The Grande Prairie Storm's new Junior 'A' le beer brewed by Grain Bin Brewing Company. Photo Credit: Shane Clausing

By Shane Clausing

Storm Hockey

A Storm brewing? Grande Prairie Storm partner with Grain Bin Brewing Company to create new beer

Jun 17, 2020 | 5:47 PM

The Grande Prairie Storm are brewing up a storm of their own when it comes to the craft beer game.

The Junior A team has partnered with Grande Prairie’s very own Grain Bin Brewing Company to create a beer they call the Storm Junior ‘A’ le.

The brand-new beer is a Nordic Golden Ale made with a Norwegian yeast called Kviek.

Grain Bin describes the beer as sweet, easy to drink, and very smooth, something that all beer lovers can enjoy.

Storm Vice-President Chris Millsap spoke about how the beer came to be.

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“It’s a part of our commitment to community involvement and making sure that the Storm, as a team, is interacting with businesses and giving our fans something to get involved in when we’re not playing, and games aren’t on. It just seemed like an absolute perfect relationship to have a brewery in town that could do something like this with us and create this partnership.”

“We wanted something that would be appealing to everybody and something easy drinking and this is what they came up with. So far, we are getting rave reviews, so we are really happy.”

The Storm did indeed get rave reviews from their fans. According to the Grain Bin Brewing Company Facebook page, by 5:00 p.m. on Wednesday night, the Storm beer was completely sold out. Grain Bin says that they won’t have more Storm Junior ‘A’ le beer until the end of July.

Millsap says this is the first time that the Storm have attempted to make a beer for their fans.

The launch of the beer was also a way to get fans together for the first time in several months. It gave them an opportunity to meet new Head Coach and General Manager Mike Vandekamp for the first time.

Vandekamp gave the beer a good review and says he’s looking forward to hopefully getting his team on the ice this season.

“I think the beer thing is a great thing. I think it’s a good cross-marketing type opportunity for both our hockey club and the brewery. It’s a good beer, it tastes good and we are excited on that front.”

“On the hockey front, I’m just hoping that we have some hockey starting sooner than later. We’ve been working as though the seasons going to start on time and that’s kind of the way that our league is planning on it too and we’re trying to put a good product on the ice here. We are excited to see what the team looks like and we are excited to get going.”

Millsap says that the team is hoping to sell the beer at Storm games this season.

Sales proceeds will go to the hockey club to help fundraise for the upcoming 2020-21 season.

“Hopefully, it’s something that we can continue throughout the season at our home games and maybe do some different variations (throughout the year),” said Millsap.