Brewing Community in Okotoks | The Hubtown Brewing Story

What does it take to build not just a business, but a genuine gathering place that a whole town rallies around? 

This episode takes us into the heart of downtown Okotoks for a conversation with Lisa Watts, co-founder of Hubtown Brewing. Carlin Lutzer sits down with Lisa to hear the remarkable origin story behind one of Okotoks' most beloved community institutions, a brewery that began with a weekend trip to Montana, a woman who didn't even like beer, and a shared dream of building something that would bring people together. 

From home-brewed one-gallon batches to a two-storey taproom with curling rinks, live music, and a trademark battle with Warner Brothers, Lisa's story demonstrates what’s possible when entrepreneurial spirit meets genuine community love.

Listen for:

2:18 How did Lisa Watts go from hating beer to co-founding one of Okotoks' most beloved breweries?

11:26 Why did Lisa and Mark choose Okotoks as the home for their craft brewery?

15:34 What is the Beer for Life program and how did it fund Hubtown's expansion?

26:45 How did the Okotoks community show up for Hubtown Brewing during COVID?

31:36 What is Butterbeer and why is Warner Brothers involved in a trademark dispute with a small Okotoks brewery?

Connect with Guest: Lisa Watts, Co-Founder/CEO at Hub Town Brewing Company
Hub Town Brewing Company | Lisa's LinkedIn |Hub Town Brewing Instagram | 

Connect with Carlin

Email | Website | LinkedIn | Facebook | Instagram

Transcript

Announcer (00:00):  

You found the Okotoks Podcast, sponsored by Carlin Lutzer Real Estate. No refunds if you laugh too hard.

Carlin Lutzer (00:17):  

Today we're heading into the heart of downtown Okotoks to sit down with Lisa Watts from Hubtown Brewing. If you've ever walked past Hubtown and seen the patio full, people laughing around a table in the buzz of the taproom, you've already seen what Lisa and her husband Mark set out to create — a place where community comes together. But the story behind Hubtown is actually pretty surprising. Lisa didn't even like beer when the journey began. In this episode, we talk about how Lisa and Mark went from exploring craft beer flavours at home to opening one of Okotoks' most recognizable gathering spots. We dig into the early days of home brewing and how they chose Okotoks as a place to build their brewery and the community that helped make it all happen. Lisa also shares the story behind the Beer for Life program, their commitment to natural ingredients rather than artificial flavourings, and the ups and downs of building a craft brewery in today's market.

(01:24)

All right, let's get into it. Here's my conversation with Lisa from Hubtown Brewing. Well, Lisa, thank you for joining me today.

Lisa Watts (01:35):  

It's my pleasure. Thanks for inviting me.

Carlin Lutzer (01:38):  

Yes. I've been wanting to have you guys on for a long time because there are certain businesses in this town that are pivotal to the background of the community. And I feel what you guys have going on there is something very, very rare and something very, very special. What we just want to hear first of all is your story. How on earth did you and Mark decide that you were going to take a risk, start a small business, and start brewing beer?

Lisa Watts (02:18):  

It's a really bizarre story, to be honest, because I always tell people, strangely, I didn't like beer. In fact, I hated it. So for us to start a brewery, it's really not something that was ever on our radar. But we went on a crazy little trip — just the two of us, left all four kids with the grandparents, and went to Montana for a weekend. And when we were down there, not knowing what to do with ourselves without our kids around, we're like, "Well, how do we entertain ourselves?" I thought I'd be this super fun wife and take my husband to a little nano brewery called Bonsai Brewing down in Whitefish. And in that experience, I thought I was just giving him something fun to do because I didn't like beer, but they put out all these little samplers of beer in front of us.

(03:08)

And when I started to taste them, I didn't know beer could taste like that. So when people talk about beer, I always think of things like Molson Canadian — the traditional lager, something that's very much a beer beer. And for me, that was not a flavour that I enjoyed. When I went down there, they were putting out craft beer, which I understand very well now.

(03:33)

At that time, I didn't know there was anything to differentiate it. And all of a sudden beers tasted like bananas, and they could be fruity and they could taste like coffee or chocolate. And it was a bit of an epiphany moment for me personally and even for Mark, who always enjoyed beer. So having crazy entrepreneurial brains, from that moment on we said, "Well, what could we do in this craft beer world?" And we started to teach ourselves how to brew, eventually decided we were going to go all in — which is what we do on everything we ever do, we go all in times a hundred — and we both became brewmasters with the American Brewers Guild. And then in the process, decided to start a brewery.

