The Forbidden Brewing Company is keeping it hyperlocal.
As the Courtenay-based brewery’s owners looked at equipment to upgrade from the nano brewhouse to a micro brewhouse, they didn’t have to look very far; Innovative Stainless Solutions — also of Courtenay — is currently custom manufacturing a 1,000-litre boil kettle and Mash Tun for Forbidden Brewing Co.
“It feels really good to keep the money in the Comox Valley,” said Forbidden CEO Michael Vincent, “It has been a pleasure working with Innovative Stainless Solutions and we can hardly wait to start brewing on the new equipment.”
Rounding out the new brewhouse will be a “home brewed” mash tun, donated to Forbidden by Wolf Brewing, and modified into a hot liquor tank by another local craftsperson, Chris Wilson.
“We have been recycling equipment from the start. We re-purposed a u-brew to build our initial brewery, and have been doing the same since we took possession of our current location July of 2014,” said Vincent.
“The boil kettle and mash tun will be the second significant addition of new equipment in our brewery,” he said, adding the company hopes the added brewing capacity will allow them to start distributing locally early this year.
Forbidden Brewing Co. is located at 1590 Cliffe Avenue, in the Best Western Westerly Hotel on the south side of its front entrance. The lounge is open for by-the-glass sales and growler fills Wednesday through Sunday from noon until late. On Friday evenings, the lounge offers live jazz music starting at 8 p.m.
