Golden Growlers at Tool Shed Brewing Company

On a recent visit to Calgary’s newest brewery to check out the progress of the build, I had a chance to sit down with Tool Shed Brewing Company‘s founders, Graham Sherman and Jeff Orr. Having just learned of their new crowd sourcing effort, I just had to get the word out so that everyone has an opportunity to join in on this very creative way to raise funds for the brewery and a fantastic way for craft beer fans to get involved with the brewery.

For those of you that don’t know much about these guys, here is little background on the brewery. Jeff and Graham started brewing beer in a tool shed as modest home brewers. They wanted to clone one their favourite beers and due to the brew shop not having the ingredients they needed for the recipe, they ended up brewing something that was supposed to be similar and it wasn’t. It was however a beer they loved and it lives on now as Red Rage.

Fast forward to wanting to open up a brewery in Alberta. At the time when the guys were looking, the government had a fairly high minimum production level set which made it very difficult to start a brewery because the initial costs were such a huge barrier. This would lead the boys on a quest for a contract brewery where they could make beer and sell it as their own. It was an exhaustive search that lead them to a brewery in British Columbia. Here they put all of the money they were able to scrape up on the line to brew a batch of beer on a commercial scale. Things went well after fermentation finally started a couple of day late and the Tool Shed Brewing brand has taken off and has grown a great following. Even with a few bumps in the road and logistical issues brewing out of province they made it work. They beat the pavement and got their beer out there.

Now that they had proven that people liked their beer and the AGLC had removed laws of minimum yearly brewing capacity it was time to revisit brewing in Calgary. They quickly were able to raise 49% of the valuation of the brewery from eager investors before going to the bank to get fully funded.

They are now a few weeks away from brewing the first batch of beer in the brand new brewery. There is one catch though, they need more money.

The Golden Growler Program

This is where the Golden Growlers come in. Tool Shed Brewing is looking for 100 beer lovers to part with $5000 each to raise a total of $500,000 to complete the finishing touches on the brewery and have some operating capital for the year. Now you are probably thinking that five grand is a big chunk of change for a lousy growler, what gives? Well, that’s a pretty damn good question. The guys at Tool Shed came up with a great way to give you recognition and beer for life. Yup, beer for life. There are a few parts to the Golden Growler program, so here they are:

Recognition:

You are on the wall of the brewery! Your image and story will be posted on the wall above the taproom bar. Everyone will know that you were a part of Tool Shed Brewing Company’s success.

R&D Team

You get access to a tap in the taproom that is only for Golden Growler owners. This locked tap will only be opened once you do the secret handshake and enter you 32 digit PIN number. No, not really…just show your card and and you are good to go! The 10 gallon Sabco brewing set-up that is used for test batches will keep this tap busy and the Golden Growler owners busy as well. Tool Shed wants your input and feedback about the beer. Your thoughts about these test batches will make a difference in how the seasonal beer at Tool Shed is brewed!

Private Reserve

Batches of beer made only for those who bought into the Golden Growler Program. The public will not have access to this beer and only you the Golden Growler owner will have access.

The Beer

Yes, the beer. You will get access to special reserve batches from Tool Shed; this beer will not be released to the public and will only be given to Golden Growler owners. And speaking of those awesome growlers, you get up to 100 free growler fills per year, for life! Of course you get a growler too. Not just any growler but a stainless, double wall insulated growler that stays cold for two days. This bad boy has a picnic tap on it as well as a CO2 port for to keep up the pressure and it’s set to 10psi for pouring. If for whatever reason you didn’t drink the beer right away and didn’t have the CO2 charged you can set it at 30psi, bleed off any oxygen and re-carbonate your tasty brew right in the growler. The growler is also personalized with your name and investor number.

I think that there is some pretty serious value for a beer geek here. You will get so much for you money with this investment and you will help this brewery succeed. If you would like to be part of the Golden Growler program please contact the brewery for more details. Their contact info can be found here. If you would like to check out the place and hear their awesome story for yourself, they are currently setting up some weekend meet and greets for those looking to be a part of the Golden Growler program. If you want in, just get a hold of them here.

In the meantime, you can find Tool Shed Brewing beer in liquor stores and pubs throughout Alberta. Please use the Beer Finder found here to track down some of their tasty ales near you.

You can follow along on their journey with social media by following them on here:

Cheers!