Kirk Zembal, Co-Founder of Blindman Brewing, Creates Craft Beer Using the Best Local Ingredients That Support the Places and People of the Area

Transcript

Full transcript page · Interactive episode

============================================================
TRANSCRIPTION WITH SPEAKERS
============================================================

[00:00] SPEAKER_01: Welcome to Canada's podcast, the number one podcast for entrepreneurs by
[00:06] SPEAKER_01: entrepreneurs. Hello and welcome to Edmonton's podcast on Canada's podcast
[00:12] SPEAKER_01: network. I'm your host Mario Toneguzi and joining me today is Kirk Zembel
[00:18] SPEAKER_01: who is co-founder of Blind Men Brewing in Edmonton. Thanks for joining us today
[00:22] SPEAKER_01: Kirk. Hey good day. Good to be here. I'd give you a little bit of a history
[00:27] SPEAKER_01: first Kirk about Blind Men when you started it and what you guys do. Yeah you
[00:33] SPEAKER_00: bet you. So we started our brewery in 2014. We brew out of the city I guess not
[00:41] SPEAKER_00: town of Sunny Lecombeilford at just down the road from Edmonton. We first
[00:45] SPEAKER_00: started brewing beer in about 2015. It took us about a year to get going. Had
[00:49] SPEAKER_00: the ability, had to get everything going and we just tried to brew the best beer
[00:53] SPEAKER_00: we can using the best ingredients, the best local ingredients we can and have a
[01:00] SPEAKER_00: lot of fun doing so. How did you get started in this and why? Yeah so I joked
[01:07] SPEAKER_00: that a generation ago we would have been like hey we should open a bar but
[01:11] SPEAKER_00: basically it it's it was just a group of beer geeks honestly who just kind of
[01:17] SPEAKER_00: saw the the world out there and saw a crappier booming and just wanted to
[01:21] SPEAKER_00: throw a hat into the ring and get into it. Let's talk a little bit of some of
[01:25] SPEAKER_01: the specifics about the business. Do you have like a location like a tap room?
[01:32] SPEAKER_00: Yeah you bet you down in down in Lecombe you have a little tap room obviously
[01:36] SPEAKER_00: these days it's a pretty low capacity but you know let's say a place where
[01:41] SPEAKER_00: somebody can stop by and get get a pinder too and some samples and small snacks.
[01:46] SPEAKER_01: Okay and where is the distribution in the province all over? Yeah we're
[01:52] SPEAKER_00: available most every community and Albert at this point and we're also
[01:56] SPEAKER_00: available Saskatchewan, Manitoba, BC, the territories occasionally in Ontario as
[02:04] SPEAKER_00: well. Okay then and how many brands do you have? Yeah we the best part of a
[02:09] SPEAKER_00: beer crappier is that you can kind of do whatever you want and we generally do
[02:14] SPEAKER_00: so at any one time we've got eight nine ten different beers in the market we're
[02:19] SPEAKER_00: always kind of changing things up and and having some fun. You know in terms of the
[02:24] SPEAKER_01: actual beers themselves how do the Ori Milles or the recipes come together
[02:32] SPEAKER_00: for that? I guess by drinking beer but yeah we've had some success over the
[02:40] SPEAKER_00: years and just kind of nailing a lot of recipes so we do so on some we test
[02:44] SPEAKER_00: batch our smaller system on some we you know we kind of just sit down and make a
[02:49] SPEAKER_00: recipe and brew it on the big system and our batting averages is pretty good.
[02:53] SPEAKER_01: Okay then can you talk a little bit about the the craft brewing industry like
[02:58] SPEAKER_01: there is so many at the mouth there right now in Alberta. Why do you see such a
[03:05] SPEAKER_01: phenomenal growth in the past couple years in this industry? Yeah so when we
[03:11] SPEAKER_00: started when we first brewed beer in 2015 October 2015 there we were brewing
[03:16] SPEAKER_00: number 20 in the province and now there's 140 I believe. And that's that's
[03:22] SPEAKER_00: replicate all across North America and and in Europe and other markets as well.
[03:27] SPEAKER_00: There's just a number of reasons but mainly it's driven by beer drinkers.
