Tag Archives: Trans Canada Brewing

General Post, Trans Canada Brewing

Trans Canada Brewing Opening

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TCB

Being sick sucks. Being sick with a child sucks even more. You end up in this cycle of everyone getting sick and then no one actually gets better. Luckily, we’ve overcome and I am now well enough to be back writing, working, and enjoying beer.

Just in time too. Peg is celebrating one year of brewing beer, Stone Angel has opened it’s doors and is pumping out some really tasty beers, and Trans Canada Brewing will be opening this week.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with Trans Canada brewing I’d invite you to read my write-up of the brewery and the team here. It’s an ambitious project that has invested money in all the right places from equipment to personnel to taproom food. The pizzas are awesome, the team is skilled and experienced and the equipment is the top of the line. They’ve even got French Oak Foeders.

 

So, here are the details:

TCB-Launch-Party-Flyer

While I don’t know what all 12 beers will be, I do know they have a variety of styles available. They have brewed an American Pale Ale, an IPA, a Double IPA, a dark lager, a session lager, a couple of saisons, a wit, a pilsner, and a blonde as well as some others.

I’d encourage everyone to take the opportunity to pop in and check out this new brewery for yourselves. It’s a beautiful space and I’m excited to see what they can do with the team they’ve put together. I’m excited to sit down with their Head Brewer, Morgan Wielgosz, again for my Get to know a brewer series.

Now that I’m feeling better, I’ve got a bunch of stuff to catch-up on. I’ve bought a bottle of Surly Darkness 2016 for review, I’ve got the Beaus/Half-Pints King Kvass for review, I’m sitting down with Colin from Peg tonight for an anniversary post, and I’ll be sitting down with Daivin from North City Growlers this week too. Lots to come, so follow me on WordPress and Twitter for all the latest.

– Beer Winnipeg

Trans Canada Brewing, Winnipeg

Quick Update – Trans Canada Brewing

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TCB

I had the great pleasure of being invited to a pizza tasting, yes, a pizza tasting, at Trans Canada Brewing last week. They had invited friends and family and a few other folks to come and taste 13 different pizzas made by head pizzaiolo Thomas Schneider. I took the opportunity while I was there to get a quick update and some pictures of the almost fully complete brewery.

Let me start by saying the pizzas were awesome. I love pizza, but I tend to be traditional in the pizzas I order. Sure, I like to try new things, but you don’t always have the opportunity when catering to a large group or going for the classic that you love. Thomas starts his pizzas with a fantastic crust that is used across the board and then tops with various sauces ranging from a black bean sauce, to garlic butter, to a cream sauce. While I didn’t find all the pizzas to be something I’d consistently order, they were all delicious. My favorite of the night was the Lambza which is almost like a lamb gyro turned into a pizza. Coming in a close second was the pesto pizza which was very simplistic but the pesto was out of this world. If the beers are anything like the pizzas, I’m going to really enjoy Trans Canada.

Now, onto the brewery. Like I said above, the brewery and tap room look fantastic. They are near completion and there are only some minor cosmetic issues as well as some final trades work to complete. The tans are installed with trades work mostly complete. The last task to be completed is the glycol system for which they’ve constructed quite the tower. Matt also indicated that there are still some matters to deal with in respect to grain handling, especially the spent grain. They are also working on getting the kegging machine up and running which will be followed by the bottling line.

When it comes to beer, Trans Canada is is still working on setting up their core beers. They do plan to have something for everyone ranging from pales ales, to Belgians, to malt forward beers. They are working to open the taproom with their own beer followed by volume brews once the bottling line is setup.

Probably the thing I’m most excited for are the six French oak foeders that have been installed in a climate controlled room and open endless opportunities for the brewers to create unique and interesting beers. I am very excited to see what they come up with and to try the beers.

As I said, this was just a quick update, but based on the setup and the amount of work left to complete I think that Trans Canada should have beer in September. I certainly hope I’m right.

I want to end by saying that the Winnipeg Beer Festival is coming up on August 19th at Fort Gibraltar. They’ve released another set of weather dependent tickets which can be purchased here. I will be doing a write up this week on the festival itself and look forward to doing a follow-up after attending. This is a new festival and I’m excited to see what it brings.

Thanks for following and follow me on twitter @beerwinnipeg

 

Interview, Trans Canada Brewing, Winnipeg

Trans Canada Brewing – Follow-up

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TCB

It’s been a little while since I had the chance to head down and visit Trans Canada Brewing Company. The last time I was there the place was a vast open space of a warehouse with only one’s imagination to help fill in the blanks. Matt Tallman walked me through and described his vision of a large production brewery doing a huge number of different beers, having an ambitious cellaring program and being the first brewery in Manitoba with foeders.