Carlin Lutzer (04:21):  

So did you start brewing in your basement like most people, or did you just — like you said — go all in?

Lisa Watts (04:30):  

Well, we started to brew at home,

(04:33)

but me being a little bit of a fusspott, I told my husband I wanted things to look nicer than what traditional brewing looked like. So we built what we call the brew station, and the brew station was intended to brew one gallon of beer at a time. And I'm talking, one gallon is a small, small amount of beer. You're only getting about six bottles — six 500 ml bottles of beer — in that single batch. And we would do it right in our kitchen. And I had Mark build me this really great kit, this really great box. It was made out of maple, or something like that — he could tell you that part. I just said it was really beautiful. Anyway, the point was it was really beautiful. And what ended up transpiring from that was people saying, "Well, I want one of those.

(05:23)

Can Mark make me one of those?" And so we started to build these little brew stations, which became the beginning of our business. And like we always do, we go a thousand miles an hour and decided we would start personalizing the boxes and we would customize the bottles and we'd make them very personal for people so that they could feel like it was a bit of a special piece in their house.

(05:49)

And then eventually as we went down that process, people would say, "Well, this is really great and I'm going to buy this for my uncle or my cousin or my mom, but can someone brew some beer for us because we've got this event coming up and we've got this wedding coming up. We've got this other thing coming up and we really need a bunch of beer." And we said, "Well, that's not really a possibility. You have to have special equipment, special licensing." And that's when we started to think about opening a brewery. That's how it actually evolved.

Carlin Lutzer (06:19):  

Okay. So what's kind of the timeline from when you took Mark to Montana to when you started to think about opening up your own brewery? How long did that take?

Lisa Watts (06:34):  

I think our first trip, if I'm not mistaken, was about 2012 or 2013, somewhere in that range. By 2015, we knew we wanted to — or we incorporated the business — and that was when we were making the brew stations. And by 2016, we knew very clearly that the path was to open a brewery. And in 2019, on September 1st, we opened our doors.

Carlin Lutzer (07:00):  

Okay. So yeah, a little bit of a timeline there, but obviously it just kept growing in that time before you even had your current location at 41 Elizabeth Street, right?

Announcer (07:14):  

Yeah.

Carlin Lutzer (07:14):  

So can you tell me — I certainly drink beer, but I don't know all the differences. When you talk about craft beer, what does that exactly mean? Is it just more of a flavoured beer?

Lisa Watts (07:32):  

Well, not exactly. So when we talk about flavours, when I say to you that the beer can taste like coffee or it can taste like chocolate, it's because of the malted grains that we're using. If I say it tastes fruity or citrusy, it's because we're either adding real fruit, real fruit purée to our beer, or putting in a yeast that expresses that, or we're putting in hops that express that. So for us personally — and this is something that isn't necessarily exclusive to us — we don't use fake flavourings. We don't add fake anything to our beer. Everything is created from some kind of a natural source. But craft really is experimental. So we use the malted grains and the hops and the yeast very strategically, and even our water profile, very strategically to create the profiles in our beers.

Carlin Lutzer (08:22):  

So are there some beers out there that are fake flavoured?

Lisa Watts (08:29):  

Yes. Yes, there are.

Carlin Lutzer (08:31):  

Straight across the board. So if they're not craft beer and they're flavoured, are they typically fake flavoured?

Lisa Watts (08:36):  

Well, it just means they're using an extract. So however they've created the extract or they've procured the extract, they're using something to shorten the process. It's not an easy process to add your beer to real fruit. You have to protect it from re-fermenting in the can because we don't pasteurize — because pasteurization equipment is wildly expensive.

(09:01)

So there are a lot of challenges. We add honey to some of our beers — natural honey from a local source. We add fresh raspberry purée to our Berry Manly, which is our Belgian Ale. So all of those things create potential problems in beer because we don't pasteurize to kill the yeast and we don't do filtering on any of our beers except for our lagers. So there's yeast still in that beer, at least some microscopic amount. And what ends up happening is if that beer is warmed up, the yeast can go after the residual sugars in that fruit or whatever we've added to the beer, and it can then re-ferment and cause an explosion of a can of beer. So a lot of breweries will use the fake flavourings to avoid that kind of disaster.

