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From BioWare to Beer: How Greg Zeschuk Turns Dreams into Reality


As a medical student in the 1990s, BioWare co-founder Greg Zeschuk told his future wife that if he could, he would make video games for a living. But he knew better than to plan his life around it. “It was a pipe dream,” was how he put it at the time.

The story of how fantasy dreams come true — the story that saw BioWare create blockbuster games including Block effect, Baldur Gateand Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic prior to sold to Electronic Arts along with another company for $860 million in 2007 — is a folk legend in Edmonton, Alberta, where Zeschuk has spent most of his life.

Now 53-year-old Zeschuk is living another dream: He started a brewing company, Blind enthusiasmand he runs two microfibre factories, Market and Monolith, along with a restaurant, Bierawhich is considered one of the hottest eateries in his hometown.

Zeschuk has always enjoyed drinking beer, and long before visiting craft breweries was considered fun, he decided to do so whenever in America. However, it wasn’t until he started spending a lot of time working in the Austin, Texas, BioWare offices in 2007 and 2008, that he developed a real passion for brewing as a business.

The craft beer scene in the Texas capital is booming, and in the rare time Zeschuk isn’t working on the game, he’s been checking out local breweries. Being a curious person, he soon began interviewing brewers and posting videos online under the name “Beer Diary. ”

In 2017, the PBS branch in Austin approached him about working on a larger international version of “The Beer Diaries.” Zeschuk retired from BioWare over the next five years; Running a company made him successful, especially as his near-constant business travel made it impossible for him to stay away from his wife and children in Edmonton.

However, he is not ready to settle down yet. He is considering saying yes to PBS. Then his wife pointed out the obvious.

“You quit the game because you traveled a lot, and now you want to do a show where you travel around the world and interview brewers?” she asked.

Forced to reassess his priorities, Zeschuk chooses a different angle. “I think I can make beer,” he said. “I could build a brewing business. And that’s what happened. ”

Alberta is an ideal place to brew beer. The province’s barley, one of the province’s main agricultural exports, is among the best in the world. Hops grow like a weed, although the market for product grown in Alberta is not nearly as established as the market for hops from neighboring British Columbia and the Northwestern United States.

For years, the province’s craft beer industry was restricted by the Alberta Game and Wine Commission, whose strict regulations made it nearly impossible for small brewers to gain a foothold.

“They say you have to create 5,000 hectares a year to start a brewery,” recalls Zeschuk, whose two facilities now produce about 1,000 hectares per year. “All the small startups, the ones with two people working in a warehouse, they couldn’t do it because they weren’t big enough.”

That changed in 2013, a year after Zeschuk retired. A handful of small craft brewers who have managed to succeed — some by producing their products in British Columbia — have established a professional organization, Small Brewers Association of Alberta. They are looking for an executive. Zeschuk was looking for something to do.



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