Jasper’s taste for craft beer is about to get a new addition thanks to Folding Mountain Brewing.
The brand new brewery, located just outside of the east gate, is in the final throes of construction and hopes to pour its first pint by the end of June.
The brewery is the brainchild of business partners Jason Griffiths and Aric Johnson, who grew up together in Hinton and were college roommates in Calgary.
During their younger years the duo experimented with brew kits at home and had talked about opening a brewery for years, but the idea seemed to be just that, an idea.
“We had always talked about opening a brewery, but it was always a wouldn’t it be cool if…” said Johnson.
That all changed last year when the two sat down and really started to hash it out.
“For both of us it’s really just a passion for craft beer more so than the formal background in it,” said Johnson. “We wanted to create a place where people can enjoy a great beer with a great backdrop and we felt like in this area, especially between Hinton and Jasper, there’s nothing like it.”
To produce the beer, they brought on board Dave Mozel, the former Brewmaster at Olds College Brewery, an educational institution in Alberta dedicated to teaching students the art and science behind brewing.
“It’s going to be fun,” Mozel said, adding he’s excited to find out what people think of his new suds.
The company intends to make five different beers ranging from an American wheat ale with a 4.5 per cent alcohol by volume content (ABV) to an American strong ale with an 8.5 per cent ABV. The selection also includes an IPA, a stronger bitter pale ale and a middle of the road porter.
In a nod to their unique location, the team has also come up with some crafty names to label their new brews such as the Overlander Pale Ale and the Parkway Porter.
With four 20 barrel fermenters and two bright tanks, Folding Mountain will be able to brew up to 10,000 litres of beer at a time.
“Right now out focus is to get brewing so we’re ready for the tap room and then once we have a good handle on how much we’re going through there we’ll start looking externally because we know we want to be available in as many places as possible across the province,” said Johnson.
Located at the Jasper East Gates campground, the multi-million dollar undertaking is more than just a brewery.
Once construction is complete, the brewery will include a 60-person tap room with 12 beers to choose from including five of its own craft-beers as well as seven guest taps. There will also be wine and cider on hand.
For those feeling a bit peckish, they have also hired Marcel Randall as the head chef and have opted to leave it up to patrons to order their own food to keep the entire experience as casual as possible. The brewery also includes an outdoor patio that backs onto the snow capped Roche a Pedrix.
Johnson said they will have about 15 employees during the busy summer season and plan to be open seven days a week.
“There were a lot of challenges when it came to building something like this out here, but we couldn’t have asked for a better backdrop,” said Johnson.
For more information visit www.foldingmountain.com.
Paul Clarke | [email protected]