This last visit shows a lot more of the bones and structure of the place. Tanks are in place and the 35hl brewhouse and 5hl pilot system were getting installed. The framework of the brewery, taproom and Timmy Tom’s pizzeria are all but in place and they seem well on track to hit the target of opening in late summer.

What’s even more, the core team is now in place and boasts some pretty fantastic people with a huge amount of experience. That team will be the focus of this piece as you can read about the brewery and plans here. I will, however, have some pictures of the space throughout this piece.

TCB Team
Key Trans Canada Brewing Company Team Members (left to right): Josh Adler – Quality Assurance, Morgan Wielgosz – Head Brewer, Matt Tallman – President, Thoms Schneider – Timmy Tom’s Pizzeria Head Pizzailolo and Jeff Wirt – Administration Leader

Morgan Wielgosz will take on the role as head brewer of Trans Canada. She will be the first female head brewer in Manitoba and she brings a huge amount of experience from her previous role as brewing supervisor at Amsterdam brewing in Toronto.

So, why come to Manitoba? According to Morgan, Manitoba is gaining some national buzz in the brewing scene for being a hotbed of new development. This was exciting for her and hearing Matt’s vision of the brewery it was an opportunity that she couldn’t pass up. To be able to get involved with something like this at the start was just too good to be true. Having access to the type of equipment that will be at TransCanada, working under a vision of “if it’s not perfect, we don’t sell it” and having a large amount of creative freedom means that Morgan will be able to shine.

She started home brewing after university and decided to move to Toronto. She ended up living across the street from Amsterdam and asked if she could volunteer. Eventually she got hired and had a ton of on the job training. Working through pretty much every gig you can have from filter operator, cellar master and their experimental pilot system, Morgan brings a plethora of experiences and knowledge to her role. While she was born, and raised in Ontario, she is happy to be in Winnipeg and is here to stay.


Josh Adler will be taking on the quality assurance role at TransCanada. Coming to Winnipeg from Propeller brewing in Nova Scotia and Victory brewing in Philadelphia. Originally from Toronto he did his undergrad at Dalhousie university in Nova Scotia. While doing his undergrad he became really interested in researching yeast. He had been homebrewing while doing his undergrad and was given the chance do a master’s degree in brewing science. Around the same time there was a job posting at Propeller brewing for someone to come start a quality assurance program. Josh started their lab and helped in a variety of other roles around the brewery. He had the chance to do brewing, packaging and eventually took over as the production manager doing some large-scale beer brewing.

Josh wanted to get back into the quality side of brewing and could take on a job at Victory brewing in Philadelphia. What was interesting about Victory is that while they were very art focused in their recipe development they also had a huge science and quality focus as well. Josh wanted to come to Manitoba for many of the same reasons as Morgan. The buzz around the city and the opportunity to work in the brewery Matt is looking to open where you make the best quality beer possible with the be possible ingredients possible from day one, was just too good to pass up. Josh is excited to be here and is looking forward to laying down some roots. Having a wife who is originally from this area means it’s a little bit like coming home as well.


Thomas Scheineder who I’ve previously mentioned will be the operator of Timmy Tom’s pizzeria making the food for the tap room at Trans Canada. Originally from Winnipeg, Thomas started working with pizza at age 16 and continued to work at the same pizza restaurant all through university. He always had a dream of opening his own pizza place, but the timing wasn’t right. Instead, he opened two Papa John’s franchises in Dallas-Fort Worth. He lived in Texas for four years running these franchises before selling them in 2015.

Partnering up with Matt he began getting training from Tony Gemignani’s school in San Francisco. He’s been certified through this school in Neapolitan, Italian and American style pizzas. Tom got into making pizza because he always feels like he is creating a work of art. Not being very artistic in his ability to draw or paint, this is a creative outlet that allows him to create something people will enjoy.

The name Timmy Tom’s started out as a joke when discussing his dream of opening a pizzeria. The name really grew on Tom and they ended up deciding to use it. We can expect Timmy Tom’s to be making gourmet style pizzas that are along the Italian/New York style with an eventually expanded menu.


Jeff Wirt will be working at TransCanada as the accounting and administration officer. He is also originally from Winnipeg and has spent the past 14 years working with a large retail outlet in the city. He spent several years earning his Business administration degree followed by a Financial Management Accounting degree through the university of Manitoba. While having worked in accounting for the past 14 years, moving to TransCanada gives him the opportunity to use more of his project management skills. He will be doing a little bit of everything around the brewery. I suppose you could call him the “renaissance man” of TransCanada.