Carlin Lutzer (09:49):  

Okay. So then when you make the beer and you can them or bottle them, you have to store them a little bit differently at different temperatures than you would a normal fake flavoured beer. Am I understanding that correctly?

Lisa Watts (10:03):  

Well, even a fake flavoured beer could have yeast in it. And if it's warmed up, then the yeast can reactivate. And if it finds any residual sugars in the beer — if you haven't fully fermented out all of the sugar and converted it into alcohol — then it will re-ferment and it'll create more CO2 and more alcohol in that beer and it will explode the can. So whether it's got fake flavourings or not, it's always at risk, often because small breweries like us can't afford pasteurization equipment. So absolutely, craft beer should always be stored cold. And when I say cold, we're saying below four degrees Celsius. So if people put it into their pantry, they're risking a problem no matter what craft beer they're having.

Carlin Lutzer (10:46):  

Really? Okay. That's probably good for me to know because currently I have some beer out in my garage and that's probably not the best place because the temperature does rise quite a bit in the garage. Yeah. Okay. Especially — well, the winter should... Yeah. Anyways, I'm panicking. I've got to go put my beer in the fridge. So now, choosing Okotoks as a place to start your business, to open your business — was that more or less just a fluke because you were living here and Okotoks seemed like it was right for the picking to have a brewery in town?

Lisa Watts (11:26):  

Well, Okotoks is home. So I've been here for 15, 16 years. Mark's been in town for over 25 years. So one of the things we were considering when we were doing this — we just wanted to get away from commuting. We wanted to have a space that became a community gathering space, and why wouldn't it be in our community? The one that we chose to live in forever, that we chose to raise our kids in. So yeah, I wouldn't say a fluke. I think it just made the most sense.

Carlin Lutzer (11:56):  

Made the most sense for sure. Yeah. Because you take any kind of business and you go into South Calgary and say, "Okay, you're going to build a business here." Well, the chances of it getting lost — higher competition or whatever — is certainly great. Now, what I feel, Lisa — and this is just me observing from a distance because I have been in the brewery, but I follow you on Instagram and everything like that — I feel that the beer is a key part, obviously, to what you guys are doing, but you and Mark have been able to build a very strong community inside of Hubtown Brewing. The events, the parties that it seems like you guys have there — it just seems phenomenal.

Lisa Watts (12:52):  

Yeah. And I think it comes down to what's most important to us. If you talk to any of our staff about what it was like to go through the interviewing process, they'd probably say it was very bizarre in comparison to most of their interviews because our whole interview is about, well, how are you going to treat our customers? How are you going to make sure they have the best experience? How are you going to bring the adventure to them? So when someone walks in the door, do they want the best beer they've ever had? That happens, obviously. So then we've got to select the best thing. But if they walk in and they're looking to talk to you, you need to talk — you

Announcer (13:30):  

need

Lisa Watts (13:30):  

to be able to spend some time with them and get to know them because people are looking for connection and they're looking for a place to belong. And I think anyone that's been in a position of not belonging somewhere understands the value. And I totally — I come from that experience. If you're not the cool kid, you understand quickly how important it is to belong. So that became basically the centre of how we became who we are.

Carlin Lutzer (13:57):  

Yeah. Well, Lisa, I'm sure I'm quite a bit older than you, but I grew up watching Cheers and — oh,

Lisa Watts (14:04):  

Stop.

Carlin Lutzer (14:04):  

You're not

Lisa Watts (14:05):  

older than me.

Carlin Lutzer (14:06):  

Cheers. I'm just

Lisa Watts (14:07):  

curious. Yeah.

Carlin Lutzer (14:08):  

Yeah. Just love the show, but obviously loved also what it meant. And it was the community of the local pub and how people connected and talked and opened up. And no, I do. And I know I'm not wrong by observing what you guys put out on social media and just how people love what's going on. Now, when you guys first opened, you guys had a little bit of an incentive and it's no longer available, but I know some people that kind of bought in and I think they were certainly lucky to have done that. Now, is there some regret that you offered that kind of incentive? Do you know which incentive I'm talking about — where they... I don't even know all the details of it, but I just know that because they bought in early — was it shares, or almost something like that that you guys offered?

