Well, maybe not micro.”
“People are very supportive here, but it can be tough.” Peiskar recalls showing an employee how to use a forklift and hearing someone yell out, “Who let the boss’s wife drive the forklift?”
Peiskar hopes her brewing success will act as a catalyst for other women. “I want to inspire them to be the greatest and give them a smoother path. That would be a dream for me.”
Peiskar is also president and co-founder of the Pink Boots Society, a non-profit organization that assists women in the fermented and alcoholic beverage industry.
If you want to support women in the food and beverage business but don’t drink alcohol, Dalia Kohen is someone you want to know.
For years, Kohen ran a vegetarian restaurant (yes, they have them in Calgary) called the Coup. But she wanted a change and left to try her hand at non-alcoholic cocktails, which she recently launched under the label Wild Folk, carried at select restaurants and breweries/distilleries across Alberta.
Wild Folk Beverages.
It took considerable time and experimentation to come up with the right recipes.
Asked if there were any duds along the way, Kohen laughs.
“I made my friends and my sister try all sorts of them,” she said. “My friends were always nice, but my family was truthful. They said a couple weren’t very good.”
She tells me some companies toss sugar in a can and add just a few ingredients. But, as a vegetarian chef, Kohen learned long ago to layer as many flavours into a dish as she could. She uses rinds, roots and herbs in her Wild Folk mocktails, which include a spritz and a non-alcoholic negroni.
Inventive beers, tasty distilled products and influential women. If you’re a fan of spirits, Calgary’s got you covered.
WHERE TO DINE
The Mash is a local chain of pizza places that mix spent grain from Half Hitch Brewing with their pizza dough to avoid excess waste. Try the dill pickle (really) pizza with bacon and honey along side a Papa Bear Prairie Ale. Brittany Kozloski is the co-founder of Half Hitch, which also owns The Mash pizza shops.
Major Tom Bar is a sleek, 40th floor dining hall in downtown Calgary that was recently voted best new restaurant in Canada. Try the potato doughnuts or the Major Tots, which come with sturgeon and pickled onions. The Saskatoon Sunrise is a lovely cocktail with Rittenhouse Rye, Lagavulin Scotch, tarragon-infused cherry liqueur, ginger, black pepper and lime. The restaurant has fabulous city and sunset views.
Humboldt Squid at Orchard Restaurant in Calgary. JIM BYERS PHOTO
Orchard is a gorgeous, plant-filled (and we mean filled) spot on bustling 10th Avenue SouthWest that advertises Asian-Mediterranean cuisine. The arancini with lobster and prawn was topped with bonito flakes and was moist and delicious, while the soy-glazed sablefish was divine.
WHERE TO STAY
The Westley is a beautiful boutique hotel fashioned out of an old office building from the 1970’s on 4th Avenue SW in downtown Calgary. There are tons of great touches, including Smeg kettles and 1970’s-era candies at the lobby shop. The on-site Fonda Fora restaurant serves up authentic Mexican food and makes a good breakfast. It’s part of the Hilton Tapestry Collection.
FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT
Rocky Mountain Sidecar Adventures, Calgary. JIM BYERS PHOTO
Looking for a new way to explore Calgary? Rocky Mountain Sidecar Adventures offers terrific motorcycle sidecar tours of the city, as well as Banff.
