Situation Brewing

Edmontonians love their craft beer – but Wayne Sheridan and Kale Edwards wanted to take things one step further. They wanted to open a brewery where guests could have their beer and see how it was made too. “It’s more than just the beer. It’s the people and the process behind it,” Wayne explains. “We wanted an authentic beer experience where you could see it being made and talk to the people making it.”

The idea for Situation Brewing came from a bachelor weekend getaway the pair took in Portland with some friends. At the time, Kale was a chemist and craft beer connoisseur while Wayne was an engineer and home brew hobbyist. But after visiting a few breweries and immersing themselves in Oregon’s craft beer scene, the idea of opening a brewery started to sound like a really good plan. “The inception stemmed from a passion for beer – we had a passion for beer and a lot of other Edmontonians did too,” Kale says. “When we were in Portland we spent a lot of time in brewpubs not unlike this. And we just got super engaged and we saw everyone else getting engaged. So we wanted to bring that to Edmonton.”

Unfortunately, there was one big caveat – craft breweries weren’t able to open in Alberta because legislation required a minimum production of half a million litres, a near-impossible feat for small operations. But in December 2013 that all changed and craft breweries started cropping up all across the province. So Kale and Wayne decided to make the most of the situation and on May 25, 2016 they opened Situation Brewing.