No fear beer Craft brewers putting safety on tap with mandatory masks By: Ben Sigurdson  Posted: 7:00 PM CDT Tuesday, Sep. 8, 2020 Last Modified: 9:02 AM CDT Wednesday, Sep. 9, 2020 Updates

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 07/09/2020 (1473 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The COVID-19 pandemic has created myriad challenges for all manner of small businesses, and craft breweries are certainly no exception. From losing draft accounts at pubs and eateries to shutting down operations entirely, from offering curbside pickup and delivery to cautiously reopening tap rooms, it’s been quite the ride.

With the recent uptick in virus cases in Manitoba, many local craft breweries have opted to make masks mandatory in their tap rooms. To date, Kilter Brewing Co., Sookram’s Brewing Co., Little Brown Jug, Torque Brewing, Stone Angel Brewing Co. and Barn Hammer Brewing Co. have all implemented such regulations in Winnipeg.

The general rule is that masks can be removed once you’re seated in the tap room, but must be worn at all other times, including to use the washroom or order a beer at the bar. And in talking to three of the breweries mandating masks, it would appear for the most part thirsty Winnipeggers are happy to oblige.

● ● ●

Anyone who has visited Kilter’s brand new St. Boniface tap room has been smitten by its cosy, tropical-like (and Instagram-worthy) décor.

While Kilter’s beers have been extremely popular among locals since they launched in Stone Angel Brewing Co.’s Pembina Hwy. space in 2018, it wasn’t until earlier this year that they landed their own space on Rue Deschambault, with their tap room opening in late July. “The timing of it was… interesting,” says co-owner Julien Cloutier. “We had just gotten the production side going and were going to open the tap room when the pandemic hit. So we really took the time to figure out logistics.”

Cloutier is able to see the positive in opening for the first time in the midst of a pandemic. “We never had a tap room open before. So we didn’t have to shift from what we had been doing to this new thing,” he says.

Still, for Kilter it meant expectations around the visitor experience had to change, at least for the time being. “The idea was to create an environment where people could show up, have a beer and move around, flow within the space, check out what’s going on with production, as opposed to just sitting down,” says Cloutier.

Kilter was the first brewery to announce mandatory masks in its tap room in Winnipeg as local COVID-19 cases crept higher.

“What we’ve done is not new; a lot of other breweries in other cities have done the same thing,” Cloutier says. “It made total sense — it’s quick and easy to implement, it doesn’t infringe on a lot of people’s freedom to move within the space. You put your mask on, once you’re seated you can take it off, if you want to go to the washroom or see what cans we have to go, you put your mask back on.”

For the most part, Cloutier says the feedback to the mask rule has been positive. “We’ve had days where people just forget to bring the mask, but we have some on site that we provide if you forget. You get the odd comment here and there about not supporting that kind of rule, but I don’t think we’ll ever have any kind of rule in this world that everyone’s happy about.”

● ● ●

While the newest tap room in the city opened for the first time in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, the owners of one of the first wave of local craft brewers was dealing with its own set of challenges.

For the better part of the last month, Tyler and Sable Birch of Barn Hammer Brewing Co. have had to take a hands-off approach to running their Wall Street brewery — they’re in self-isolation after the birth of their daughter in August.

Barn Hammer was one of the first breweries to shut down at the outset of the pandemic before cautiously opening for curbside pickup and delivery. Throughout that time it kept rigorous safety protocols, including when reopening the tap room to the public this summer.

So when the number of COVID-19 cases started to increase in the last month, deciding to make masks mandatory was an easy choice. “We honestly would have done it a little bit sooner if we weren’t a bit preoccupied,” Tyler says with a laugh, referring to the birth of their daughter. “I wouldn’t say we were gung-ho to do it, but we were willing to do it if it was necessary.”

To Tyler’s knowledge, there hasn’t been much in the way of negative feedback so far on the mandatory masks decision. “Nicole, our tap room manager, tends to forewarn us of any negative interactions… we haven’t heard anything, which usually means it’s a good thing.”

The new addition to the Birch household has only reinforced the importance of masks to Tyler. “I don’t understand the blowback — it’s such a minor inconvenience. If it helps even one per cent of the cases… it’s a no-brainer.”

● ● ●

Since the outset of the pandemic, Tyler Birch has been in regular contact with Andrew Sookram of Sookram’s Brewing Co. as the two grappled with how to navigate the unknown ways COVID-19 would impact their business. “When the pandemic first started, we were on the phone a lot saying ‘what are we going to do here?’” says Sookram. “We decided we were going to close — it felt like the right thing to do.”

Sookram had been looking forward to properly opening their patio for the first time this summer — they had opened it briefly in August 2019, but the weather took a turn for the worse. There were bigger plans in store for 2020. “We could technically have 95 to 100 people out there normally — obviously with our current table configuration six feet apart, we can’t have anywhere near that,” says Sookram. “We were going to do all custom furniture rather than just the picnic tables; we did what we could this year with some help from friends.”

Sookram’s was one of the last brewery tap rooms to reopen to the public, after a summer of curbside pickups and deliveries. “I was pretty apprehensive about opening back up. Part of that was not having enough beer — we were putting everything into cans (rather than kegs and cans) and we couldn’t keep up. Summertime hit and everything was reopening, so we figured it was a good time to open back up.”

The decision to mandate masks came out of conversations with staff about what made them feel the most safe and comfortable at work. In addition to mandatory masks, at Sookram’s customers are not to come into contact with the bar top, which now features Plexiglas barriers. “With the barriers on the bar we find some people try to talk around it,” says Sookram.

Generally speaking, reactions to the reconfigured Sookram’s has been good, and the numbers reflect that. “We’re actually open fewer hours and days now, and we’re doing the same if not better than before the pandemic,” says Sookram.

But if the number of cases were to rise sharply, Sookram has considered the possibility of shutting down again. “We’re still seeing the Winnipeg numbers rise. We social distance while we’re here — we work in a small space,” says Sookram. “We don’t want to be in the news for the wrong reason.”

ben.sigurdson@freepress.mb.ca