Graham Sherman’s phone was flooded with texts on a late night in June. His inbox was awash with messages from his friends in the brewery industry who told him that Ol’ Beautiful, one of Calgary’s most cherished breweries, was being consumed by a blaze. Sherman, a partner at Tool Shed Brewing Company, learned the next day that .
“It was a horrific thing to actually hear what the extent of the damage truly was,” he said. He immediately knew his company would support the brewery. “The next day, we had a leadership meeting and came up with ideas on how we could support Ol’ Beautiful,” Sherman said.
“We found out pretty quickly there was business interruption insurance, but that the staff themselves were struggling to find a way to get paid while they figured out what they were going to do next.” Two months later, on Wednesday, Tool Shed will host a fundraising event, proceeds from which will be donated to the staff. “It’s absolutely the core DNA of our business is to support the other breweries around us,” Sherman said.
“It’s also helped keep us alive during the pandemic — when we couldn’t sell beer to bars and pubs and restaurants, we started packaging beer for other breweries so that they could have cans that they could sell in liquor stores — those contracts kept us alive, as well.” Tool Shed will invite the company to its space, brew Ol’ Beautiful’s beer in one of its tanks and sell it at the brewery. The brewery will also package the.