KINGSTON LIVING

Stone City Brew Co.

BY ANDREW HIND PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF STONE CITY BREW CO.

A small craft brewery that does beer right.

Nestled in the historic heart of Downtown Kingston, Stone City Brew Co., formerly known as Stone City Ales, is a small craft brewery that does beer right. Yes, the location does have a tap room and restaurant which serves up hospitality and good food in equal measure. But Stone City is first and foremost a brewery so their attention is firmly set on making the best possible brews. That means they don’t cut corners. >>

Every beer is made with passion and a commitment to excellence, including only the best ingredients.

They source the best ingredients from around the world and use local ones as often as possible, without sacrificing quality. Every beer is made with passion and a commitment to excellence. They’re all about creativity and encourage their brew team to keep exploring in a quest for exciting new flavour profiles.

Stone City Brew Co. also has a great story. “The company was founded by Ron Shore in 2014, making us one of the first small craft breweries in downtown Kingston and, from the beginning, Stone City Brew Co. set out to change the way beer was made,” explains general manager Bailey Jewitt. “We wanted to return beer to its craft roots, to focus on quality and small-batch beers made by hand and with love.”

It was also Shore’s belief that a good beer should reflect its community. “We have hard water here in Kingston, the result of the limestone bedrock upon which the city is built,” Bailey says. “Hard water affects hop expression. We’ve had to learn to work with our water profile, to produce truly local beer reflecting our community, and producing a wide variety of brews to meet all palates.”

The distinctive flavours of Stone City Brew Co.’s beers quickly struck a chord with people in Kingston, and early success allowed them to move into their current location on Princess Street a year later, a spot with a sizable dining room and two patios, one on the street and the other off the tap room

Locals have come to know and love the lineup of mainstay beers that are consistently stocked in Stone City’s fridges: the awardwinning Uncharted IPA, the brewery favourite 12 Star Session Ale, and a year-round oatmeal stout, Ships in the Night, a dark beer with hints of chocolate, caramel, toffee and roasted dark coffee.

Beer lovers are encouraged to return regularly, as bi-weekly special one-off batch brews are unveiled. Take special note of their current special release, We Hear You, a Double Dry Hopped Session Sour Ale in support of the Sexual Assault Centre Kingston (SACK).

“This was an initiative that had special meaning to me. With a month-long social media campaign organized with SACK, we had also visited as many downtown bars and restaurants as we could, to provide free education on the relationship between alcohol use and sexual assault,” Bailey explains. “We had many bars and restaurants participate in our initiative to cultivate a safer industry, by buying kegs to help us fundraise, and putting up posters to educate customers and staff on awareness in preventing sexual assault.”

Stone City Ales has a lineup of mainstay beers as well as bi-weekly special one-off batch brews.

Stone City Brew Co. offers an on-site bottle shop allowing customers to access a list of their available bottled beers often selling seasonal special packs and more. In response to the pandemic, they installed a take-out window to ensure the bottle shop was as safe as possible. Stone City also does deliveries – free in-town local deliveries, three times a week, and monthly as far as Toronto and Ottawa.

The vibe of the brewery is lively and warm, the flavours of their beers refreshingly unique – everything about Stone City Brew Co. screams passion.

“We love beer, and we love our community,” says Bailey. “That’s the secret to our success.”

stonecityales.com @ Stonecitybrewco_