Grant: Engage Grants Program

Red Collar Brewing Co. opened in Kamloops, BC in October 2014 by David Beardsell, a master brewer trained at the Doemens Brewing School in Munich, who also holds a degree in Microbiology and Biochemistry from the University of British Columbia. David has built breweries all over the world, including a large-scale brewery (formerly Bear Brewing Co.) and a popular brew-pub (The Noble Pig) in Kamloops. In his new venture, he has opted for a mid-sized brewery and 80-seat tasting room, generating 1500-1800 L batches of specialty beers for sale in-house and at local retail outlets and pubs. Currently, Beardsell is interested in reviving some of the yeast strains he brought from Europe over 20 years ago and have been stored in a freezer at Thompson Rivers University (TRU) ever since. In this collaborative industrial partnership, we will use genome sequencing and chemical analysis to find novel yeast strains for brewing unique local beers for sale at the brewery, local pubs and liquor stores. Red Collar Brewing aims to release 10 new beer types every year in order to maintain an edge in a highly competitive market (estimated at US$500 billion globally in 2011; record global beer output of 1,973 million hL in 2013).