The Blindman Brewing group is about halfway through a crowd-funding campaign to bring specialty brewing equipment to Lacombe from France.
The group is seeking to bring two foeders - massive solid oak brewing tanks - to the City’s backyard.
A goal of $20,000 has been set to bring these historic brewing pieces to Lacombe. At the time of writing, Blindman Brewing had raised a total of $9,515 thanks to local supporters.
To Kirk Zembal, a co-founder of Blindman, the idea is truly exciting in terms of potential and he hopes to see success through the campaign.
“We kind of want to expand our horizons to do something off-the-wall and cool. Foeders have been used for a long time in making beers and wines. Some Americans have started using them again, and a couple other Canadians are doing it now and we are going to be the next group to use them,” he said.
Foeders have long been used to create rich flavours in alcoholic beverages such as beers and wines.
Zembal said being able to have these pieces would aid the company in continuing to develop new flavours of craft beers.
“We love the idea of being able to produce a product that is just as good or better than others around the country. We want to bring something new into our own backyards and it’s really exciting for us,” he said.
“These oak tanks have sat in a cognac brewery in France for years and years and we get to bring that here to Wolf Creek Drive.
“They are beautiful, solid, French oak - beautiful vessels,” he said with a laugh.
Since Blindman Brewing’s inception in the City, Zembal said they have seen a tremendous amount of community support. He said he and the rest of the team are incredibly grateful for the opportunity to showcase their product.
“We’ve been blown away from all the community support for Blindman, right from the start. This has been an incredible experience for all of us. We love being here, we love making beer for our community and this has really been a phenomenal year for us.
“We’ve gotten to accomplish a lot of things we wanted to do, and everybody around town seems to be receptive of what we’re trying to do here.”
The campaign can be found online at www.indiegogo.com by searching for ‘Blindman Brewing, Our first foeders’.
kmendonsa@lacombeexpress.com