What started as simple home brewing has quickly grown into a craft brewing business among a few friends. Since starting Blindman Brewing in Lacombe, staff has pumped nearly 100 batches of thoughtfully designed beer out of their brewery in just over a year and a half.

Co-founder and self-proclaimed Beer Geek Hans Doef says, “We have a 15 barrel brew house… we have a few different fermenters. We’re able to make quite a bit of beer.”

Their brews change and come in a variety of different types and flavours.

Now, the business wants fellow beer lovers to help them expand their craft.Doef says they take pride in their craft beers and now they’re looking to grow even more by adding oak barrels called Foeders (pronounced FOOD-ers) into the mix.

“The primary reason is to age beer in them, in that oak and allow that beer to mature, and get really complex with that style of aging,” explains Doef.

The company has started a crowdfunding campaign to help them bring two 3,000 litre Foeders from France, that were previously used to make cognac. Once the brews are fermented in their stainless tanks, it will be transferred into the special barrels, and could take four to eight months to age.

Doef says: “It’ll give people just another experience of the realm of craft beer.”

The campaign runs until February 5th. By supporting it, you can call dibs on the first batch of beer to come out of the Foeders, which they expect will be ready in the fall.

Doef says the first batch will be one-of-a-kind, as it will likely be the only one to soak up the cognac flavours left in the oak barrel.