Lisa Watts (15:11):  

No. I mean, we do have some investors, but we didn't offer an early share.

Carlin Lutzer (15:17):  

Okay.

Lisa Watts (15:18):  

I mean, if you're thinking of Beer for Life, that could be one of the things.

Carlin Lutzer (15:22):  

Beer for Life. Let's talk about Beer for Life. Sure. Yes. And yeah, maybe I know some people that you might be regretting that you offered that to. But anyways, yeah, let's talk about Beer for Life.

Lisa Watts (15:34):  

Not a regret. Not one day. No. No. I mean, don't get me wrong — Mark and I had plenty of conversations about it because he was very concerned about giving away free beer all the time. But what that free beer funded was the entire upper level of this building. So when we first opened up Hubtown, we were only on the main level because we were really, really risk averse. It was scary opening a business. We had no idea how people were going to respond to craft beer in Okotoks. We didn't know if they were going to say, "Yeah, this is not our thing." So we only actually opened up on the lower level, and on the upper level was Boothill Gallery, which is what used to be here. And in COVID, in 2020, when everything went crazy and everyone was having to shut down, Boothill basically said to us they were going to close their doors because they couldn't sustain it.

(16:24)

And they said, "Well, do you want the upper level? Because if you don't want it, we're going to put another tenant up there." So in 2020, when we were all going through opening and closing and opening and closing, we decided, "Okay, I guess we're going to go all in and we're going to take the upper level." And we had no idea how we were going to fund the build-out of that upper level. And it was the Beer for Life program that did it. So we sold — essentially, they could fill up their growler of beer, which is 64 ounces daily if they wanted, and for free, so long as they paid $5,000 upfront.

Carlin Lutzer (17:04):  

Okay. Yeah.

Lisa Watts (17:06):  

So we didn't take a single loan to do it.

Carlin Lutzer (17:10):  

That's awesome. That's such a great concept. Yeah, I know a few people that have it and they're still certainly taking advantage of it, but what a great idea. And now, can you walk me through some of the highlights of the year just so people — because I've got the visual in my head of your Instagram page, and if people aren't following you on Instagram, they need to follow you on Instagram because it's phenomenal, everything that you guys do. In fact, the last thing that I saw is your comparison — you had people out on the deck, out on the patio. Was it on Saturday? When did all the snow come? And then on Sunday, you still had people out on the patio, not as many, but drinking beer in the snow. So it's quite phenomenal. But Lisa, I'm wondering if you could walk me through a little bit of a calendar year as to some of the events you guys do.

Lisa Watts (18:04):  

Well, normally if you were here since early January, you would have seen our curling rink out front. Yes.

(18:10)

We built a curling rink so that people could curl and be a part of our beer curling league. It was a bit of a rough year this year because of the weather — it was a bit warm. So we lost a few of the days in our league and our visitors didn't get as much opportunity to try out the rink. But typically — so this was year five — and typically, we get a lot of people who try out this crazy brewery curling thing, and that happens until the end of February when it's really way too warm and we have to

(18:43)

move it out. Then we take that down and come about April, the patio will be set up again. People will be able to get out there and drink their beers quite normally. And at the end of May, early June, we start our outdoor music. So we do live music every Friday night on the outdoor patio on the main level so that people can just kind of have some food, have some drinks, and listen to great music and maybe dance along — bring a lawn chair. It's kind of a neat experience to see it happening. Then in the fall, all of our leagues kick back in again, and we do our darts league and we do — actually in the summer we also have our cornhole league, so that's a fun one. And we have the cornhole lanes out front all summer so that anyone that comes in can play as well.

(19:35)

And then yeah, we do the rest of our leagues throughout the rest of the year. So crib league and darts league and that sort of thing.

Carlin Lutzer (19:41):  

Yeah. So again, just building community all the way along. Can you tell me a little bit about your food situation? Because I think for some people, they might be surprised to hear about your food.

