April showers may delay the start of patio season, but Dageraad Brewing hopes that won’t stop folks from picking up a four-pack of Burnabarian.
The four-packs are a new thing for the Burnaby-based brewery. They started canning them about one month ago in hopes of cracking into a new market, according to Dageraad founder Ben Coli.
“It’s a little more accessible beer than a lot of the stuff we make because it’s 4.5 per cent alcohol; it’s just really light and delicious and really drinkable, and now we have it in a bit easier package than our big bottles,” he said of the new Burnabarian four-packs.
“It’s an everyday-drinking-beer sort of format. So we’re really excited about that.”
The Burnabarian, along with the Blonde, was one of the first beers Dageraad released when it opened in 2014. It’s a beer named after Burnaby, for the people of Burnaby, Coli said.
“I’m hoping to get this in front of more people in Burnaby.”
A month in, though, and sales could be better, Coli admits.
“I would like them to be better. It’s harder to get them into the stores often. Stores tend to have fewer slots for six packs, and they have higher expectations on how many of those six-packs are going to sell,” he said, adding the same philosophy goes for four-packs of tall cans.
Because this is a new venture for the company, Coli said there’s a lot of calculation and guesswork that goes into deciding how much beer to can at a time.
Dageraad employs West Coast Canning to do its canning, which saves the business from spending thousands on new equipment, Coli said. So far, they’ve done two canning runs and have produced about 12,000 cans.
“It’s always a bit tricky predicting what the demand is going to be for a new product; you just don’t know. You don’t know how much you’re going to sell,” he said.
“And it can be really seasonally variable.”
Right now Burnabarian four-packs are available at the brewery on Thunderbird Crescent or at Riverway and Burnaby Mountain golf courses. The only liquor store in Burnaby selling Burnabarian is the B.C. liquor store at Northgate.
“We’re making inroads, we’re getting it into a few government stores, but it’s been frustrating. The government stores can be a little bit on the conservative side. We’re getting them into more private liquor stores, but, of course, the private stores are all smaller. They don’t do the kind of volume a government store can do,” Coli said.
Outside of Burnaby, the four-packs are available at 33 liquor stores (private and government-run) throughout Vancouver, the Tri-Cities and New Westminster.
But Coli would still like to see it on more shelves.
“With this kind of beer, we’d like to sell a lot of it. If we can get a really good account, that can sell more beer than your worst 20 accounts put together,” he said.
BURNABY
Dageraad Brewing tasting room, 114-3191 Thunderbird Cres.
Northgate B.C. liquor store, 103-3433 North Rd.
BurnabyMountainClubhouse, 7600 Halifax St.
Riverway Clubhouse, 9001 Bill Fox Way
NEW WESTMINSTER
JAK’s New West, 517 Seventh St.
Paddlewheeler, 104-810 Quayside Dr.
Terminal liquor store, 115 12th St.
TRI-CITIES
B.C. liquor store, 172-1960 Como Lake Ave., Coquitlam
JAK’s liquor store (Roo’s), 940-3025 Lougheed Hwy., Coquitlam
Pacific liquor store, 1410 Parkway Blvd., Coquitlam
Select liquor store, 1760 Kingsway Ave., Port Coquitlam
Woody’s liquor store, 933 Brunette Ave., Coquitlam
Jake’s Crossing, 2414 Saint Johns St., Port Moody