[03:31] SPEAKER_00: Your drinkers are just kind of sick of drinking the same old you know water
[03:37] SPEAKER_00: down macrologgers and they're looking for something something better something
[03:42] SPEAKER_00: more local and we just kind of fit right in there. Have you seen the demographic
[03:49] SPEAKER_01: for consumers changing over the last few years? Yeah absolutely I I probably
[03:56] SPEAKER_00: would not have started this brewery if my mild man hadn't started drinking
[04:02] SPEAKER_00: some craft beer you know he had his first big rock beer and he's like oh this
[04:05] SPEAKER_00: tastes pretty good you know if you if you can take a pilsner drinkers and
[04:09] SPEAKER_00: turn them into craft beer drinkers if you can have some fun and and that's actually
[04:12] SPEAKER_00: one of the best parts of it being in Leccoma is that we come we have people
[04:15] SPEAKER_00: come into our tap room you know with no preconceived notions and we just get to
[04:20] SPEAKER_00: you know present them with a whole bunch of different beers and pretty much
[04:25] SPEAKER_00: every time there's something that just kind of winds their eyes and makes well
[04:28] SPEAKER_00: okay this is interesting beer could taste like this all right on I guess in
[04:33] SPEAKER_01: terms of the market to you seeing more of a younger younger demographic are
[04:40] SPEAKER_01: taking and as well as a female demographic yeah we our beer our beer
[04:47] SPEAKER_00: definitely skews more female than say you know your Budwizers or whatever and
[04:53] SPEAKER_00: that's again for a number of reasons I think mainly because women have been
[04:57] SPEAKER_00: marketed you know drink drink Budwizer drink Canadian their whole life so
[05:01] SPEAKER_00: they're just a little bit more open minded it seems but yeah we see beer
[05:05] SPEAKER_00: drinkers from all walks of life all over the place and yeah every generation is
[05:11] SPEAKER_00: different every generation seems to like they're certain things so we kind of
[05:16] SPEAKER_00: yeah we kind of fit everybody it seems what's your I guess vision for the
[05:22] SPEAKER_00: future for the company Kurt yeah you know we're just trying to have we're just
[05:26] SPEAKER_00: trying to have some fun beer is beer is fun everybody yeah nobody gets to work
[05:32] SPEAKER_00: double with beer so we were just trying to keep doing what we're doing having
[05:36] SPEAKER_00: some fun creating new recipes introducing new beers to the market yeah nothing
[05:43] SPEAKER_00: no real big goals to take over the world that's for sure what's it been like for
[05:49] SPEAKER_01: you as being an entrepreneur like what have let's start with some of the the
[05:54] SPEAKER_00: biggest challenges you've faced yeah it's definitely an adventure and this is my
[06:01] SPEAKER_00: first kind of big venture I had a little one before and yeah for us for me I
[06:06] SPEAKER_00: guess it was just jumping in that's it's a it's a pretty pretty pool you're
[06:11] SPEAKER_00: jumping into you know there's definitely some risk you're putting up your
[06:16] SPEAKER_00: house and even now I had this notion that you you got a you alone from the bank
[06:22] SPEAKER_00: and then over time you paid off that loan but what you do in businesses you just
[06:26] SPEAKER_00: keep getting bigger and bigger loans so even today you know if things things
[06:31] SPEAKER_00: where to go south you know I lose my house but thankfully things have been
[06:35] SPEAKER_00: going pretty well for us so what did you do before this yeah I was in the oil
[06:40] SPEAKER_00: field and had a little tiny little one man consultancy and the directional
[06:45] SPEAKER_00: drilling field this is a lot more fun obviously yeah people feel though
[06:50] SPEAKER_00: tend to get worked up too much about beer in the oil field yeah tempers can
[06:55] SPEAKER_01: tempers can fly a little bit when you look at being an entrepreneur what are
[07:00] SPEAKER_01: the some of the things that you enjoy most about being one yeah just the
[07:07] SPEAKER_00: dynamism of of everything you know some some days it can be a bit much but you
[07:13] SPEAKER_00: know there's there's just things that come across your desk and you know you've
[07:17] SPEAKER_00: never done them before but you're not you're not stuck in a lane you get to
[07:22] SPEAKER_00: kind of move as you see fit and take things on as you see fit and you know
[07:26] SPEAKER_01: succeed or fail as you will yeah and you know being based out of the calm and
[07:33] SPEAKER_01: for for those out there that are beyond Alberta don't know where the calm is
[07:38] SPEAKER_01: it's almost like halfway between Calgary and Edmonton on just off the highway
[07:43] SPEAKER_01: the green Elizabeth to highway what are the advantages of of running a
[07:47] SPEAKER_00: business in a in a town like McComb well we did look at Edmonton initially and
[07:54] SPEAKER_00: at the time the zoning by las I guess weren't really conducive to what we were
[07:58] SPEAKER_00: trying to do we're a recovery so we're we're we're industrial plant you know
[08:03] SPEAKER_00: we have trucks coming we've got things moving noises smells everything but we
[08:09] SPEAKER_00: also want to run essentially a restaurant bar and a liquor store in industrial
[08:13] SPEAKER_00: zone and this city of the comb was that was willing to work on pretty much
[08:18] SPEAKER_00: anything we asked and you know we could speak to them and say okay this is what
