When asked to describe the best part of his job, Trevor Kallies does not have a hard time coming up with an answer.
Its the research, he says with a smile. Thats the best part its a lot of fun.
But its also the growing community of beer drinkers and brewers. There are a lot of really nice people in the industry.
Kallies is the bar and beverage director for the Donnelly Group, coordinating and choosing what is poured and mixed at the 16 locations around the city. When the Donnelly Group opened up the New Oxford in Yaletown two years ago, the company decided to start looking beyond the ubiquitous mainstream beers for what they poured from their taps.
It was a conversation amongst a few of us and we lobbied pretty heavy to move away from what we knew and into something different, Kallies says, sitting against the weathered wood bar at Smileys Public House. It was all about giving customers more options, he says. It was never about not serving those beers because we dont like them, it was about focusing on different styles trying to get more local, a lot more product-focused.
Kallies says the abundance of BC craft beers makes his job both easier and harder. Its not just the Lower Mainland, its all over BC, he says. We have breweries in Fernie, we have breweries in Powell River, which is amazing. Salmon Arm has a brewpub, Barley Station I grew up there and there was nothing like that when I was growing up. Theres no shortage of breweries all over and were so lucky to be so close to that craft beer boom in the States as well in Portland, Seattle, all over Washington State.
Each of the Donnelly pubs has a draught beer lineup customized to its clientele. Its based on neighbourhood. When we talk about the Academic in Kits, its definitely that college bar with a huge UBC presence so we want to make sure we have the beers theyre going drink at the price point theyre going to drink them. So were not going be putting on that $320 keg of American craft beer because we cant sell it for that $3.50-$4.50 special that the UBC kids want. Its definitely more local and little more mainstream, he says, looking over at the row of Smileys taps. Were sitting at Smileys right now, which is the centre of the financial district and weve got a bit more of an educated palate that comes in here. These are the same guys that are having power lunches over at Gotham Steak House and they get it theyre interested in a little more punch in their beer.
Kallies says the goal is to create a balanced beer selection, which can be a challenge. So what does a balanced beer lineup generally look like?
You need your locals because that appeases tourists, he explains. You want to make sure youve got a couple beers that are local favourites where theyre going to have heard about them before or be surprised that we have a local craft beer. You need a lager or two that everybody can enjoy. A couple IPAs [India Pale Ales]. If you dont have room for two, maybe pick one that has medium to heavy hop content as opposed to that super punchy, all-hop flavouring that might be too much for a balance unless you have room for more than one IPA. A couple of wheat beers. You need that range of beers. If I had 12 taps, Id have a stout, a cider, a wheat, a North American-style lager, a European lager and then play around with the rest with interesting styles like a porters, seasons and stuff like that.
