Four Wellington County dads took their passion from hobby to business when they opened Four Fathers Brewing Co. in Rockwood earlier this year.
And within the last two weeks they stocked select Beer Store shelves with their craft brews.
John Kissick, Mike Hruden (general manager), Marty Castellan and Jim Tyo’s friendship started out eight years ago in typical Canadian fashion.
“The only thing we had in common was the fact that we all had sons that were born in 2001 that … played hockey together,” Kissick said. “The boys met at age 7 in novice and they are now in minor midget together and they’re best friends.”
Because their sons were in rep hockey the four dads became fast friends, seeing each other almost every day while serving as coaches together.
“We spent a lot of time together and … you start sharing everything and so the four of us, the other thing we had in common was we all were really interested in craft beer,” Kissick explained.
“And so we started touring around, we started looking at micro breweries, started travelling outside of hockey because we just became really good friends and then we started brewing beer.”
The first beer the four fathers brewed was from a brewing kit in Kissick’s Fergus kitchen.
“Then pretty soon we thought ‘this is stupid, anyone can do this,’” Kissick said. “So we started researching, becoming more interested and learning, experimenting and taking it pretty seriously.
“I think we’re all fairly competitive people and I don’t think any of us like to do something half-assed and just found that we really loved it.”
After two or three years creating new recipes, the foursome took the leap about a year ago and began the process of becoming licensed. On Jan. 26 they sold their first keg, becoming the second craft brewery in Wellington County (the Elora Brewing Company opened last September.)
The four owners developed the recipes for about three quarters of the brewery’s arsenal of 10 or 11 recorded brews, with the help of a professional brewer. The three flagship offerings include the Starter Session IPA, a German dunkel called Shevchenko 9 and a local saison called Honey Badger.
“We started to brew the beers that we wanted to drink ourselves and we came up with a bizarre assortment of beers,” Kissick said.
“So each one of our beers … comes from a friendship and we trusted our instincts that if we liked the things then other people would too.”
Each beer has a story and each bottle or can has its own unique artwork.
“We worked very hard at trying to make sure that our graphics … match the kind of quality of beers that we were going to produce,” Kissick said.
“So each one of our beers kind of tells our own story and so we wanted to make sure that each of our labels was identifiable on its own so it’s not like there’s a big Four Fathers and then it just has something written – every label is different.”
Presently the brewery is located in a refurbished barn on Castellan’s property north of Rockwood, but the owners are searching for a new space.
“The minute you start is the minute you’re too small,” Kissick said. “We became victims of our own success because we couldn’t keep up with our orders.”
He said that within the next two months the company should have a space that can act as storefront, brewery and all around spot to hang out. Now they can only sell beer at the brewery during special events.
In the meantime, on Aug. 30 the Starter Session IPA became available in select Beer Stores, with Elora being the only Wellington County location.
“We’re in the new beer stores that have the craft beer sections,” Kissick said. And on Sept. 15 the Starter Session IPA will also be available at the LCBO. Four Fathers Brewing Co. beer can also be found in about 60 or 65 pubs and restaurants in the surrounding area.
Kissick explained that there were two different models for starting a brewery.
“One is to start teeny weeny and get a reputation and get a really good product and grow as your interest grows and your brewing,” he said. “The other one is to get a whole bunch of people and investors and build something big and then hopefully make the beer that people want.
“Since we’re four friends and we did it all the old fashioned way, we started from ground zero, we made our beer first. It’s been an adventure.”
The four friends are the sole investors. Three work elsewhere full-time, with Hruden taking on the fulltime job as general manager of the brewery.
Because the business has outgrown its space, the flagship beer is often contracted out.
“All our kind of high end special one-offs and that we do in-house and some of our other flagship beers, but for instance our Starter and Shevchenko 9 we have to contract brew them because we don’t have enough space and enough time,” Kissick said.
They also often have to go somewhere else to have the beer bottled and canned.
“The problem with that is … it’s not cost effective,” he said. “That’s why we need a new facility.”
But the founders are being selective in their choice of location so it follows the company’s core values.
“Our kind of logo after the Four Fathers it says ‘stand for something good,’” Kissick said. They’ve been asked why they want to call the brewery “good” when they could call it “great.”
“The argument we put back was, ‘well standing for something good’s a value, goodness is a value, great is a qualitative term but good is a value’ and we (feel) pretty strongly that we are about families and about those experiences,” Kissick explained. “Because we’re about friends getting together and sitting over beer and talking about life.”
It’s the owners’ hands-on attitude that has made them a success at various craft beer festivals this summer.
“People are amazed because when they line up for one of our beers they actually have one of the owners serving it to them,” Kissick said.
“I mean craft beer festival people want to talk to the brewers, they want to know what the beer is about.”
