Skout Brewing ready to open this week
New craft brewery in Moosomin
April 8, 2024, 11:03 am
After a lot of planning and preparation Skout Brewing is ready to open its doors to the public this Friday, April 12.
Aaron Grandguillot and his wife Gena Shepherd moved to Moosomin from southern Ontario to start the brewery.
Grandguillot said the idea for Skout Brewing was born during Covid.
“During Covid we were still living in Ontario and we came back home to visit family. After that visit, we realized how much we missed being home and decided to move back to Saskatchewan,” he says. “From there it became an idea and we thought once we move home, we will also attempt to build a brewery and chase our dream.”
He said the couple have always been interested in craft beer.
“My wife and I have always enjoyed going to craft breweries, and we’ve lived in a few different places like B.C. and Ontario and we always thought a craft brewery was a fun place to be and it became a dream of ours. When Gena’s family ramped up with the hops farm (JGL Shepherd Farms), we got to know the business a little better and eventually we decided to try and make a go of it ourselves.”
Lots of work
He says a lot of work has gone into getting the brewery to this point.
“It was an enormous amount of work. Luckily our family is very capable and they’ve been a huge help to us, as well the tradespeople we’ve brought on locally. I knew it was going to be a lot of work coming in, and it’s been twice as much work as that, but we are happy to be reaching the finish line.”
He is proud to be opening the brewey in Moosomin, which he says is a very supportive community.
“Moosomin is such a great community and it has a very strong local economy and I think having a product like this will just suit that even more. Our product is going to be for South East Saskatchewan and to date this is the only place you can buy our product.”
Where did the name Skout Brewing come from?
“When we were trying to think of a name, we wanted something short and concise, we also wanted to evoke the outdoors because we are a rural area here and people enjoy both working on the land and just being out, you know, hunting and fishing, all that. Scout means many different things but the one we liked means honest, affable, reliable, and trustworthy person and I think that describes Saskatchewan very well and we take pride in those characteristics. We settled on that and changed the spelling to Skout (with the SK) to reflect Saskatchewan.”
Local beer and cider
Skout Brewing will feature their own brews as well as beer and cider from other Saskatchewan craft breweries.
“We will have 12 taps, half of which will be our own beer. We will also serve some cider and some other craft brewery beer, it is all going to be Saskatchewan made products.
“My goal is to bring styles of beer from around the world to Moosomin made with local ingredients. Of our first beer there will be a German style, American style, Belgian style, and many more varieties to come. We will have growlers available upon opening and we will offer cans as soon as the labels come in.
“We wanted to create a fun, vibrant place where people can come and have a beverage. Eventually we will have more seating outside but unfortunately we ran out of time with the weather to build the patio, so for now it will just be indoor seating.”
Local hops being used
All of the hops in Skout Brewing’s beers will be sourced locally from JGL Shepherd farms.
“The hops farm was the idea of my brother-in-law Justin, he was the original craft beer fan in our family and he turned me on to it as well,” says Grandguillot. “His goal was to transform the family farm and have it still producing.
“The family used to farm, now they mainly rent the land but Justin wanted the farm to continue producing and he was looking for new ways to do that, so they started with growing some hops, then they expanded out, and through that it was kind of our inspiration.
“Once we saw how that was going and how successful that was, the appeal of a locally grown hop that could be used in a locally brewed beer, that idea became very enticing. That was also at the root of us deciding we should open our own brewery because we grow all the ingredients that you need for beer right here in Saskatchewan and our goal is to produce something for the people in our area that was grown right in our area.
“All of our hops are from the farm and our barley is Canadian barley. One day we are hoping to source our barley as locally as possible but to start out we are using Canadian suppliers.
“We have a product that’s made in town and hopefully people in the area will come down and enjoy something produced for them in the area.”
Grandguillot is proud and excited to be opening the new business this week.
“We are very excited, its been a long process but we are super excited to get open and hopefully people in Moosomin and the area will enjoy what we have to offer.”
