For Susi Foerg, the opening of Rustic Reel Craft Brewery will be the realization of a dream.
You may remember Foerg from Valley First Credit Union. Today, she's banking on success in a field with a growing list of competitors. There are a bunch of new craft breweries in the works in Kelowna. But Foerg doesn't see them as competing.
"The more the merrier," she said. Her vision is to create beers with broad appeal.
"In Kelowna, we still want a boat beer. We want that easy drinking lager that you want on your fishing boat or on the golf course. You do want the cool IPA's and the sours and that kind of thing, but I really want to make sure that we have some easy drinking beers that the general public can drink and not just the beer nerds."
At 7,000 square feet, Rustic Reel is not starting small. Huge rolling doors will allow it to open right up when the weather calls for it.
"Why not create exactly what I want from the beginning," she asks. "So brewery, tasting room, retail space."
Foerg is happy with the semi-industrial location on Vaughn Avenue, not far from Red Bird Brewing between Sandhill Wines and BC Tree fruits and their Broken Ladder Cidery. It adds to a cluster of places people can visit one after the other.
"It's a culture of having a beer and going to the next place and the next place and having a beer and then the next place."
The building is currently undergoing a major renovation. When complete, the fishing theme will be there, but not in a tacky way promises Foerg.
"Like a nice cleaned-up fishing cabin."
Projected opening: June (ish)
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