BEER

SMALL-TOWN

BY STEPHEN BEAUMONT

NESTLED IN CHARMING TOWNS, ONTARIO’S SMALL INDEPENDENT BREWERIES MAKE GREAT DAY-TRIP DESTINATIONS—NOT JUST FOR THE TASTINGS AND TOURS, BUT FOR OTHER LOCAL HIGHLIGHTS, TOO!

With more than 200 operational brewing licences now in -Ontario, the days when craft beer was an urban phenom enon are well behind us. Today, you’re as likely to fnd an exciting and inventive brewery in a small, rural town or midsized city as you are in a major metropolis, as is illustrated by these fve exceptional operations, of the beaten track but centre stage when it comes to their beer.

NEW LIMBURG BREWING | SIMCOE

As Ontario’s craft-brewing industry developed through the early 21st century, one area in which it lagged was that of Belgian-style beers, a fact immediately apparent to Jo Geven after he moved his family from Belgium to Simcoe in 2003, and also quite frustrating.

Moved to begin home brewing with his son Mischa so that he could drink the beers he loved, Jo developed his hobby over time into a family business housed in a disused schoolhouse, with Mischa heading the brewing side, wife Yvonne designing labels and packaging, daughter Milou in the lab, and Jo in charge of management and sales.

LOCAL CULTURE MUST-SEE

Nautical enthusiasts will want to visit the nearby Port Dover Harbour Museum, a treasure trove of memorabilia including artifacts salvaged from Lake Erie shipwrecks and exhibits on Prohibition-era rum running. 12 Harbour St, Port Dover. Cloudy gold with a spicy, floral, faintly herbal aroma, New Limburg’s Belgian Blond (LCBO 480608, 500 mL, $3.90) is, like many of the brewery’s other ales, defned by its peppery yeastiness, with a fruity spice upfront and a more reserved, white peppery and herbal second half and lightly bitter fnish. Rich gold in colour, Walkerville’s fagship Honest Lager (LCBO 407650, 473 mL, $2.75) is meant to pay homage to the beer that distiller Hiram Walker was said to want to produce when he opened the frst Walkerville Brewery in 1890. And in its bready, foral aroma and frmly malty, drying and bitter-fnishing body, it does just that!

WALKERVILLE BREWERY | WINDSOR

When the brewery tenant in his 100-year-old former Hiram Walker warehouse fnally succumbed to financial pressures after over a decade in business, landlord Mike Brkovich found himself reluctant to say goodbye. So instead of seeing what had become a bit of a community institution broken up and shipped away, he arranged to buy and resuscitate the Walkerville Brewery.

“For me, the brewery is more than just somewhere we make beer,” explains Brkovich. “It’s a community space where we can support and liaise with community groups.” And if that networking happens over a pint of two of the brewery’s beer, well, so much the better!

LOCAL CULTURE MUST-SEE

For a novel art experience, visit the museum without walls that is the Windsor Sculpture Park, stretching along the Detroit River for more than 2.5 kilometres and home to 31 stunning, large-scale works. Between Huron Church Road and Church Street, Windsor.

Fashioned after the famed kölsch beers of Cologne, Germany, Cowbell’s Absent Landlord (LCBO 469981, 473 mL, $2.95) has a sweetly fruity nose and rich but lean maltiness with peppery notes on the fnish, giving it both the fortitude to stand up to Ontario winters and the refreshing character necessary for the province’s hot and humid summers.

LOCAL CULTURE MUST-SEE

One of the only annual theatre events to feature exclusively Canadian content, the Blyth Festival celebrates its 42nd season this summer with three world premieres and a play by celebrated native playwright Drew Hayden Taylor. A highlight of the summer season is the Bonanza weekend during which all four productions are shown over three days from August 18 to 20. 423 Queen St., Blyth, Ont.

Also in August is the Celtic Roots Festival in nearby Goderich, Ont., celebrating the music, craft and culture of the Celtic nations over three days from August 11 to 13. Locations vary; see celticfestival.ca for more information.

COWBELL BREWING | BLYTH

As Steven Sparling tells it, his father received a tremendous amount of support from the local community when he frst opened his hardware store in Blyth, Ont., in 1950, support he was anxious to return once he had developed his small shop into a signifcant propane business. Now the co-founder of Cowbell Brewing with his son Grant, Steven is determined to continue that legacy of giving back to the region.

Which is why, for example, Cowbell was planned from Day One to be a destination brewery—slated to open this summer—rather than simply a beer production factory. With a restaurant and expansive patio—Mil’s Veranda, named for Sparling’s mother, Mildred—parking and seating for busloads, it has, of course a shiny, tour-worthy brewery and a retail shop.

It is also why father and son have built social responsibility into their new business, with the goal of having North America’s frst carbon-neutral brewery and a Greener Pastures initiative that sees a nickel from every pint or can of Cowbell beer sold donated to local community and charitable organizations.

And it’s also in keeping with what Steven describes as his brewery’s mission statement: “The world doesn’t need another brewery,” he says. “So if we’re going to do this, we’d better be doing something diferent.”

MACLEAN’S ALES | HANOVER

If you have spent any time at all drinking craft beer in Ontario, it is likely that you have tried at least one or two of Charles MacLean’s brews. A co-founder of the pioneering Wellington County Brewery, MacLean was also in on the ground foor at the F&M Brewery, now StoneHammer Brewing, as well as consulting for almost a dozen other brewing operations along the way.

In 2009, MacLean retreated to his farm and established a small sole proprietorship but soon realized that demand was greater than what his small brewery could supply. Hanover beckoned, so with loyal customers as investors, MacLean moved his brewing operation to a new community that welcomed the arrival of a hometown beer brand with great enthusiasm.

LOCAL CULTURE MUST-SEE

While it might lack the excitement of harness racing at the nearby Hanover Raceway, there is a soothing, summery feel to watching a double bill from your car at the Hanover Drive-In. 033277 Grey Rd. 28 (Drive-In Road), Hanover, Ont. MacLean started brewing his Pale Ale (LCBO 464081, 473 mL, $2.90) in 1993, so it’s hardly surprising that he seems to have got it right. Copper-coloured with a spicy, leafy aroma that stands in contrast to today’s bevy of citrus-hued beers, it has a balanced, tofee-ish body with tannic notes and a bone-dry fnish. Deep russet-brown in colour, Kilannan Alt (LCBO 370296, 473 mL, $3.00) has a distinct and appealing earthiness to its aroma, which harkens to the beer style’s origins in northern Germany. The parallels continue with a gently sweet and leafy start, appetizing and faintly roasty middle, and quenching of-dry fnish.

KILANNAN BREWING | OWEN SOUND

After Spencer Wareham left Owen Sound, Ont., to attend brewing schools in Chicago and Munich, he did something very unusual; he returned to the city where he spent his formative teenage years.

“A lot of young people leave Owen Sound to go to school and never come back,” explains Wareham, “So I think it meant a lot that this 23-year-old kid returned to open up a brewery.”

Which is not to say that success was immediate for Wareham, since he still had to convince the locals that his German-style beers were worth spending money on. But with the drink-local factor on his side, he says, his neighbours eventually developed enough interest to give his beers a try, and before long found themselves enjoying them.

LOCAL CULTURE MUST-SEE

Group of Seven devotees won’t want to miss the Tom Thomson Art Gallery, founded in Canada’s centennial year and home to one of the country’s largest collections of Thomson art. 840 First Avenue West, Owen Sound, Ont.