Two Sergeants brewery set for move to city

Two Sergeants is marching into Edmonton, and it’s bringing its kegs with them.

The Fort Saskatchewan brewery opened in 2015, but is unable to expand in its space northeast of Edmonton and has struggled to attract more customers.

Although the brewing business received a lot of support and developed some diehard fans, Two Sergeants Brewing Inc. owner Kevin Moore told Postmedia it can no longer stay in the Fort and instead will be moving to the big city.

“It wasn’t an easy decision by any stretch of the imagination,” he said. “I guess the biggest reason for us moving is we need to grow. First and foremost, we are a brewery and a production brewery. To keep up with demand, we need more tanks and there’s just no room in this footprint.”

Moore said the plan is to move into the Whyte Avenue area where other craft brewers are locating.

The Edmonton location will feature more space for more tanks as well as a spot to open a full kitchen, something that was impossible in Fort Saskatchewan, he added.

“We explored options within the complex that we are in to try and get more space but that didn’t materialize,” he said. “We explored basically every option in Fort Saskatchewan and there was basically nothing that would work for us (in terms of ) size, economics.”

Another reason for the move was the taphouse wasn’t seeing enough patrons. Moore said it was losing money on the taphouse.

“If you look at any other brewery in Alberta, they have a thriving taproom,” he said. “For some reason that just hasn’t taken off in Fort Saskatchewan. We have some very loyal customers, just not a big enough base.”

Moore said he expected the Fort Saskatchewan location to close by April 1.