[08:21] SPEAKER_00: we're trying to do and this is what we could hopefully do for the community and
[08:26] SPEAKER_01: yeah it's it's been awesome is there any entrepreneurial background in your
[08:32] SPEAKER_01: family like just wanting where where this kind of came from yeah as a
[08:38] SPEAKER_00: Western as a Western Canadian you can't you typically can't go too far back
[08:43] SPEAKER_00: before you hit a farmer and so yeah definitely you know my dad my my
[08:49] SPEAKER_00: grandparents were all farmers and a farmer is nothing if not an entrepreneur what
[08:55] SPEAKER_01: did you what do you think you learned from living that I guess that lifestyle
[08:59] SPEAKER_00: bringing brought up in that lifestyle just you know the idea that you got to
[09:05] SPEAKER_00: work hard the idea that things are things are always changing you know my dad
[09:11] SPEAKER_00: has has the farm which has been in the family you know since early 1900s and you
[09:18] SPEAKER_00: know my my I guess my grandmother she kept a record of every of every harvest
[09:23] SPEAKER_00: essentially since going back since the 30s and you can just see the variability
[09:28] SPEAKER_00: you can see you know things change there's good times and there's bad times but
[09:34] SPEAKER_00: the only constant is change and so even in you know we see change in the world
[09:39] SPEAKER_00: or we see hiccups or or full pandemics and you know if you go if you go back
[09:46] SPEAKER_00: far enough and you typically don't have to go back that far there's there's
[09:50] SPEAKER_00: definitely disruption and change in the world and you just kind of have to roll
[09:53] SPEAKER_00: with it so what did your father farm he primarily worked at a fertilizer plant
[09:58] SPEAKER_00: and now the farm is is mainly helend in terms of other interests that you
[10:07] SPEAKER_01: might have Kirk Lane obviously everybody talks these day and age about work
[10:11] SPEAKER_01: like balance etc and I know being an entrepreneur can consume your day
[10:17] SPEAKER_01: many hours there like what else do you do I guess to develop some of that
[10:24] SPEAKER_01: balance on the other side of your personal side yeah definitely a business
[10:30] SPEAKER_00: can be a black hole of your time but a lot of it at least for me is that you
[10:35] SPEAKER_00: just enjoy it so much you just get a lot out of it so it's easy to kind of feed
[10:38] SPEAKER_00: feed hours into it but I've got I've got a couple kids and I like spend time
[10:43] SPEAKER_00: with them I'm also an MBA student right now at the U of A so that that takes
[10:50] SPEAKER_00: a bit more of my time but I'm looking forward to other Christmas time and
[10:53] SPEAKER_00: yeah just kind of getting out and about and doing some skiing doing some
[10:57] SPEAKER_00: skating enjoying the winter okay what's your favorite beer I would say it's our
[11:03] SPEAKER_00: session ale you know it's our kind of our most popular beer but it just it just
[11:07] SPEAKER_00: hits me you just write most days I don't get tastes like another you have
[11:13] SPEAKER_00: when you're like I can go for another one okay and what do you know when you
[11:19] SPEAKER_01: look back at you know yourself I just when did you start to become I guess
[11:26] SPEAKER_01: interested in a craft beer in terms of just drinking it there's always just
[11:33] SPEAKER_00: that one beer or there's just a shift in yours like okay beer could taste
[11:38] SPEAKER_00: that could taste like this and it was you know other craft breweries whether
[11:42] SPEAKER_00: the US based or or here and here in Alberta and you know you just it kind of
[11:47] SPEAKER_00: gets the wheels turning in your head you're like okay it is tastes pretty good and
[11:51] SPEAKER_01: and you have like I am I'm not sure the proper turn is the stiller sort of
[11:57] SPEAKER_01: speaker that handles the the recipes and all that's here yeah so we have a head
[12:04] SPEAKER_00: brewer Lisa she she's awesome and she basically you know leads leads our
[12:09] SPEAKER_00: barring team and you know it's a cloud-rather for coming up the recipes and
[12:13] SPEAKER_00: deciding what kind of beers to brew which again is the fun part of brewing
[12:17] SPEAKER_00: brewing is is mainly cleaning so you know because it's it's a food product
[12:22] SPEAKER_00: everything has to be saturday everything has to be safe so anytime you get to
[12:26] SPEAKER_00: design something new and put your creativity to use those are those are usually
[12:30] SPEAKER_01: good days for brewers and when you look at just the overall business for you
[12:39] SPEAKER_01: for your folks and to start it are you happy how things have gone in terms of
[12:44] SPEAKER_00: sales and your reach etc yeah definitely we've been super happy about how
[12:50] SPEAKER_00: everything has gone we you know we probably got lucky or we you know saw the
[12:55] SPEAKER_00: future a little bit but we wrote a big wave of growth and we're haven't had to
[13:02] SPEAKER_00: compromise on beers or what we want to do or how we want to do it and so
[13:06] SPEAKER_01: honestly it could be happier okay well that's been great to appreciate you
[13:11] SPEAKER_01: taking the time to spend with us Kirk yeah absolutely thanks a lot Miguel all
[13:16] SPEAKER_01: right that was Kirk Zembel who is co-founder of Blindman Brewing out of LeComb
[13:22] SPEAKER_01: this has been Edmonton's podcast with the Canada podcast network on your
[13:27] SPEAKER_01: post Mario Tonoguszi thanks for joining us today