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th ei fp .c a Th e IF P -H al to n H ill s | T hu rs da y, D ec em be r 20 ,2 01 8 | 16 It's five minutes to 11 and inside the Furnace Room Brewery last minute prepa- rations are still underway. Steve Leggatt is fastening a shelf to the wall behind the counter to hold glasses that will soon be serving up samples. T-shirts are being sorted and prices are being written on the chalk board. On the other side of the door is Trevor Bingham. He's been standing in the rain for five hours waiting to buy a beer he's never even tasted. Thirty more people are lined up behind him, all waiting to get their hands on the highly-antici- pated hometown brews. "Trevor was someone we met at the (Georgetown) Craft Beer Festival," says Mike Glockner, who started brewing beer 11 years ago in Jeff Sandifer's basement. "He told us, 'I will be your biggest supporter.' And he was true to his word." Bingham will have some competition for the title, though. He may have been first through the door, but slowed by sudsy samples, he was beaten to the regis- ter by Derek Andrews, who knew exactly what he want- ed. Andrews became Fur- nace Room's first customer when he bought a growler of Wright House Red Ale. A friend of the founders, he first tried the beer three or four years ago. "I actually had beer from the furnace room. I was never really a beer guy, but I like the flavour," Andrews said. "It's different." . . . Glockner and Sandifer brewed their first batch of beer in the furnace room of Sandifer's basement, in- spiring the brewery's name. Sandifer channeled his inner MacGyver and us- ing the heating elements of three electric kettles and a five-gallon pail made a boil kettle. They shared the fin- ished product with their friends, who were soon ask- ing for more. Wanting to see how their beer stacked up against other homebrews, they en- tered a competition and won. "That gave us confi- dence," Glockner said. "It was being judged by profes- sionals and all their re- views were pretty good." Encouraged by their wives and the growth of the craft beer industry, they de- cided to open a brewery. Each year they would be at the Georgetown Craft Beer Festival promoting their soon-to-be-opened brewery, but it wasn't until 16 months ago that they fi- nally got a shovel in the ground to start construc- tion of their Elgin Street brewery. They took on partners along the way, with Mike Dykstra, Leggatt, Trent Chalecky and Blake Mur- ray joined, bringing in their own expertise in certain ar- eas to help round out the team. They ran into road blocks along the way. After buying the land, they dis- covered the previous build- ing had no sewer service and had to have it connect- ed to the sewer system. There were licenses to build, licenses to brew and sell beer. "We had days of regret, wondering if we made a bad decisions," Sandifer said, "but with each piece of bad news, we slowly worked our way through." Despite the delays there were encouraging mo- ments. When they were first inspecting the site, they discovered a door lead- ing to a creepy, dark base- ment. Inside they found an NEWS SOMETHING BREWING IN GEORGETOWN Trent Chalecky serves up some beer as the Furnace Room Brewery opened for business Friday. The brewery located at 1 Elgin Street, beside the GO parking lot, is open 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Monday to Friday, 11 a.m.-7 p.m. Saturday and noon-4 p.m. Sunday. Steve Frost HERB GARBUTT hgarbutt@metroland.com See - page 17 Tra-Scott Fire & Safety Inc. Complete Fire Protection Inspections • Repairs • Installations • Sprinkler Systems • Fire Extinguishers • Exit & Emergency Lights • Fire Suppression Systems • Kitchen Systems • Fire Alarms 16-55 Sinclair Ave Georgetown, ON L7G 4X4 P.O. Box 65 Stn Main Georgetown L7G 4T1 D.Scott Campbell Tel: 905-877-0055 Dir: 905-702-4725 Email: scott@trascottfire.comwww.trascottfire.com Season'sG reetings from all of us at Tra-Scott Where children Love to grow. Establishing roots of learning and development in a home child care environment. dr Ne igh bourhoodTreehouse Marcy Carlo, E.C.E. • 905•873•1557 Nestled in the heart of Glen Williams. Small ratio. Fun daily! Tax Receipts January 2019 - 3 yrs (2015) Graduate Preschool with a solid foundation in social-emotional, cognitive & physical skills. September 2019 - 18m (2017-18) Join Future Graduates in Play based learning. 25 Years Experience Wishing you a Perfect Holiday Season Emergency Care Available FREE Consultations