Rossland locals Petri Raito and Ryan Arnaud had always dreamed of starting their own brewery, and as of Aug. 10, they will have made that dream a reality.
Their new business, Trail Brewing, will give people the opportunity to brew their own beer.
The two friends started the brewery because of a love of beer.
“We started looking at the idea of whether we could convert something we are passionate about into a business,” Raito said. “That’s what it comes down to. You’re going to put everything into it.”
The brewery is located right across from Safeway in Trail, on Second Avenue.
“It’s basically a micro brewery on a smaller scale,” Raito said. “But we like to think we’re a lot less expensive.”
Their slogan is “Handcrafted beer with extra care at a fair price.”
Trail Brewing adheres to the U-Brew format, which means customers have to pour the yeast and bottle the beer.
“We’re a little different because we do all our stuff from the very beginning,” Raito said. “It’s our own recipes. We use no preservatives or additives. We don’t use extracts or syrups. Everything’s from scratch.”
They do have wine kits as well, but these are the more standard kits, Raito added.
They are starting off with eight varieties of beer including: Old Glory IPA, The Red, Helter Smelter Amber and Trail Ale.
The process of creating the beer takes a few steps. Customers first come in or call down and make the order. Then come and pour the yeast to allow the beer to ferment.
The final step is the bottling, but here Raito said they hope to get people onto a keg system.
Kegs have an initial higher cost than bottles, but are cheaper and easier in the long run, as they don’t require the work that bottles do to clean and fill.
They also have kegerators, or small fridges for beer kegs, which keep the beer cold and have pouring taps on the top to fill glasses.
They even built a portable fridge out of a garbage bin, which, along with the other fridges, is on display in their window.
The whole process from yeast to beer takes a few weeks.
To get more info about the company, check out their website trailbrewing.com or call them at 250-368-4666. They are located at 1672 Second Avenue, Trail B.C.
