BC’s Central City Brewing Takes Over the Taps at Earls Restaurants across Canada

This Canadian based, family owned restaurant group has been supporting local craft breweries for over 30 years

 

Earls Kitchen + Bar is pleased to announce Central City Brewing, best known for their “Red Racer” beers,  as the  newest brewery to take over brewing the restaurants ‘  historic “Rhino” house beer in BC, Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan, while Muskoka Brewery continues to brew the Rhino beers for Ontario.

 

 

Long before anyone had ever heard of craft beer, Earls made it a priority to offer craft beers and support small local breweries by offering them the house beer taps in their restaurants becoming the first restaurant in Canada to offer draft beer (1984). It’s a relationship that has spanned over 30 years and included nine different breweries across BC, Alberta and Ontario.

 

When the family owned restaurant group opened their first location in Edmonton in 1982 only “beer parlours” and bars carried draft beer, and only the big breweries offered it. Back then Earls was breaking ground with made to order gourmet burgers (unheard of in 1982!) and fresh, made from scratch menu items. They wanted their beer to reflect that fresh taste. – And you might not know it now, but with just one restaurant, Earls was the little guy in 1982, and they wanted to support the other little guy; family owned like they were . So started the 30 year relationship with small craft brewers.

 

Many of the breweries grew in size, often, in part, thanks to Earls own expansion. In some cases their success meant larger breweries bought them out. Each time this happened Earls went back to looking for a family owned brewery, their mandate always to support the craft brewers and ensure their flavour profile wasn’t compromised by big brewing techniques.

 

1984 Earls becomes the first restaurant in Canada to serve beer on tap

 

When Earls opened in 1982, George Piper, Earls long time wine & beer purchaser; Stan Fuller, Earls owner, and manager Andrew Wilton, who would eventually become Earls CFO, were on a quest to find a great tasting beer to serve in the restaurant. They wanted the casualness of draft, something at the time only bars had and big breweries controlled. They wanted a small, family owned brewery, much like themselves, and they wanted a beer suitable for the fresh menu style.  Experiments with homemade beer in George’s garage had led to the flavour profile they wanted; now they just needed a small brewery to make it for them.

 

To see the (long version) entire history of Earls brewers over the past 30 years, and to see the flavour profile of three beers, please click here

 

To see a list of regional craft beers, click on the individual restaurant page here earls.ca

 

About Central City Brewing

 

Gary Lohin, one of the original brewers of Rhino Ale at Whistler Brewing back in 1990, started Central City Brewing, a small brewpub, in Surrey, BC in 2003. Their craft beer grew so popular that in 2005 they launched a canning line, enabling them to sell their beers directly to customers.  Brewery sales quickly grew as they achieved great success with the Red Racer beer brand and by 2009 they had reached full capacity at their BC brewery – a 3,500 sq. ft. space.

 

Right from the get-go, Cameron Bogue, knew they would be a perfect fit for Earls’ house beers. Lohin’s attention to detail, fresh flavours and superior ingredients won him numerous awards right out of the gate, including best brewery in Canada, and of course, he had a history with Rhino beer – but with over 50 restaurants in Western Canada now, Earls needed more volume than they could produce.

 

Eventually demand was so much higher than production for all of Central City’s beer they had to expand, not a bad place to be for them, and for Earls this meant Central City could now handle the needed volume.

 

Earls and Central City are the perfect example of a true partnership.  Earls’ large volume of Rhino Craft Beer helps the national growth of Central City while Central City’s award winning beer will only add to the quality of Rhino Craft Beer.