Article content continued

The additional capacity is necessary, as the Ottawa brewer is ready to roll out availability of its Big Rig Gold brand of beer to every LCBO in the province of Ontario. Ladell is also in negotiations to see his beer on the shelves of The Beer Store.

On top of all of that, Ladell plans to introduce a second brand to the LCBO, his award-winning Big Rig Black IPA, a dark and bitter brew that took home a gold medal earlier this year at the Ontario Brewing Awards before going on to win gold at the Canadian Brewing Awards in Fredericton, N.B.

The new production facility will primarily focus on the beers Ladell wants to distribute across the province. But even with the addition of a canning line, allowing the brand to move away from bottles and package its products in aluminum cans, the space he has found in Kanata is far more than he currently needs. He plans to begin contract brewing for fledgling microbrewers, a popular choice for breweries just starting out that don’t have enough capital to purchase breweries or equipment.

Ladell said he already has agreements with two breweries to begin brewing their beers for them in Kanata. Interest is pouring in from as far away as Toronto.

“I’d like to work with the smaller startup breweries,” he said. “This will be more of a full-service offering. I can help them take their recipes and bump them up to commercial-sized batches. We can help with packaging and we can even help them with distribution.”