Lisa Watts (19:57):  

Yeah, or lack thereof. So it's pretty common in the brewery industry. And what happened when we were first getting opened up — when we submitted our business plan to the banks and they approved it and we were moving forward with getting ready — one of the things they told us was we were not allowed to open up any type of food service inside the brewery. And the reason for that was they didn't want to connect the already existing massive debt that comes with opening a brewery to a restaurant that has such a high failure rate. So as a manufacturer of beer, you have a much lower risk of failure because you have the opportunity to ship your beer all over the province or the country or the world, right? So you have bigger opportunity, but the minute people associate your location with a restaurant, all of a sudden you become open to all of the challenges that restaurants face.

(20:54)

For sure. So they said, absolutely not. If you put a restaurant in there, we'll pull your funding, which is not a problem for us overall because we're not really restaurateurs, or we never have been. We love food, but making it for people and trying to figure out how to do that — that would be a whole other game.

Announcer (21:12):  

So

Lisa Watts (21:12):  

what we've offered to people since opening is they can bring their own food in, they can order their own food in — they can use Skip the Dishes. We partner up with a few different places locally. So Fo Hoi is one of the places that offers a bit of a discount if you have their food delivered to Hubtown's taproom. So we've done lots of partnering up with different restaurants in town, like French 50. We've done tons of collaborative work with them to try and bring their food in to pair up with our beer. So people can basically decide what they want to eat and how they want to eat it. If they don't want to spend money on food, they don't have to. They can bring in a sandwich if they want to. They can bring in fish crackers for their kids if they want to.

(21:57)

So it's just a bit of a different model.

Carlin Lutzer (22:00):  

Right. Absolutely. No, it certainly is because — yeah. And then on the weekends sometimes, do you have food trucks, or do you not have as many food trucks coming now?

Lisa Watts (22:10):  

Yeah, no, on the weekends we try to have food trucks at least every Friday and Saturday, sometimes Sundays and sometimes sporadically through the week as well. That helps on the live music nights so people have something easy to access.

Carlin Lutzer (22:26):  

For sure. And just also for people to know, you are closed Mondays. There's a lot of businesses downtown Okotoks that are closed on Mondays, but that's nice for you guys to be able to take a break. Now, when you talk about shipping your beer, have you guys got to the place where you can? I know that there are some issues sending beer across provincial lines even. Are you guys starting to export some of your product?

Lisa Watts (22:58):  

Yeah, actually we're now in Saskatchewan.

Carlin Lutzer (23:00):  

Oh, really?

Lisa Watts (23:01):  

Yep. Saskatchewan has been ordering our beer and our Butterbeer quite frequently in the last year. That's the first province that we've been able to ship across the border to. We've had requests from Ontario and from BC, but those two have been big giant walls, so we haven't been able to get over those barriers quite yet.

Carlin Lutzer (23:24):  

Now, with the tariffs and all that stuff, we started to talk about being able to trade cross-province. Have you seen any more discussion about that, or has that all been tabled? Because I know they were talking a lot about that, but is that basically something that you haven't really heard much about lately? Because I know I haven't.

Lisa Watts (23:47):  

No. I mean, what it really comes down to is there's a model in place that makes it easy for us to ship to and from Alberta and Saskatchewan. So the way they've set up that system is there's a central distribution facility in St. Albert and we ship our product there, and then the liquor board from Saskatchewan can then pull our product from that central distribution facility that's managed by AGLC — so the Alberta Gaming, Liquor, and Cannabis, or something like that.

Carlin Lutzer (24:18):  

Okay. Yeah. Do you guys have roots back in Saskatchewan?

Lisa Watts (24:23):  

No. No. No.

Carlin Lutzer (24:24):  

Okay.

Lisa Watts (24:25):  

No.

Carlin Lutzer (24:25):  

It seemed like—

Lisa Watts (24:26):  

But basically what they do with Saskatchewan, they could do with BC, they could do that with Ontario. They could do that with every province. They could have the same logistical process. It just hasn't happened yet.

Carlin Lutzer (24:39):  

Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. It's just mind-boggling to me that it's so difficult to trade with our other provinces. And I know that no doubt the craft beer market in all provinces is really starting to become very competitive, right? I imagine there are a lot of craft breweries popping up. Seems like maybe that's kind of tapered off. It seemed like there was a while there where breweries were popping up all over the place.

Lisa Watts (25:05):  

Yeah, there sure were. People say to us all the time, "Oh, the market is just saturated." And we always try to remind them that it's not really as saturated as people think. Yes, there are a lot of craft breweries, but we only occupy — we're less than 20% of the total beer market in Alberta. So if people wanted more craft beer, it would be easy to happen if we just maybe took over more of the market share from the bigger guys.

