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Beach-inspired brewery hits uptown White Rock

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WHITE ROCK — Beer drinkers on the peninsula will no longer have to take the trek out to Vancouver or even into City Centre to fill up a growler of craft beer.

Three highschool teachers teamed up to bring their own brand of the brew to White Rock, selling beer from their taps into refillable bottles, or just by the glass.

Dubbed White Rock Beach Beer, the company produces a series of craft drafts that are all named after White Rock landmarks - like the East Beach Nut Ale, the West Beach Fruit Pale Ale and the seasonal Oxford Hill Hefeweizen.

The guys behind the new Russell Avenue brew-stop are Bill Haddow, Peter Adams and Rob Kwalheim, who opened up shop just two months ago when school was still in session.

"When we first got going, of course, we were still teaching," said Haddow, who teaches English and business in Richmond. "So we were teaching all day, racing down here after school got out (and) working all night basically. It's a little more manageable in the summer."

Part of the new brewery's plan is to get into local bars and restaurants - for now, the guys are just working on not running dry on a daily basis.

"It's been really well received and we sell out our beer," said Haddow, "which sounds more impressive than it is because we have a small capacity to make beer. What we do make, we sell."

Besides selling their beer during the shop's open hours, which are small windows on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, White Rock Beach Beer has sponsored events like Blue Frog Studios' recent Southern BBQ Bash and the upcoming Trooper show as part of White Rock's sea festival.

One day, the three teachers hope to see themselves graduate into full-time brewing.

"Eventually, we want this to morph into a full-time gig," said Haddow. "We've all been teaching for quite a few years. We all really do love to teach: it's a good gig, it's a good career (but) we're restless, too, and we want to move on and try different things."

In the spirit of keeping things "different," they say that choosing White Rock as a home-base was a way to keep their brand unique in comparison to the multitude of craft breweries popping up in Vancouver.

"Obviously Vancouver is exploding with microbrews so we could've gone out there and joined the party," said Haddow, who is a resident of White Rock, "but... it's very unique out here, and it certainly doesn't have anything like this and it's far enough away from everybody for now - so we thought why not? It's not the worst place to be hanging out working."

White Rock Beach Beer, located at 15181 Russell Ave, offers 64-ounce growler fills from $11, one-litre fills from $7 and 12-ounce glasses from $4.50.

Store hours change weekly, check Whiterockbeachbeer.com for updated schedules.

kalexandra@thenownewspaper.com