The owner of a new brewery in Williams Lake wishes he was ready to open, but said it’s taking longer than anticipated.
“There are a lot of moving parts — it’s pretty complex,” said Dave Reedman, who with help from several contractors, has been transforming the former Greyhound bus station into Fox Mountain Brewing Co.
Reedman’s application has gone through a rezoning process and a development permit public hearing with the City and a 30-day provincial government liquor licence referral.
Additionally, there was a break-in at the site in November resulting in theft of more than $25,000 in tools and equipment, which Reedman said was a major set back.
Read more: LETTER: Fox Mountain Brewery was robbed and ransacked last week
“The welder lost more than $20,000 of his stuff. I lost a few saws, compressors and hand tools, but actually got some of my stuff back so that was good.”
Overall, a dozen people have been working on the construction and when the brewery opens, it is anticipated there will be 15 to 20 full-time and part-time staff.
“I really don’t have a specific opening date, but can say we have been working hard,” Reedman said. “It’s an older building, built in 1986, and we’ve changed a lot.”
The entire exterior has been redone on the leased building.
Foundation Mechanical from Abbotsford has been installing the brewery.
“It was a challenge to find a company to do the brew installation and Steve Emery of the company is originally from 100 Mile House so that was cool,” Reedman said.
The logo features a fox inside the word ‘Fox’ and was designed by a company in the U.S.
“They have a whole bunch of designs that you can pick from and mine is actually a hybrid of two designs that I liked. I’m happy with how it turned out.”
He anticipates brewing six different types of beer, although he doesn’t know what he’ll name them just yet.
It takes anywhere from a week to three weeks for a beer to ferment.
In December, a crowd funding program was started for the business.
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