Carlin Lutzer (25:31):  

Right, right. For sure. Now, the COVID days — were those good days for you guys? Were people wanting craft beer?

Lisa Watts (25:43):  

Yeah, it was. So it's a mixed bag. When we look back to the COVID days, understanding that we had only opened up six months previously and our whole business model was an in-house consumption model. 99% or more was in-house consumption and maybe 1% takeaway. And when I say takeaway, it would be people filling up growlers. And eventually we had crowlers, which are the one-litre cans, which we would hand-fill. Every single can was filled off of our tap system, so very manual. When COVID happened, we had to switch our model to 100% takeaway and nobody allowed inside. So what most people don't understand is that the margins on beer that gets bought at the grocery store, at the liquor store, or even bought for takeaway here, the margins are significantly lower because our predecessors — so the bigger beer companies — would put out their beer for a very low price.

(26:45)

And we have to compete with that beer. And that beer is not as creative. It's not made in smaller facilities. It has economies of scale that they get to work within, so they can manage the margins differently than we can. So what ended up happening was it took away a ton of opportunity to make revenue, or at least profit. Profit was non-existent. We had to create a completely different process and have more of what we didn't have really early in the game. What we didn't anticipate — or we didn't know was going to happen — was that Okotoks and its people were going to try to wrap their arms around us and do everything in their power to keep us from falling.

Announcer (27:28):  

So

Lisa Watts (27:28):  

we had people coming in with eight and 10, 64-ounce growlers at a time and filling them up, or they'd buy 20 or 30 of our one-litre crowlers and they'd go and deliver them to all their friends and just said, "I just want to make sure you're still here at the end of this mess." And some of them didn't even drink beer and they were doing it just to make sure we didn't fall.

Carlin Lutzer (27:51):  

That's an amazing story.

Lisa Watts (27:54):  

Well, it's — very few people realize some good came from COVID, even though there was — oh,

Carlin Lutzer (27:58):  

Yeah.

Lisa Watts (27:59):  

Yeah.

Carlin Lutzer (28:00):  

No, absolutely. Well, and I think it's certainly a reflection on you guys and obviously on how great this town is, right? And I say this time and time again — I'm getting very repetitive — but as a result of this podcast, my eyes have been opened up to organizations, businesses such as yours, and just how giving the personality of this town is. There are people that just — my daughter, they just did a fundraiser for their ball team, and I was blown away by the amount of money that was donated to their ball team. And it's just this town, right? So now let's talk about tariffs. Has the whole tariff situation kind of helped you guys out a little bit? Again, people not wanting to buy American beer and wanting to buy local.

Lisa Watts (28:56):  

I'm sure that there's a bit of that at play, for sure. Yeah. Unfortunately, a lot of people don't necessarily know where their beer comes from. They know where ours comes from because they're here, but they don't know where a lot of the beers that are shipped in come from. So they may not realize what they're buying is an import beer. And I think a lot of the tariff stuff was really around spirits more than it was beer.

Announcer (29:27):  

Okay.

Lisa Watts (29:28):  

Yeah. So for us, maybe not the same issue, but for sure — people want to support local where they can, and if they can afford it, they do it.

Carlin Lutzer (29:38):  

Right. Absolutely. Now, we'll come back to what you all can get in your store, but within the area, I know there are other places where you can buy your beer. Now, I know that you can purchase Hubtown Brewing beer at Safeway. Are there other places in town where you can purchase outside of your store?

Lisa Watts (30:01):  

Yeah. Safeway, Sobeys, and Co-op all take our product. We've had a few other liquor stores that have come and gone just because they may not have survived. And some that just don't bring it in because they don't have the shelf space. But we've got a few restaurants in town. So Fo Hoi brings in our beer, and French 50 — the new Mexican restaurant, Café Tequila, brings in our beer now.

Carlin Lutzer (30:26):  

Yeah, which

Lisa Watts (30:27):  

is awesome. We've had it at Heartland before. We've had it at the Duke. We've had it. It's been all over town for sure.

Carlin Lutzer (30:33):  

Yes. No. And from what I see, the prices with some of your competitors — your prices, at least at Safeway — were cheaper than the competitors, which is awesome. And it's a great beer. Yeah, that's what I noticed.

