Ottawa Beer Events: How did you get interested in brewing and where did you learn how to brew?

Broken Stick Brewing: We've all have different brewing experiences. Some of us have been brewing for over 10 years and others have been brewing 2-3 years but what we all have in common is that we all started brewing at home because we all love beer. So we all learned how to brew on our own and by talking to other home brewers.

What made you decide to open a brewery?

The full story is actually available on our website . It's start with Eric (one of the partners) purchasing brewing equipment. As far the rest of the guys, we just had a lot of time to kill. Just kidding, we did it for the love of beer and let's face it, how cool is it to say you own a brewery and be able to share great beer recipes with people.

How much beer will your system be able to produce? Which size of growler do you plan on offering?

We have a 5HL system. We'll be offering two bottle size. 1.89L Growler and the 750ml Grumbler for now.

There have been a lot of articles published lately on how there’s a “boom” in the craft beer market – how do you plan to stand out or carve your niche in this expanding market?

We really do think that it is the golden age of craft brewing. There are so many varieties of beers and so many ways of making them your own by trying new things. That's what's great with beer these days, the sky is the limit on what you can brew and we think we can bring new and great tasting beers to beer fans. It is become less and less of a niche market, there are great craft breweries in the Ottawa region and we believe there's room for more.

Do you plan on requesting a “by the glass” license, allowing you to serve full glasses of beer to patrons?

This is something we've discussed but not something we're looking at at the present time. Since we're a smaller brewery we'll concentrate on brewing great beer and as we grow we will see where it leads us.

If you could describe Broken Stick Brewing in 3 words – how would you describe your brewery?

Creative, inviting and petite