It’s rare to come across a beer with a point of view as refreshing as the drink itself. Enter: Calgary’s Eighty-Eight Brewing. The community-focused craft brewery is the latest local collaborator for Atelier Munro, creating a limited-edition beer for the recent opening of the Calgary Atelier Munro House. Founded by four friends in 2018, Eighty-Eight is relatively new to the scene and already making waves – winning the Best Pale Ale in Canada with recipes that were once dreamt up in a garage.

I got on the horn with Co-Founder Jordan Saracini and Manager of Events & Partnerships Adam Buck to get the low down on the brewery, its humble beginnings, and the new collaboration. Speaking to these guys, I was struck by how this collective of genuinely nice people had such an uncanny ability to connect with the community around them. An ability I discovered was actually the entire reason this collaboration happened in the first place…

Thanks for joining me guys. First up, tell me a little bit about Eighty-Eight. How did you get started

Jordan: The origin story starts with four friends from Calgary who got into home brewing as a hobby, experimenting with different flavors and styles. It really just started in a garage as a kind of a fun side project and as time went on, after about two years we started to get a little bit more serious about our passion for beer. You know, when we did finally buckle down and get a little bit more serious about the idea of opening the brewery, we were seeking finances through the banks and collectively pooling all of our resources and reaching out to friends and family for investment start-up capital. We ended up having 25 friends and family that invested in the business to help bring Eighty-Eight to life.

That’s incredible. It’s nice you were able to get that community support.

Jordan: Yeah, I mean one of the big mantras behind Eighty-Eight is inclusivity and just getting out there and being involved in the community and that’s kind of a large role that Adam plays within our company. He’s our community and events manager as well as the sales guy, so he has his hands in a lot of different facets of the company that really bring those values to life with fun. You know, we do quite a few sporting events, we sponsor Olympic athletes every year, this partnership with Atelier Munro, all of these things.

It seems in keeping with your ‘Beer for everyone’ ethos. Did you have that inclusive philosophy from the get-go?

Jordan: There was always an element of that. Before we even opened the front doors to our brewery, we stenciled on an inclusivity sign which just reads ‘Be nice. Be kind. Be a friend. Take care of each other’. So, our mantra has always been that we welcome everyone. We definitely want our brand, our product, the sense of who we are as a company to reflect the community and our guests and the people that support us. Beer for everyone was a line that we actually came up with only relatively recently, and it’s kind of funny when you think about it because not everyone can drink beer. So from time to time we do get some pushback on that, but we’ve since started making our own cider. We’ve since started making our own vodka sodas and we’re in the process of trying to make an alcohol free, calorie free, sparkling hop water beverage that really encapsulates that idea.

Tell me about your neighborhood. Does that play into the community feel of the brewery too?

Adam: We are in the historic Inglewood Ramsey neighborhood, which is just east of the downtown core business area. We’re in this little hub and it’s actually not far from the historic Calgary Brewery, which was a brewery that opened up about 100 years ago and was in operation until the 60s. So, there’s a real nice history and culture there. We opened up in a little commercial plaza right across the street from a farmer’s market, with a lot of fun neighbors. There’s a batting cage, an indoor beach volleyball court, a little wine shop, a few others, a little coffee roastery. We actually did a collaboration with them last year called ‘Won’t you be my neighbor?’, which was super cute. It was a coffee IPA. It’s also really bikeable here and there’s a train line coming soon. We’re pretty excited about what this area is going to be. It’s just a great little up and coming neighborhood.

That’s so sweet you got to create something with your neighbors.

Jordan: Yeah! I mean that’s kind of how this collaboration came about too. I don’t know if you’ve met or if you know Can Altay? He works at the Calgary store. He is probably the main reason why this collaboration happened. Because my family and my wife’s family, myself included, have been buying clothes from him for over a decade. So we know him well. He actually helped me pick out my outfit for my wedding! It was fantastic.

I do know Can! He’s an excellent human. Tell me about this project you guys have dreamt up together.

Adam: It’s gonna be this really classic Czech-style pilsner with a nice hop bite to it, but really clean and really crisp. Some nice malt notes too. The brewers were super excited to brew this. Actually our head of production, Donovan, brewed in Germany for three years before moving to Calgary for this job. So, he’s been chomping at the bit to do more traditional continental lagers and we thought this was the right fit with, you know, a company from the Netherlands. The timing and everything worked out really well. I can’t wait. It’s the first time we’ve made this style of beer. It’s the first time we’ve used an outside artist for the labeling too. I think that is going to make probably one of the most unique labels we’ve done.

Your aesthetic is really fun. Tell me more.

Adam: Usually we have a design firm we’ve been working with since the beginning. When the four founders were looking to create their brand identity, they put out a little call and were looking at different artists. And the two artists they liked the most ended up meeting each other through this process and started their own design firm Bamff Studio! And so, we were their first customer and they’ve grown into this really rad branding firm that are our neighbors, just down the road from us. They’re two of the greatest people you’ve ever met, super talented and they’ve been responsible for the visual identity of Eighty-Eight from inception. They’re always in our back pocket when we’re doing stuff. We’re like, here’s our crazy idea. Can you put that on paper? And they come back with these amazing designs. It’s like, wow, I don’t know how you got inside of all of our heads collectively, and we’re able to visualize that. They do great work.

But you’re mixing it up for this collaboration?

Adam: A really talented and super awesome art local artist Nick Liefhebber is designing the label, working with our design firm. It’s very floral, super funky, super bright colors, which is what we’re all about. It’s exciting to see a different artist come into and interpret our identity and make it all work on one small label. That’s not a big canvas! It’s just gonna showcase everything that’s great about both of our companies.

Jordan: Yeah when Joachim, your creative director, came to the tap room to meet with us. We toured him around and tasted some of the beers. We talked about our vision and our story and we got to know each other a little bit and he got very excited about the possibility of bringing another person in. We were immediately on the Instagram page of this artist and scrolling through and being like, oh, look at that, look at that. We loved it. There’s obviously a lot of passion in this project and we’re stoked to be partnered up with that.

The limited-edition Czech pilsner is now canned and ready to taste. Only available at Atelier Munro House in Calgary.