The spirit of community and creativity is shining forth at Phillips Brewing & Malting Co., as the Victoria-based brewers are using their resources and talents in the fight against COVID-19.
“I think everyone in our organization feels fortunate to still be able to work and wants to find ways to help the broader community fight this challenge,” says Matt Phillips, the Founder of Phillips Brewing, a partner of Whitecaps FC.
One of Phillips Brewing's initiatives is collaborating with the engineering departments from the University of Victoria and Camosun College to build protective face masks. With the use of the brewery’s Prusa 3-D printer, they are able to supply much-needed equipment for frontline emergency workers.
Phillips Brewing are encouraging those with access to a 3-D printer to help as well, and have shared an open-sourced mask template to build from.
“It wasn’t a top down idea but our employees know that we would support this kind of project and we all jumped in to lend a hand. The parts are being produced by a number of local businesses in addition to ours, and are being assembled into masks for the local health authority,” says Phillips.
The first batch of protective face masks have already reached the community, and Phillips Brewing are already in production for more.
Besides mask production, the company has launched a program to take back kegs of beer from partner pubs and restaurants.
The beer is used to produce hand sanitizer, while the kegs are used to store and transport the hand sanitizer for distribution to hospitals and other places in need.
“We have also directed our distillery output from whiskey and gin to neutral spirits for the production of hand sanitizer. It’s probably one of the only artisanal hand sanitizers made from local grains malted in-house,” says Phillips.
When the partner pubs reopen their doors, Phillips Brewery will replace the kegs with full ones.
The beer has not stopped flowing at the brewery, however. They have implemented the Drive-Up beer service at their Victoria retail location, as well as the Ales on Wheels home delivery service for customers within a 10 km radius from the brewery.
“We have had to change a lot of the ways that we operate, to keep our staff and our customers safe. Our employees have been really inventive. For example, our delivery drivers have come up with the idea of mobile hand-washing stations.”
Phillips cannot wait to see the ‘Caps back in action when it is safe to kick the ball around the pitch again.
“The more we can all help out, we hope to lessen the impact and the faster we can get back to normal. We really look forward to seeing the season resume and have a beer or two with ‘Caps fans at The Warmup!”
