ConnecTour Chronicles: Cheap rural living brings brewery dream to life

Troy Media publisher Doug Firby and Travel editor Lisa Monforton are part of a group of Canadians who call themselves ConnecTour. Starting in May in British Columbia and ending in October in Newfoundland, they hope to make an 8,000-km bicycle journey across the country, discovering how the COVID-19 pandemic has reshaped our lives and our sense of community. Watch for their reports on Troy Media. More information on the cycling tour is available at ConnecTour.ca. To help them meet their goal, click here.

Jeff Allport isn’t into false flattery, so, when asked, he tells you straight out he started his craft brewery in Nokomis, Sask., simply because it was cheap to locate there.

He didn’t move there for the small-town charm, or the clever strategy of being centrally located between Regina and Saskatoon in a province underserved by just six rural craft breweries, or even because the British Columbia native wanted to live in Saskatchewan.

Rather, he got three-quarters of an acre of land in the fading Prairie town – population 450 – in 2014 for a buck.

“I didn’t have much money,” he said. “This has low cost of living and cheap land. And the water is really good here.”

Allport is founder and sole owner of Nokomis Craft Ales. It was important to him to be independent and not to have to rely on partners who might interfere with his vision. He brews quality ales that he sends across the province, but doesn’t even have a taproom at his brewery. Instead, visitors – who come from not only all over the province but also the entire country – have only a collection of picnic tables outside where they can sample his beer.

Jeff Allport displays some of his favourite products

“My focus is on brewing beer,” he says. “I don’t know anything about running a taproom.”

Business is slowly growing. From tiny volumes initially, he has scaled up production to a still-modest 2,500 hectolitres per year. He only started canning his beers three years ago. He has since brought on a second brewer (he eschews the loaded term “brewmaster”), and staff has grown to six. It has given him the time to focus more on managing the business, although he insists on keeping his hand in brewing.

Moving from Vancouver, he admits, was a “culture shock” for himself and his partner Kara, who is an artist. To help ease the sting of losing that big-city environment, the couple bought a local school house, which Kara has turned into a studio.

But Allport doesn’t miss the big city one little bit. “Vancouver doesn’t offer a lot, in my opinion,” he said. “I was making an exodus to escape the ridiculous cost of living in B.C.”

A purist in brewing, Allport sticks to simple local ingredients for his beers. He says many craft breweries have become “monotonous” with trendy flavours like chocolate stout. One of Nokomis’s favourite products is a barrel-aged farmhouse ale called Evening Star, a delicious sour that Allport says he makes no money on but produces because he wants to.

The ConnecTour bikes outside Nokomis Craft Ales

Nokomis isn’t known for much. A sign on the way into town states it’s home to Kenny Shields, lead singer for the Canadian band Streetheart. It’s a fading legacy.

Now this community has found a new and perhaps longer-lasting legacy. Nokomis Craft Ales is putting this little town back on the map – defying the conventional thinking that you can only carve out a good living in the big city.

Veteran political commentator Doug Firby is president of Troy Media Digital Solutions and publisher of Troy Media. For interview requests, click here.

The views, opinions and positions expressed by columnists and contributors are the authors’ alone. They do not inherently or expressly reflect the views, opinions and/or positions of our publication.

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