The taps are on at Mile Zero Brewery in Metchosin

How would you feel if your old elementary school turned into a brewery? That exact thing has happened in Metchosin.

“This was my Grade 3 classroom,” one customer said as he walked into Mile Zero Brewing’s taproom. The nano brewery opened in the old school house in Metchosin, long since converted into a community centre with space leased to small businesses.

Owners Michelle and Michael Morgan, and Dirk Slot hoped to open in May, but were only able to open their doors this Saturday. Licensing and construction went well, but the foam material that insulates their walk-in fridge is in short supply, so it took nine months to arrive.

Nine months longer is nothing for locals who told the Morgans they’d been talking about getting a brewery in Metchosin for the last 20 years.

For opening day, they tried to keep the news hush-hush, but nothing stays secret long in Metchosin. With help of the Very Merry Makers Market in the same schoolhouse and word of mouth, people couldn’t help but notice the lights were on in the brewery.

“The line up was out the door all day,” Michael said. So far the Farmhouse Ale and Wheat Are battling it out for most popular brews. A crabapple Belgian Ale and IPA are coming soon.

The brewery has five beers on tap, and more coming. Don’t expect to see Mile Zero in liquor stores or restaurants; the trio plan to brew enough to sell in the tap room and fill growlers. Almost all of their ingredients are locally sourced from Field Five Farm in Saanich, and in future they hope to get as much as they can hyper locally from Metchosin.

The taproom is still in its soft launch phase, which means the art and sound baffling are still to come. But the beer’s cold, the owners are friendly, and Metchosin is showing up.

Mile Zero joins a handful of local breweries on the Westshore including three in Sooke, and one each in Langford and View Royal.