ALC rejects brewery over lack of barley being grown on property

Photo: City of Penticton

The B.C. Agricultural Land Commission has blocked, for now, a craft brewery proposed for the KVR trail in Penticton.

The owners of the Trail Store at 965 Naramata Road, a shop known to passing cyclists for their apple slushies, had proposed to build an addition to the storefront to allow for a brewery and tasting room. 

The City of Penticton approved a rezoning to make way for the brewery back in August, but those plans have been put on hold by the ALC because the property isn’t planted with the correct crop for brewing beer — barley. 

ALC rules require at least two hectares of farm product used to make alcohol to be planted on the property on which the production facility is located. 

The brewery proposal said it would plant about one hectare of barley on the 2.9 hectare lot, in an effort to preserve the existing crops of apples, cherries, peaches, grapes and Christmas trees. 

“While the panel commends the applicants on their wish to preserve the existing agricultural production on the property and to support B.C. farmers, the panel finds that there is currently no agricultural association between the proposed alcohol production facility and the property,” the Dec. 2, 2019 ALC ruling states. 

The panel said granting approval for a brewery at this point would be “premature," indicating barley needs to be planted on the property before the idea is considered. 

“The panel wishes to clarify that the intention of refusing the brewery at this time is not to stifle the applicants plan to operate a brewery on the property,” the ruling continued. “Rather, the panel encourages the applicants to continue their efforts to increase the primary farm production on the property to meet the threshold...which permits a brewery in the ALR.”