He loves the idea of working with a small team and thinks that it is incredible important to be a team player and chip in where he can. While he admits, he has not acquired the same passion for beer as the rest of the team (yet) this was a step outside of his comfort zone and an opportunity to take on a new challenge. Jeff is most excited to be working with this team and providing a fun and safe working environment for them. He also believes it is incredible important to provide an enjoyable experience for customers and will bring much of his past retail experience to the customer experience side.

I have to say that I am quite excited about this team and seeing what they will be able to create at this brewery. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, they have ambitious goals but it looks like they are on track. Now just to wait and see what Beer we get out of them.

I asked them about their beers and while they said they have formulated some recipes, they are not ready to share anything yet. Hopefully soon and I’ll let you know as soon as I know (also follow them on twitter).

What they did say is that no style is off the table and they are looking to produce a huge number of beers with great variety. Having a pilot system to do experimental beers, a cellaring program and foeders means that we will see everything. At one point Josh said that while at Victory they did 85 beers in one year and that he thinks TransCanada might be able to give them a run at some point down the line.
So, expect sours, ales, lagers, all with beautifully illustrated artwork (had the chance to see some of it) and top quality. Josh as the quality guy at TransCanada said that they will not be putting out beer they do not think is good. He’d rather dump it then put out a bad beer. That sounds promising.
Thanks for following along. Things are starting to pickup around here and I expect to have much more to write about as time moves forward.
-Beer Winnipeg

Interview, Trans Canada Brewing, Winnipeg

Trans Canada Brewing Co

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transcanada-exterior

I chatted with Matt Tallman, President and CEO of TransCanada Brewing Company this past week. He invited me to their space at 1290 Kenaston, gave me a tour and shared details about what you should expect from TCB when they open.

Matt has been working on this project fully since April 2015. It’s been a journey to get to this point and it was really interesting to hear Matt walk me through the process.

Matt has always dreamed of opening his own business. When he graduated high school in ’09 he took a business program at UNC. After a couple of years of traditional classes, he spent a semester at sea through a university in Virginia. The ocean-spanning classes gave him a chance to travel and see a lot of neat stuff.

He eventually transferred to University of Western Ontario’s ivy business program – the HBA. While digesting a lot of ideas there, Matt was exposed to Ontario’s rich craft beer scene. Though he took another semester at sea to get some more travelling under his belt, he returned to Canada with a purpose, having explored the beer industry in many different countries across five continents.

When Matt rolled back into Winnipeg he had a vision to expand local beer offerings. (At the time only Half Pints and Fort Garry were operating, with Farmery just starting.) Matt felt, like many others, there was a need for more local brewing in the city and he wanted to create a truly world class venue in Winnipeg. After setting his mind to this he spent a time working through vision and decided to start the project in April of 2015. Matt feels that there is a lot of opportunity in the market and that people are more interested in where their food and beverage come from, who makes it and how it’s made.

A lot of people are curious about the name behind the brewery. Matt said he is often asked “Why TransCanada?” Initially he went through piles of names and had lots of ideas. One day Matt just had TransCanada pop into his head and felt it was so uniquely Canadian that it fit what he wanted the brewery to embody. With its historic and modern usage and the fact that on an average day you’ll hear it mentioned in the radio or see it written on your drive, Matt felt this was a name that was timeless.

The branding for TCB is Canadiana, with design elements pulled from an earlier era (1950s-60s) to give a taste of nostalgia. While referencing the period, TCB’s branding is also meant to be timeless – something that won’t expire or go out of fashion.

As a local brewery, Matt is very excited to produce beers with local ingredients and work with local suppliers and producers. His brewery concept is very Canada centric and he wants to explore different Canadian symbols and events in history. Overall he hopes TCB will be a celebration of Canada

Matt spent eight months looking for a site before settling on 1290 Kenaston. He explained it had been a very long process and he is excited to finally get started. If all goes according to plan, TCB will open in Q2 of 2017.

transcanada-interior-3

The concept behind TCB is interesting. While they will have a taproom they are looking at doing pizzas and will have a dedicated pizza space, pizza oven and kitchen. Matt explained the plans were being discussed before recent taproom legislation came into effect. After looking at the legislation and taproom license, he decided it made more sense to do manufacturing, restaurant and retail. All components are part of one business. The idea is not to be a brewpub but a production brewery with a taproom attached. This is very casual meeting space with no assigned seating, servers, etc. It’s a place to come and hang out and chat, enjoy the beer from the brewery and have a pizza or a beer-related snack from a set menu.

