Kelowna man living the dream brewing

| March 23, 2017 in Kelowna

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Adam Semeniuk is working overtime to make his dream a reality.

For more than 50 days, he's been at his new location that will soon host is very own brewery.

With no real experience in the business, Semeniuk was ready for a change and took a chance on a dream.

He's starting his own brewing company, Red Bird Brewing, from the ground up and hopes to have a soft opening as soon as June 21st.

He's been doing everything from jack hammering, shoveling, laying concrete, sanding refurbished wood and more.

The 33-year-old got the idea several years ago after taking a sip of his uncle's homemade brew. He was blown away at the quality of flavours. 

"It just blew my mind because I didn't know you could do that at that time you know...I just thought 'that's the coolest thing' and that's kind of what got me into it. It was magic," said Semeniuk.

Still the idea remained a romanticized pipe dream for many years.

Semeniuk worked in a variety of industries prior to going 'all in' on the brewery.

He spent the last seven years working for Disney in the Okanagan.

He was hired as an artist and after a year, moved into production and eventually to senior producer.

"I learned a lot. Definitely one of the biggest learning experiences of my life, but by the end of it I was ready to move on and do my own thing," he said.

"I've always wanted to work for myself," said Semeniuk.

Last year, he was looking for what one of his friends challenged him.

"I didn't think a person could do that, so it wasn't really an option in my mind and then a friend of mine asked me that question.

He said, 'You're unemployed now and you're waiting to see what your next thing is, why aren't you doing the brewery?'

And I just asked myself, 'Why aren't I doing the brewery?'"

In April of 2016, he got to work on developing a large, million-and-a-half-dollar project with a few investors.

Semeniuk spent the first six to seven months developing a plan and then decided to change his course.

"It was ballooning to this giant thing that was really risky and kind of started to feel like I was getting a little bit over my head."

"I was going to be working myself to death and I pivoted," said Semeniuk.

After Semeniuk downsized his plans, things started to feel more manageable. He later realized that his profit margins weren't that different with the smaller project fewer overhead costs existed.

"Things really took off and I found a different lease, signed a lease right away and got in the space February 1st," he said.

"I've been there every day, digging and shoveling and hammering and tearing down stuff."

It's no surprise the former senior producer at Disney happens to have a strict attention to detail. 

Semeniuk says he's selecting the furniture, flooring, the walls and sound boards based on what will make for the optimal acoustics.

"So I really want to focus on making sure people have a great environment for conversation. I'm not going to have TV's," he said.

"You know, the volume's always going to be at the right level."

From the types of chairs to how they react to the floor, to creating the atmosphere for great conversations - when it comes to ambiance - Semeniuk believes there's nothing he hasn't considered.

Semeniuk has been cataloguing his journey on Instagram with time-lapse video and various photos as the project moves along.

Semeniuk says he's had great support from micro brewers as well.

"It's really cool, it's kind of like a little brewing district now, 'cause Kettle River's right around the corner and those guys have been great."

He also acknowledged that Tree Brewing Institute and BNA had been extremely supportive.

Targeting a soft opening for June 21st, Semeniuk hopes to get brewing beer soon, giving him two months to perfect things.

"I'm so far you know, cross my fingers, so far i'm ahead of schedule."

His excitement is contagious and has even brought his dad out, working along side for the last 50 days or more.

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