Steve’s Story

Amanda: This is Ryerson Rewind — a podcast featuring alumni, sharing their fondest memories from Toronto Metropolitan University.

Steve: I’m Steve Beauchesne. I went to Toronto Metropolitan University from ‘95-’99 and I was in the Bachelor of Commerce program in the Management and Entrepreneurship focus. When I came to school I was dead set on opening up my own record label and I really wanted to learn everything about opening a business and after looking at every University in the country, I was convinced that Toronto Metropolitan University had the best program. One of the moments I remember most vividly at Toronto Metropolitan University was the day they brought Frank Heaps in to speak to my class. Frank Heaps had started the Upper Canada Brewing Company but back in those days, you know, there wasn’t a lot of breweries. And to get to hear from someone who had opened their own brewery and have him talk that was super inspiring for me and I’ve never forgotten that moment, even though at the time I had no thought of opening my own brewery. I was so wowed by that presentation that it’s one that I keep coming back to. What I’ve basically done is reversed my pursuit of career and pursuit of hobby. I had a love of beer and that was my hobby, I was a home brewer and I was trying to make a career as a musician. And now I’m a professional Brewer and I’m enjoying thoroughly my hobby as a musician. I guess the thing that was kind of the ‘ah-ha’ moment for me was being at a show and hearing someone complain about the five dollar cover charge and then watching the same person spend a hundred dollars on beer at the bar, and I was like ‘I’m on the wrong side of this equation here’. And it’s far better to be on the beer side of the business end of this kind of thing. But what’s interesting, in particular in the first couple years, of running Beau’s, I basically, if someone asked how we came up with our marketing strategy, I would say we really just stole what independent record labels do and we’ve co-opted every marketing trick that works in independent labels and that’s a big part of what we’ve done. But back at Toronto Metropolitan University when I was in the consulting service, one of the projects that we took on was to do a marketing plan in the fashion industry. And I was able to take some of the strategies that worked for small fashion companies and apply that to the brewery as well. And I think sort of the ability that I got at Toronto Metropolitan University, to learn about how different industries succeed has allowed me to kind of look at what works in different industries and then apply them to the brewing industry. And it’s funny because it comes across as so innovative and novel but it’s really just like that works over there why not put it over here and see what happens. So, we set the brewery up in the little town I grew up at which is called Vankleek Hill, it’s halfway between Ottawa and Montreal, it’s gotten quite big now, we’re about 35,000 square feet, we’ve got piles of fermenters, and brew kettles and a bottling line, you know it’s kind of a bee hive of activity. But the brewery's physical location is only kind of part of the equation. We’ve got a warehouse in Toronto, we sell beer through Quebec and the rest of Canada now so the brewery's presence is much more than sort of just the physical location in Vankleek Hill. The energy at work is...it’s a fun place to be. And we’ve got a lot of people who are really connected to the social values of the business, and that makes them really give it everything they’ve got. Obviously like every business we’ve got our up years and our down years, and there’s challenges and there’s stresses. But at the end of our day we’re having a beer! And sometimes in the middle of the day too. And so if you hear some background noise it’s because I just finished my presentation here on the brewery. I’m here at ALumni Day at Toronto Metropolitan University and there’s still some folks drinkin beers behind me. When I see someone drinking my beer I’m kind of transported back to my rock and roll days, and it didn’t happen often, but every once and while you’d see someone wearing your bands T-shirt and oh  my God it was like that moment of “Oh wow! That’s someone that actually cares enough about my band to wear the shirt”. And I see a lot more people wearing our breweries gear then I ever saw wearing the bands stuff (sample of Steve’s music). So I got into punk rock pretty early on and what we play is kind of poppy punk. You know, take 1950’s music and add some distortion to it and that’s kind of where we end up. [Sample Music By Steve] But I like to think that there’s a lot of emotion in it and to me that’s what punk rock has always been about. [Sample Music By Steve] It’s funny, in the Toronto Metropolitan University consulting service, we spent probably a month dreaming up this marketing campaign for the fictitious brewery and I probably talked about it everyday for a month, never actually thinking I was ever have a life in beer, but we’re a bunch of ambitious, enthusiastic people trying to change the world and making beer. 

Amanda: This podcast is a production of the Ryerson University Alumni Association. I’m Amanda Cupido, a proud member of the board of directors, and the producer and editor of this podcast. For more stories like the one you just heard visit torontomu.ca/alumni.