Lisa Watts (30:48):  

Excellent.

Carlin Lutzer (30:49):  

Yes. You guys are in a little bit of a legal dispute?

Lisa Watts (30:56):  

Not really a little bit of a legal dispute. It's a trademark — it's a trademark opposition. So what's happening is Warner Bros., the ones who put out the Harry Potter movies — or I shouldn't say that, they didn't create Harry Potter, but they put out the Harry Potter movies — they want the trademark for Butterbeer. And Butterbeer is something we've been selling since 2019. And so we're just simply opposing it. Everybody thinks we're getting sued by Warner Bros., but we're not. Okay.

Carlin Lutzer (31:30):  

It's not that juicy, huh?

Lisa Watts (31:31):  

Yeah.

Carlin Lutzer (31:32):  

Can you tell me about Butterbeer? Maybe people don't know what Butterbeer is.

Lisa Watts (31:36):  

Yeah. Butterbeer is just a butterscotch soda. And we started making it actually before we opened the brewery, but we made it the very first day we opened our doors — it was something that was available. We did that because kids — our place is family-friendly on the main level and only 18-plus upstairs. But on the main level, we were hoping that families would come in and they would treat this more as a nice place to hang out with their families, play some games. Mom and dad could have a beer. The kids could have a Butterbeer, and the Butterbeer is this butterscotch soda that we top with whipped cream and caramel sauce. So it's quite the treat for them as well. Kind of thinking back to what it was like to be a kid and you'd go out for dinner with your parents and they'd want to have a glass of wine before dinner and they'd have to have coffee after dinner.

(32:25)

And as a kid, you're going crazy because you're like, "Well, there's nothing for me. This is boring." So for us, that was kind of the intent.

Carlin Lutzer (32:33):  

Yeah. Yeah. No, that's awesome. Now, do you guys — and I didn't put this in the list of questions for you, so I'm going to surprise you with this one — I'm sure you guys have been part of the conversations regarding open consumption in the downtown core. I know that that's kind of a hot topic in town for some people, and for others it kind of is a no-brainer. Are you guys part of those conversations with town council? And I believe the Chamber of Commerce is also involved in that?

Lisa Watts (33:03):  

We used to be a part of the conversation because I was on the board of directors for the Chamber of Commerce for a number of years. I'm not on the board anymore — I left maybe a year ago, something like that. Yeah. I don't have any problem with open consumption in the downtown core because I think people bring it down in their coffee mugs all the time and we somehow find a way to survive. I don't think that all bad comes from those kinds of freedoms. And I think if there was evidence that there was going to be something bad happening, then we would take care of that. So I'm open to the idea. It doesn't hurt my feelings.

Carlin Lutzer (33:45):  

Yeah, for sure. Yeah, that's what I notice about Okotoksians — when they're downtown at some kind of event, they love walking around with their Yetis. For sure. Well, Lisa, you guys are a spoke in the wheel. You're a very important part — a very important spoke — in how you are developing community in this town. Now, I have a bit of a problem with something you guys do,

Lisa Watts (34:15):  

though. Oh, tell me.

Carlin Lutzer (34:18):  

I feel like your allegiance to a certain hockey team is a little bit greater than one that's local.

Lisa Watts (34:24):  

Well, no, it's only my allegiance. It's not my husband's allegiance.

Carlin Lutzer (34:27):  

No. Where's Mark? Where does he sit?

Lisa Watts (34:31):  

He's a Flames fan.

Carlin Lutzer (34:33):  

Oh, really? And you guys —

Lisa Watts (34:34):  

Yeah,

Carlin Lutzer (34:35):  

How long have you guys been married?

Lisa Watts (34:37):  

Oh, since 2010.

Carlin Lutzer (34:40):  

2010. Wow. Did you guys go through some marriage counselling as a result of your allegiance? No. You're okay with that? Okay.

Lisa Watts (34:49):  

He's spicy.

Carlin Lutzer (34:50):  

Keeps it spicy. Okay. Because one thing I've noticed is that in the last few years, you haven't projected — because the Oilers' playoff games, you project them sometimes out on the patio if it's nice and you're obviously — but I haven't seen that you guys do that for Flames playoff games in the last few years.

