The micro craft beer industry has taken off in Alberta in recent years with explosive growth in the province in the number of breweries.
Now, Albertans are experiencing a similar expansion in distilleries with different spirits being created for consumption.
The Romero Distilling Co. in Calgary is an example of that boom as the company produces, sells and distributes its rum from its distillery in southeast Calgary at the corner of Heritage Drive and Blackfoot Trail.
“Calgarians are becoming more attuned to carefully crafted, artisan spirits. In addition to quality and taste, their focus is very much on how the ingredients are sourced and, importantly, how they’re handled afterwards. It matters to them and it matters to us,” said Tomas Romero, who co-founded the business with his father Diego.
The business started production in June 2019. The distillery produces three different brands of rum. The product is sold through the bar at the distillery and in some select liquor stores and bars.
“We developed an accelerated maturation program that creates a rum similar to a one to three-year aged rum in a couple of months,” said Romero. “Unfortunately because it hasn’t spent the full year on small oak as per Canadian rum we can’t call it rum. We have to call it something else so we went with Sugarcane Spirit.”
Romero was always interested in rum and the business kind of grew from there. He was a project manager for a bridge construction in Edmonton and wrapping up that job when he started thinking about what to do next.
“This was something of interest. I started looking into it a little bit more, punching numbers and things started to make sense. I told my dad what I was thinking of doing and he was in the process of retiring but not ready to hang them up and he said he might be interested in working with me if I decided to go forward with this,” said Romero. “That was kind of the little extra push to push me over the edge to move forward. I took it from there.”
Romero was in the oil and gas industry for about 15 years before that industry felt the brunt of the oil price collapse. When it started “to tank” in 2015, he took the job in Edmonton as a project manager. Romero has a Bachelor of Science and an MBA.
His father is an engineer and was a project director with Teck Resources.
The rum’s main ingredient, molasses, is processed from Non-GMO sugar cane grown in Guatemala and the distilling equipment is also Canadian made.
Romero said the growth in distilleries in Calgary and Alberta is because there’s an opportunity there.
“The craft brewing scene has kind of developed and grown to the point where it’s starting to get a little saturated and there’s still an opportunity on the distilling side,” he said.
For consumers, he added, the appeal is very similar to craft beer.
“It’s something where you’re going to get something unique and different and local. And the quality.”
Romero Distilling produces about 7,000 bottles a month.
