After months of preparation, a new brewery in Blenheim is finally ready to welcome in members of the public.
On Wednesday morning, Red Barn Brewing Company officially opened a take-out style retail store out of their Brew Room.
Shortly before the doors opened, co-owner Denny Vervaet said it was a great feeling to see all the hard work come to fruition.
"I don't think any of us got any sleep last night," he said. "It's like Christmas day for us almost. We planned so long for this and it's finally here. We're excited to see the public out and product in their hands."
Vervaet along with his wife Sandy and brother-in-law Dan English are the co-owners of the establishment. They received the excise licence in February, nearly a year after officially breaking ground in April 2019.
However, according to Vervaet, the trio has been planning for this day for nearly six years.
"We kind of started formulating, at least homebrewing and figuring out a plan for that. We got our business plan together, researched the market and [went] around to breweries [to] figure out what we need," explained Vervaet. "Lots of planning in the background and finally now every piece is coming together."
The brewery will have a few beers available from their “Farm Four” in cans. They will also have their first batch ever brewed called “Batch 1″ available in growlers.
Due to the fact that the Brew Room Store is opening during the pandemic, Vervaet said that customers will be asked to follow COVID-19 health recommendations.
"We have a very small space that we have for this retail store," he explained. "So we have precautions in place, how many people are allowed into the store at a time, we've got all the lines here so [people] can keep their distance and such."
Next up on Red Barn's radar is to open up the tasting room side of the business and eventually get patio service up and running.
Red Barn Brewing is located at 20466 Lagoon Road in Blenheim. The Brew Room Store will be open until 5 p.m. during the Canada Day launch and it will open again from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, July 4 with limited stock available.
Red Barn Brewing Company in Blenheim on Wednesday, July 1, 2020 (Photo by Matt Weverink)
-With files from Matt Weverink and Natalia Vega