Lisa Watts (35:10):  

They haven't been in the playoffs. Pretty tough to

Carlin Lutzer (35:13):  

help them. I know, right? I mean —

Lisa Watts (35:15):  

Let's be honest, if the Flames made it to the end of the playoffs like the Oilers, we would do it for them too. Yes. I mean, I'm Canadian

Carlin Lutzer (35:22):  

first. Yeah. Well, I remember — and you guys could steal this idea. I think it would be pretty funny to put a billboard in front of your place. Jack Astor's did this years ago, and it was — again, the Flames are so mediocre, it's rare that we... Anyways, won't get into that because it hurts. Jack Astor's put a billboard out and the Flames were not in the playoffs that year, and it said, "Free beer for all Flames playoff games."

Lisa Watts (35:54):  

Darn

Carlin Lutzer (35:54):  

wealth. But they weren't in the playoffs. No, so it didn't cost them a cent —

Lisa Watts (35:58):  

just the cost

Carlin Lutzer (35:58):  

of the billboard.

Lisa Watts (35:59):  

I love it. Yeah.

Carlin Lutzer (36:00):  

Absolutely.

Lisa Watts (36:00):  

I just might do that.

Carlin Lutzer (36:01):  

You should do it. It would be hilarious. Okay. So obviously people can pop into the store — into the brewery, sorry.

Announcer (36:11):  

Yeah.

Carlin Lutzer (36:11):  

And they can purchase beer to drink right there, but they can also purchase beer to take home and put in their fridge. Keep it below four degrees — that's what I learned.

Lisa Watts (36:23):  

That's right. Oh, and don't forget all of our beer is gluten-reduced.

Carlin Lutzer (36:26):  

Gluten-reduced. Okay. So do you also have a beer that is lower carbs?

Lisa Watts (36:35):  

Well, here's the thing. A low-carb beer is typically a light lager. So the lighter the lager, the lower the alcohol, the lower the carbs. So our lightest beer is our Hub Light, and that one would be our lowest-carb beer as well.

Carlin Lutzer (36:50):  

Okay, for sure. But you can also purchase swag at your place too. You guys have some really cool swag there as well.

Lisa Watts (36:58):  

We do. That you see all around the world. It's been a really interesting experience watching people take it with them on vacation and send us photos back.

Carlin Lutzer (37:07):  

Oh yeah. Yeah. I have seen a few of those on Instagram where people are in cool places and walking around. I know early on when you guys started, I reached out — I wanted a Hubtown hat and I couldn't get one because I wasn't an investor. It was only for investors. So you guys certainly do have great ways of reaching out to people, great ways of building community because I know that — well, in my opinion, that whole area just comes to life because you guys are down there, right? And especially to have something in the evenings that people come down to. And I just think you guys are doing a great job and I appreciate what you guys mean to this community. Appreciate your heart and passion for — again, I feel, Lisa, that it's not just the beer. You guys are very passionate about building the community and that's very evident.

(38:04)

So thank you for doing that.

Lisa Watts (38:06):  

Well, thanks for appreciating it. That makes us want to keep going.

Carlin Lutzer (38:10):  

Yeah, no, for sure. And we look forward to popping down there for a few beers. And also, I want to get a T-shirt or a hat or something. So I was hoping to have one today, but just wasn't able to get down there before the interview. So appreciate your time today.

Lisa Watts (38:28):  

Well, thanks for having me. I appreciate you and all you do with your podcast.

Carlin Lutzer (38:32):  

For sure. Thank you, Lisa.

Lisa Watts (38:33):  

Take care.

Carlin Lutzer (38:46):  

Lisa, thank you so much for sharing your story today. It's always fascinating to hear how local businesses start with an idea and grow into something that becomes a gathering place for the entire community. If you haven't visited Hubtown Brewing yet, make sure you stop by downtown Okotoks, grab a pint, and experience the atmosphere that Lisa and Mark have created. And if you want to stay up to date on new beer releases, events, and what's happening at the brewery, make sure to follow Hubtown Brewing on social media. And before you go, once again, if you're enjoying the Okotoks Podcast, please like and follow the show on whatever podcast platform you're listening on. Take care, Okotoks.

Announcer (39:32):  

You've been listening to the Okotoks Podcast, brought to you by Carlin Lutzer Real Estate. Thanks for joining us. We'll catch you next time.