Drinking differently

The story of BluePearl has humble and rather clandestine beginnings. It all started in the bedroom of a small apartment in Montreal’s Villeray neighborhood, in a way that was very illegal and very unexpected.

Co-founders Karl and Jonathan have known each other their whole lives. One day, Karl developed a passion for beer while brewing for the engineering faculty during his chemical engineering studies in Sherbrooke. Jonathan, meanwhile, had a knack for distilling alcohol. A self-taught enthusiast, he was able to carry out his first distillation experiments thanks to the internet. Sharing their expertise, Karl and Jonathan began to collaborate more seriously to develop a few spirit recipes.

One day, a young man showed up at Jonathan’s place to view the apartment upstairs. This was Francis. While signing his lease at Jonathan’s, Francis noticed the fermentation vessels and asked to taste the final product. The verdict was conclusive; the entrepreneurial spark had already been lit in Francis’s mind.

Discussions continued throughout the summer, and Francis showed a great deal of interest. Finally, he decided to take the plunge and launch the project. One day, he showed up at Jonathan’s place having completed all the steps required to start a business: a business plan, financing, permit application forms, distillery planning—it was all there!

With Karl’s technical expertise, Jonathan’s passion for distillation, and his own leadership, Francis proposed that they join forces to create a new microdistillery. By mutual agreement, the trio embarked on the adventure. All that remained was to find a name for those future droplets of fine spirits coming out of the still. They found it: “Blue” for Bluteau (Francis’s last name) and for the pride of Quebec, and “Pearl” for Perlstein (Jonathan’s last name).

And so, Jonathan Perlstein, Karl Fortin, and Francis Bluteau became partners and co-founded BluePearl Distillery in 2017. The facilities for the new Quebec microdistillery were established in 2018 in the Hochelaga-Maisonneuve neighborhood in the east end of Montreal, and the rest of the story is being written in the present.