Hart Pauls is one of the owners of Junction 3 Brewery, currently under construction. Although brews won’t be available until between March and May next year, the brewery will open its doors within the next six weeks to serve coffee. (Vanessa Broadbent / Osoyoos Times)

By Vanessa Broadbent

Osoyoos Times

Osoyoos’ liquor options are expanding next year with the opening of the town’s first brewery.

Junction 3 Brewery, located at the corner of Harbour Key Drive and Highway 3, is set to open between March and May next year owner Hart Pauls told the Osoyoos Rotary Club on
Thursday.

Pauls, along with business partner Sara van der Hoeven, both from the Fraser Valley, are familiar with the South Okanagan and were exploring business opportunities in the area.

“I was sitting in a craft brewery in Penticton called Bad Tattoo and was having a beer and I thought this is pretty cool – it’s a great atmosphere, everyone is friendly, they want to help each other out, this is something that I’d really love to do,” Pauls said. “So I brought Sara there and started talking about it and she said it seems great.”

Van der Hoeven suggested Osoyoos as a potential location.

“It was a place that didn’t have a craft brewery yet so it all made sense because they’re exploding in every other town,” Pauls said.

However, finding an available spot was difficult, and Pauls found that most vacant buildings were awaiting approval to operate as retail cannabis stores.

• Read more: Osoyoos’ first pot shop planned to open by end of 2019

The property on Harbour Key Drive became available and renovations are currently underway.

The brewery will have 28 seats inside with about another 30 on an outdoor patio, and will be serviced by a food truck.

Pauls and van der Hoeven have been dabbling with different recipes and gleaning knowledge from other brewers.

“What we want to do is get four really consistent, good quality mainstay beers and then have two seasonals rotating constantly, and then once we kind of get established and everything is heading in the right direction we’ll probably hire a brewmaster.”

When it first opens, Junction 3 Brewery’s beer will only be available at the shop.

“I want to stay completely local,” Pauls said. “I want to keep everything small, very simple. That’s why we have such a small place where we are. I want to build it up and start right from the bottom.”

Eventually customers will be able to order wine and spirits as well, but “first and foremost it’s beer,” Pauls said.

However, in the next six weeks the brewery will open its doors to customers for a different type of brew.

“We’re going to open a coffee shop before that hopefully within the next six weeks, just to get people through the door and talking about what we want to do and offer some good coffee,” Pauls said. “That’s where we’re at right now.”