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In 2013, Adam Mills, along with brothers Brent and Sean and father Greg, decided to start a small business in the form of a brewery. It was to be a small operation. At the time, Delta-based Four Winds Brewing was the 52nd brewery in Canada. 

“At the time we thought we were way late to the game,” says Mills with a chuckle over a video call. “Little did we know there’d be hundreds more to follow us. It’s been pretty insane to see the growth.”

Four Winds, with its clean but colourful packaging and acclaimed beers (like its Juxtapose IPA, Nectarous Sour, and Elementary Lager) quickly developed a following that stretched past its Delta roots. “We started small, but we got to a place where we added a lot of square footage and more vessels to produce beer,” says Mills. “We spent five years growing and went from a small startup to a brewery that’s capable of producing beer for all of B.C.”

The times were good for awhile, as breweries kept opening one after another. Then COVID hit, which killed the ability of breweries to sell to restaurants (though it did help packaged beer sales). The death blow for many in the industry came in the economic slowdown of the last few years, in which rising costs and consumers’ ability to take on higher prices evaporated. 

“No one thought there was a ceiling or a bubble, and I don’t know if it’s that,” says Mills. “The economy and the industry have changed. But certainly it’s been harder in the last three-to-five years. More competition, trying to get shelf space, rising costs and consumers’ ability to take on higher prices, which they aren’t able to. It’s been a challenge on the profitability side of the business.”

Four Winds has weathered that storm well enough to open a new location in the Mills’ family home of Tsawwassen. The new spot, Four Winds Beach House & Brewery in Tsawwassen’s Southlands, is a sprawling restaurant that can house over 200 customers and nearly tripled the company’s staff from around 40 to some 120 employees. 

The plan had been a long time coming. In 2019, Four Winds partnered with real estate developer Century Group to build a new brewery in the Southlands neighbourhood. That plan was rejected in a razor-thin council vote due to its proposed industrial use. 

A revised plan that didn’t include the previous sizeable brewing facility was approved in 2023. Last year, the Beach House opened. And while things have been going about as well at the new location as possible, Mills acknowledges that there is still a lot of inherent risk that comes with the territory of opening a large hospitality business in the current economic climate. 

“It’s a little scary. Sometimes we questioned ourselves, but we stuck with our vision,” he says. “It was about really contributing to the community in a meaningful way. We’re from Tsawwassen and always felt like it was a dream of ours to build a really community-focused hub, an establishment where people could come, meet, be social. A second home. The long-term version is starting to pay off, we’re not chasing a trend.”

In 2020, Greg Mills, Four Winds co-founder and Adam’s dad, ed away. The company named its Greg West Coast IPA after him (and adorned the can with boats as an homage to his love for building wooden boats) and remains dedicated to the mission he and his family set out to accomplish. 

“Building something sustainable and something that will last a long time is our vision for what we do,” says Mills. “It’s a family business—it’s about legacy and contributing to the community. That’s our approach. We made a massive investment [with Beach House] and it’ll take a long time to pay off. But the more we give back, the more the community comes around and s us.”