Local business pours litres for fundraising dollars

By Miriam Ostermann, Associate Editor

Since their doors first opened, local brewery Origin Malting & Brewing Co. had toyed with the idea of raising funds for veterans, and with Remembrance Day quickly approaching, the company has partnered up with Strathmore’s Royal Canadian Legion to brew an English brown ale as was popular during the time of the world wars.
On Oct. 14, the company hosted their first fundraiser to raise dollars for the Strathmore Firefighter Association. With a $1,200 donation and 600 litres of a specifically designed recipe – Backdraft Red – the malt brewery cooked up a new recipe to be launched on Nov. 11.
“We’re looking at making this one bigger… there’s not a single person who can say they haven’t been affected by a veteran in one shape, way or form,” said Kyle Geeraert, co-owner of Origin Malting & Brewing Co.
“This is the first fundraising idea that we had, we just didn’t know the scale and the proper way to go about it. Unfortunately the way things are in Canada, there’s not enough people that care about veterans and you have basically one day a year that everyone stops and thinks about the sacrifices everyone made.”
The beer, or Last Post Brown Ale, is an original dark roast recipe that was created with Origin Malting’s brewmaster Nick Patterson and several members of the legion, who helped brew the beverage on Oct. 23. Last Post Brown Ale is the 19th beer out of 36 batches the company has brewed since launching the business earlier this year. Patterson used old recipes he had created in the past as a jumping-off point, and sampled similar beers from surrounding breweries with several legion members and regulars at the brewery. From there, Patterson mimicked the popular English-style brown ale – a style that had never before been brewed in the facilities.
“For the most part, we’re trying to make a beer that fits the style and make something that’s different,” said Patterson. “We haven’t done any English or American brown-style beers here thus far, so it’s good for us to make different kinds of beer. This style is pretty unique.”
The stars aligned for legion members John Manchester and Allan Auger when they approached the business owners following the success of the firefighter fundraiser. According to Geeraert, the company was looking into contacting a branch in Calgary, but after talking with their two loyal customers, decided to stay local and donate the funds to the legion’s poppy fund.
With hopes of taps flowing on Nov. 11, a dollar per pint for 650 litres will be donated to help veterans locally.
“It’s not going to be used in Quebec or Nova Scotia or B.C., it’s going to stay here,” said Auger. “Every veteran knows about the legion but what does the legion do, what can it do? Let’s get more involvement. Involve more of the locals and some of the veterans who aren’t really aware of what’s available.”
Origin Malting and the Strathmore Royal Canadian Legion are currently in collaboration in hopes of serving the beer on tap at the legion in the future. While event details, such as location, still remain scarce, updates will be made on the Origin Malting and Strathmore Royal Canadian Legion Facebook pages.
While raising funds for local causes is important to the brewery, the hope is to continue raising awareness and build a stronger community.
“Every time we can actually have somebody come in and brew with us, it creates awareness,” said Geeraert. “If we just say we brewed a beer for this cause, it doesn’t create as much awareness. When we actually have people come in, we’re showing their story, we’re educating, and it goes back to involving the community. The more people we can have here when we do it, the more community spirit there is.”