Storm Brewing is not your average brewery. And owner James Walton is not your average guy. First, the brewery. Storm sits near Hastings and Commercial in an unglamorous industrial neighbourhood that would appear more likely to host a metal fabrication shop. But then, that’s in part what Storm is. James has a workshop with a welding kit ready to go, allowing him to maintain the equipment he built himself from salvaged metal… a former dairy tank over there, a yoghurt maker over there. It’s not just the beer that’s handcrafted.
Which brings us to the brewer. James is a pioneer who started Storm in 1994, when there were only a couple of craft breweries in Vancouver. His independent streak and the fact that there was little precedent for what he was doing led him to build the facility himself. He's also a self-taught brewer who cultivates his own yeast thanks to his training as a mycologist — a biologist specializing in "yeast, mold, slime and spores” — a line James takes from Harold Ramis’ character in the classic Ghostbusters. “I heard that line and thought ‘That’s me. I’m Egon!'”
Given his innovative, do-it-yourself style, he’s been called a guerrilla brewer, an alchemist, a mad scientist. His eclectic brewery has been called Grandpa’s Garage. His platform shoes and spiky blond hair only add to the mystique.
