Council to study rules around small breweries

Edmonton took a small step Wednesday toward making it easier for brew pubs and microbreweries to set up in popular shopping districts.

“Excellent news” for the craft beer crowd, said Wayne Sheridan, who opened the brew pub Situation Brewing last month just off Whyte Avenue.

There’s a bit of a sweet smell every couple days when the beer is boiling, he said. But so far no one has complained. “It’s really not an intrusive thing.”

Edmonton’s zoning bylaws relegate breweries to industrial areas, a place perhaps fitting for the large-scale breweries that were the only ones allowed in Alberta before 2013. But provincial rules changed.

Now Coun. Scott McKeen is hoping Edmonton’s rules will, too. He gave notice Wednesday he’ll put this up for debate. If council approves, administration will be asked to outline how it could change the bylaw to allow “microbreweries, distilleries and wineries in commercial and industrial zones in Edmonton.”

That report would come back in the spring of 2017.

“I totally hope they change the bylaws,” said Sheridan, crediting flexible city planners for helping him open where he did. His building at 10308 81 Avenue has direct control or specialized zoning. Planners made it work by issuing a variance and calling his brewery a “creation and production establishment,” a class normally used for rehearsal spaces, small-scale blacksmithing or other crafts.

“It was just exceedingly difficult to approve,” he said, adding the process took three months. “They said this is close enough.”

Situation Brewing has six of their own microbrews on tap now and a 90-seat restaurant.

He said there are several others he knows of wanting to open similar establishments, including one in Ritchie Market, a set of neighbourhood shops under construction.

“We had to fight our way through the old system,” he said. “But I hope for the sake of the next startup company.

“The more craft breweries there are in Edmonton, the better for craft beer it is.”