First craft brewery opens in Summerland
Nathan Rosin is combining his love of beer, entrepreneurial spirit and engineering know how to start Summerlandís first craft brewery on a shoestring.
Detonate Brewing is located at #104-9503 Cedar Avenue in the James Avenue industrial area of Summerland.
Detonate started serving customers on Feb. 4 and on Feb. 18 participated in the 4th Annual Brewski event at the Gunbarrel Saloon Restaurant.
A grand opening is being planned for late spring.
The seeds for Detonate were planted when Rosin made his first batch of beer as a university student in a basement suite.
His girlfriend, Samantha, now his wife, promptly kicked the proto-brewery out of the kitchen and into the garage.
After Rosin completed his degree in civil engineering in 2009, the couple moved to West Kelowna where he is employed with an engineering consulting firm.
A mechanical engineer technologist, Samantha, who is currently at home caring for their two small children, does much of Detonateís social media work.
In West Kelowna Rosin began consider establishing a craft brewery.
“I’ve always wanted to do something for myself,” he said. But he didn’t have much money. “Some people might think I’m crazy, but I believe that a small brewery can start up with little initial capital and still become profitable,” he said
Unable to locate affordable commercial space in the West Kelowna area, Rosin was pleased to find the Summerland unit.
“It was the right price,î said Rosin, who quickly set to work adapting the space to his needs.
He put in partitions and built a grain room and a small tasting room.
Crushing the malted barley creates dust which must be kept away from the finished beer, he explained.
He buys the barley from a company in Armstrong and hops from Square One Hop Growers in Naramata.
“The vast majority of our equipment is re-purposed items, saved from certain doom to now living out its life making people happy by making beer for them,” he said.
Two years ago he bought a used dairy bulk tank in Seattle and more recently brought back two never used, custom made water tanks from California.
Currently, heís in the process of purchasing a tank in Nelson.
Before setting up shop in Summerland, Rosin began collecting second hand equipment.
“While we do not have shiny ìstate of the artî equipment, we do have everything that is required to make great quality beer,” he said. However, the amount of time and work required to produce beer is greater with older equipment.
“A little ingenuity and sweat equity and you can make something great out of very little,” said Rosin, who draws on his mechanical and engineering skills to assemble and maintain the equipment.
Currently, Detonate makes India Pale Ale and Rosinís favourite, Call the Hops. Stout and Pale Ale are also available. Rosin plans to make Citra Ale when he finds a good source of citra hops which add citrus and tropical fruit character to beer.
Rosin’s optimism was recently fueled by craft beer and microbreweries being chosen by Canadian chefs as the restaurant industryís top trend for a third year in a row.
Detonateís tasting room is open on Fridays 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. and on Saturdays 2 p.m. to 8 p.m.
“Come by to sample our beer and fill your grunts and growlers. Iím more than happy to show customers our operation and answer any questions,” Rosin said.
For information visit , email , call (258) 718-3554 or follow on Facebook and Twitter.
Susan McIver is The Herald’s agriculture and Summerland reporter.