Kelowna's newest brewery opens its doors along rail trail

Kelowna’s newest brewery has opened for business.

Railside Brewing, a new pit-stop along the rail trail, offers eight of their own handcrafted beers along with many others. The brewery has been two years in the making.

"Probably eight years ago, I came up with the idea with my wife. We were at a brewery and she said you should do this," said co-owner Rob Leinemann on Thursday.

"Luckily, our family has this building and we were able to move in, so we’ve been open for five days now."

Having brewed their first batch together back in 1992, Leinemann and business partner Matt Grieve have been focusing on creating a smooth and easy drinking beer. They say the reception from customers has been great so far.

“Our best-selling beer right now is our summer ale, and that was actually a recipe, I’ve been a home brewer for the last three years, it was my favourite beer to brew at home. We’ve scaled it up to 1,000 litre batches. It’s our number one seller by far. Just a light, easy drinking ale and people are loving it," smiled Leinemann.

With Leinemann’s mother arriving in Kelowna on the railway back in 1950, and with his father having originally built the building where Railside Brewing exists today, the location means a lot to the owners. They wanted to make sure it serves the community the right way.

“We basically just want to integrate ourselves into this part of the community. We are right on the rail trail, so we want to be rail trail supporters. We’ve got bike racks for a number of bikes and we’ve got an event permit to close down the parking lot for 10 events a year and we hope to do a couple rail trail fundraisers each year, so we just want to be part of that experience – bike down the trail and enjoy some quality craft beer,” said Grieve.

Located on High Road near Gordon Drive and Clement Avenue, Railside Brewing is now open six days a week, Tuesday through Sunday.