67 - Nick Bell

The next stop on our central Alberta road trip is Bud’s old stomping grounds of Innisfail to chat with Nick Bell of Dark Woods Brewing & Coffee Roasting about this unique business that keeps their customers going through late nights and early mornings.

Dark Woods is made up of a twin-brother duo, with Nick in the role of Master Roaster and his brother Scott in the Brewmaster seat. Entrepreneurship runs in their family, with their dad running Innisfail’s local Napa store for 3 entire decades. But Nick’s dad and his business prowess isn’t just an inspiration for Nick, it was also a key stepping stone in the growth of Dark Woods, as Nick and Scott began by selling off-sale beer out of the back of the Napa store.

This off sale arrangement lasted a full year before building the space they occupy now, and when building out the taproom they recognized a big opportunity in what many would see as a restriction. With taprooms in Alberta not being able to operate before 10am they added coffee roasting to their operation so they could start serving customers and generating revenue first thing in the morning.

Selling coffee in the mornings would prove to be a very important decision, as it allowed them to keep the doors open for take-out coffee when COVID hit and caused most other breweries to shut their taproom doors. In addition to coffee keeping them going they began offering home delivery like many brewers, but with a twist Nick calls the pay it forward beer program where customers would buy beer for a friend. This turned out to be unbelievably popular with many choosing to do it anonymously, and as you can imagine a lot of people enjoyed having free beer show up at their house. Dark Woods started getting calls and emails who’d never heard of them before, and Nick says that the program wasn’t just a huge marketing success, but that it saved their business.

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Let’s Meet For A Beer: website | facebook

Alberta Beer Festivals: website | twitter | instagram

Nick Bell - Dark Woods Brewing & Coffee Roasting: website | twitter | instagram | facebook

Bud Kelly - Troubled Monk: website | twitter | instagram | facebook