Between the taproom and the brewery there will be a wall featuring 20 ft. tall windows. These windows will stretch almost floor to ceiling. Matt wants people to see what’s happening live during the day or have a nice brewery backdrop in the evening. He plans on having some funky lights shining on the brewhouse and tanks to create an ambiance for the taproom.

At the bar area, Matt plans to have 16 taps. He would like one of these taps to be local/craft brewery rotating guest tap. As I hinted above, the taproom will be decorated with Canadiana. As well, there will be a private function room for events and parties. It will have the same taps as the main bar area to optimize its use for any event. This room, too, will have windows letting you see down into the main taproom and there will be A/V equipment for meetings.

Right now, Matt is the only employee of TCB but he does have two others helping out who will eventually join him full time. First is Thomas Schneider. This head Pizzaiaolo (pizza guy) has been in the pizza industry for a number of years. He’ll run a dedicated Pizza area within the taproom called “Timmy Toms Pizzeria” and produce a very unique hybrid pizza. It’s close to New York style but with twisted dough prepared for individual-size orders. When the team decided pizza was the way to go, they took a trip down to San Francisco to meet pizza guru Tony Gemignani. He runs the International School of Pizza where the guys took a week-long course on making, baking, serving and selling pizza. Matt is really excited about the pizza – both the variety the can bake and the special release combinations they can curate.

Also on board is Jeff Wirt. His future role will be accounting and administration but he is currently assisting with everything – a true renaissance man. Thanks to a lot of hard work, they’ve just posted the job to round out their team and hire a Head Brewer, with the ambitious goal of enticing a world class brewer to come and prepare the best beer possible.

On the production side of things, there will be an overhead door separating the taproom and brewery to allow for them to hold open houses and for easy movement of kegs to the taproom.

The main brewhouse is built by Specific Mechanical from Victoria, BC. It is a 35hl four vessel brew house with state of the art technology operated by touch screen controls. It has a 5 HL pilot system fully integrated into the one brewhouse.  It’s fully capable of any style of beer and can do decoction mashes, kettle souring and multi-stage mashes. There are essentially two separate brewhouses, fermenters and bright tanks at TCB. For the small batch system, Matt plans to have six 10 HL fermenters and two 10 HL bright tanks while there will be six 70 HL fermenters and two 70HL HL bright tanks for the big system.

This will allow for the production of small and large batches. Matt tried to automate some of the brewery to make it easier to flow and to expand in the future. To accommodate this, he is going to install a grain silo just outside with an auger through the wall that will go directly into the surge hopper and then feed to the malt cracker, grist case, and then into the mash tun. It’s a hands off approach for base malt and all of the spent grain will be augered to silo before being trucked out for feed. While specialty malt will have to be added by hand, this allows for some automation with the largest quantity malt.

The brewery is designed to be scalable, adding more tanks if there is a need. The space allows them to double capacity if necessary, following a flow pattern Matt designed to be sustainable in the future.


Matt really wanted the ability to produce sour beers. As part of TCB’s design a dedicated space has been set aside as “the barrel room.” This climate-controlled room, with closely monitored humidity and temperature, will house 40HL Foeders from France made from oak as well as additional barrels. A glycol system will allow for precise temperature control within the room itself as well as overall temperature control. The room will act as an aging and conditioning room where, thanks to the Foeders, TCB will have the ability to really experiment with sour beers and barrel aged beers. It’ll be a slow start, but Matt is very excited about the potential.

The main packaging line from German company Markl will allow them to bottle their main beer in open carriers of 355ml bottles and 650ml bombers. They’ll also have the ability to do cork and caging on a specialty packaging line they will use exclusively for 750ml bottles of beer from the barrel room. While Matt said they don’t plan to can, they do have the ability to add a canning line.

When I was walking around the space, everything was nice and open now, but it will be quite full when all the equipment is in. You just have to use a little bit of imagination.

As for the beers, Matt wants to brew many styles of beer. Obviously a lot will depend on the Brewer who joins the team, but the brewery is designed to produce a diverse array of beers including barrel aged beers, experimental beers, and mainstream styles. It’s a flexibility that matches its owner’s tastes in beer, though go-to styles for Matt to drink are American Pale ales and German Wheat ales (hefeweizen/dunkelweizen).

The beer will be distributed to Liquormarts, beer vendors, as well as sold on site from their retail section. Some specialty beers and those produced in the small batch system will only be available on site.


It was a great opportunity to chat with Matt. I’ve known about TransCanada for quite some time and I’ve been trying to get him to give me some details. Having the opportunity to hear about the plan is exciting. I can’t wait to see how things progress and to have the opportunity to visit along the way. Matt has a pretty swanky T-shirt he’s made, and if you’re interested, just contact him through their website and he’ll give you the details on how to get one of your own.