Cousins craft success with microbrewery and bar in Montreal

Alex Wills was living on the 82nd floor of the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, the tallest building in the world, several years ago and was working as an executive in the oil industry. One day he looked out his window, which didn’t open, and he thought: ‘What the heck am I doing here?’

That epiphany brought him back to Quebec, where he’s from originally, and eventually led him to start a microbrewery and an attached bar in the Mile-Ex area of town with his cousin Ethan Wills. Wills, the bar, is located in the same space as the old Alexandraplatz Bar, and it’s a popular spot for locals and fans of high-quality micro beers. The brewery itself is next door in the same building, on the site of what used to be the Brasserie du Vieux Montréal.

Their beers, which go under the brand Wills, are taking off, now selling in more than 350 locations, including bars, restaurants, grocery stores and dépanneurs that sell high-end beers.

That moment in 2018 in Dubai changed everything for Alex.

“I felt quite alienated from my roots. I was as far as I could imagine from where I grew up,” said Alex, who spent the first couple of decades of his life living near Shawville in rural western Quebec, just down the road from his cousin Ethan and his family.

“I was feeling alienated from family and friends and my roots, and I felt a bit of impostor syndrome. Sort of Icarus and impostor syndrome combined. So I decided to quit and come back.”

That’s when Alex and Ethan started talking more seriously about starting a microbrewery together. They had hinted at the idea before, but this is when they decided to pursue it for real.

Ethan had followed a completely different path from his cousin. He got into the happening Mile End restaurant bar scene about 20 years ago, first at Sparrow, and then he moved on to run a couple of hip, successful restos in the neighbourhood, Larry’s and Lawrence.

Then came the first COVID lockdown in March 2020, and “and that was the first opportunity for a bit of reflection and assessment of where things were at in my career,” Ethan said.

“I mean, the restaurant industry is a perpetual hamster wheel. You’re just constantly trying to stay above water. You never have time to stop and assess. So by virtue of that little pause at the beginning of COVID, I was able to look at the option of switching gears. And craft beer was something I’d developed an interest in and passion for while I was operating restaurants.”

They found the location on Esplanade Ave. in Mile-Ex and thought they had the perfect spot. The cousins pulled together a small group of investors and the two Wills literally started tearing stuff out and renovating the building themselves. They’d come in, put on their work clothes, play some tunes and smash a bunch of pipes.

“Then smash some beers at the end of the day,” Alex added.

It took about two-and-a-half years to renovate the building, and they began brewing their first beers in the summer of 2023. The bar had actually opened earlier, even before they had their own beers to put on the menu.

They make mighty flavourful craft beers, but their philosophy is to stay away from the more extreme IPAs, unlike some microbreweries that go out of their way to challenge your tastebuds.

“We entered the industry thinking there would be a return to (a kind of beer) that was more reliable, something that was consistent and was made from tried-and-true recipes,” Ethan said. “Not necessarily pushing the boundaries of what people are willing to spend. We were always looking to make a product that demonstrated a degree of complexity and quality that most experienced beer drinkers could appreciate. But also possessing a degree of balance and accessibility that could convert more people to the world of craft beer. That it wasn’t just going to be a niche product.”

Added Alex: “It’s big-tent craft beer. The beers satisfy the beer geeks, the discerning beer fans, but also people who’ve never tried beer like this before and really impressing upon them how much better this is than macro beer.”

And both the microbrewery and the bar took off right away.

It’s really about the concept of balance with the beers, Ethan said.

“We want our beers to be expressive but never out of tune,” Ethan said. “Stuff that you can enjoy in many contexts. With food. On their own. Able to drink more than one without feeling palette fatigued. Trying to make it expressive and versatile but not necessarily entering into that realm of melt-your-face hop bombs.”

They’ve been quite involved in the arts milieu from Day 1. They are the beer sponsor for the indie music fest Pop Montreal and have hosted Pop shows on their terrasse.

And they say it has been a blast working together.

“There’s that unconditional trust and love for one another,” Alex said. “We bring complementary skill sets to the table. But we also like one another and get along well and accept each other’s peculiarities, which are many.”

But they come from very different backgrounds.

“Alex comes from a scientific background academically and professionally, I come from a more humanities and arts background,” Ethan said. “But at the same time, Alex has a very strong creative impulse, and I also have a maddening drive toward precision and order.”

This past spring, they began exporting their beer to Europe and have also started sending the brew to Alberta and Manitoba.

And Alex doesn’t regret for a moment leaving the high-stakes oil business behind and making the move from the 82nd floor of a skyscraper in Dubai to a hipster bar in Mile-Ex.

“We’re in the business of making people happy,” Alex said. “So serving beers to people, the customers have a smile on their faces, and that’s a very gratifying part of it. Seeing how people respond to the beers that we make. It feels great. It feels like we’re doing the right thing.”

bkelly@postmedia.com

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