Brewery Dispatch: Doan’s Craft Beer Company
Nine years ago, Evan Doan bought a Home Brewing for Dummies book and started brewing beer at home.
“We made beer literally on the stove. Our friends wouldn’t dare drink it,” laughed Doan, who grew up in White Rock, B.C.
Today, he’s the owner of Doan’s Craft Beer Company (@doanscbc)—a part of the Craft Collective — in East Vancouver, and produces beer that is sold across Western Canada.
Becoming an entrepreneur had always been a dream of his.
“I always wanted to own my own business. First it was coffee, then Kombucha, then beer,” Doan explained. “Our family has always had tons of good ideas in the past, but we’re guilty of not following through.”
This time, Doan intended to follow through. So after experimenting in his kitchen for a number of years, he and his brother Mike Doan started Doan’s Craft Beer Company in 2015.
Doan admits being a craft beer brewer is an increasingly competitive and challenging industry, but his passion for experimenting with new recipes and producing exciting new beers can’t be ignored.
From learning the newest technologies and science to developing recipes, “Everything about brewing, I obsess over,” he said. And it’s the reason he’s willing to work 70-plus hours a week: He loves it.
Today, Doan is known for producing traditional German-style beers, which he describes as easy drinking, not bitter and not sweet, and very balanced, as well as old school American-style brews, which feature more aggressive flavours, yet still promise to be balanced.
Doan’s favourite beer he makes is his Kolsch.
“It’s like a lager, but it’s actually an ale—a lagered-ale. It’s not bitter and it’s not sweet, and it’s not hoppy or fruity, but it’s just really drinkable and has a delicious flavour,” he said.
He’s also excited about a new beer he has just released—a fresh hop lager—that features locally grown hops from Myrtle Meadows Hop Farm in Pemberton, B.C.
What makes it a fresh hops beer is that, rather than dehydrating the hops and putting them into pellet form as is traditionally done, you actually neglect that whole process and use them within 24 to 48 hours of being harvested, Doan explained.
As a result, this beer tastes incredibly light and fresh and without a hoppy aftertaste.
Selecting Myrtle Meadows’ hops was intentional, Doan explained.
“Being from Pemberton, they have great terroir for growing hops,” he said, adding that he has also always wanted to support local hops growers, and especially an organic one.
But more than anything, it came down to quality. Though the hops growing market in B.C. has struggled in recent years, he knew Myrtle Meadows, headed by expert horticulturist Eelco de Zwaan, is doing something different. From his commitment to producing organic hops, to the technology he uses, to his expertise in growing hops, he really knows what he’s doing,” said Doan of de Zwaan.
Doan, too, knows what he’s doing. He understands the craft beer market in B.C. and how it has changed in recent years.
“It used to be that you could have three core brands and occasionally produce a new one, but now the market is all about what new flavours you can produce,” Doan said.
In other words, if you’re not creating new brews, you won’t last long. While this makes it a particularly challenging market, it’s also right up Doan’s alley because he loves the creation process.
“Also, personally I love that it creates healthy competition,” he said. Although the brewers are in direct competition with each other, Doan said it’s a healthy competition and a great community to be a part of.
“It’s a fantastic community and it’s really fun to be able to get together and talk shop for hours and not even realize how much time has gone by because it’s such a desirable surrounding,” he said.
Doan added: “I just love it. It’s literally my obsession.”
