The Mount Arrowsmith Brewing Company was opened by local David Woodward who had previously worked for other brewing companies such as The Whistler BrewHouse and Barrel Brewing. After more than 15 years of brewing experience, David decided to return to his hometown to join forces with Dan Farrington and Matt Hill, who also lead the craft brewing charge in the industrial park building that is located off the Highway in Parksville.
The trio created the brewery with the aim of taking a portion of the increasingly growing craft beer market in BC. Since the inception of the Arrowsmith Brewing Company, the trio has stuck mainly to basic means of producing blonde and orange hefeweizen, hop forward IPA and a Pale Ale. The company was also created to attract a different and much younger Parksville demographic, many of whom had never tasted craft beer before the establishment opened in April at Stanford Place.
At Sanford place, the 80-hectolitre facility has its own tap room, although it hopes to expand to reach more audiences soon by distributing their brews in some of the local restaurants, pubs and liquor stores. The tap room at Mount Arrowsmith is authorized to serve four brews or one sleeve for each patron. However, if they require more, customers can also purchase 64 and 32-ounce growlers that can be refilled from the taps. Alternatively, customers can also purchase the pre-bottles bomber bottles that have a 650 ml capacity to take conveniently with them.
The trio has definitely worked hard to ensure that the beer produced is not only premium and high quality, but it also has to stand up against all the other craft beer manufacturers in the very heavily saturated market. As the first kind of its business in the Parksville region, the proprietors of Mount Arrowsmith hope that the brewery will help to place the neighborhood on the map, as well as teach different individuals about the business of craft beer in general.
Although Parksville has only been operational for a short time, the founding trio already has plans on expanding the Stanford Avenue venue. The trio hopes to transform the venue by expanding the tasting room and transforming it into a full lounge that has the capacity to accommodate more people and offer large quantities of beers to patrons. Although plans for expansion are in place, the trio is always quick to clarify that Mount Arrowsmith will still remain a microbrewery and not one of the many sports lounges in the neighborhood.