The Growler Ontario • Volume 1 Issue 1 • May-July 2018

VOLUME

01 01 ISSUE

o n ta r i o

$2 C R A F T

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NORTH & EAST (GTA)

O N TA R I O

TORONTO

REGIONS COVERED IN THIS ISSUE:

HAMILTON & WEST (GTA)

NIAGARA

PUBLISHER Gail Nugent gnugent@thegrowler.ca EDITOR David Ort david@thegrowler.ca CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Crystal Luxmore CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Lito Howse, Ben Johnson Jordan St. John PRODUCTION & DESIGN MANAGER Tara Rafiq tara@thegrowler.ca PHOTOGRAPHY David Ort, Tiffany Mayer COVER ILLUSTRATION Cai Sepulis SOCIAL MEDIA David Ort ADVERTISING Krysta Frederick krysta@thegrowler.ca DISTRIBUTION Craig Sweetman (Newsstand) Debbie Tang (Direct) orders@thegrowler.ca SUBSCRIPTIONS on.thegrowler.ca/subscribe Copyright Â© The Growler 2018 No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without the written permission of the publisher. Every effort is made to avoid errors and omissions. If you notice an error, please accept our apologies and notify us. Published by Glacier Media Group thegrowler.ca | @thegrowleron

Breweries by Region 30 53 57 62

TORONTO NORTH & EAST (GTA) HAMILTON & WEST (GTA) NIAGARA

Contents 06 08 11 14 18 21 24 27 66

A PLACE TO BREW BREWING A BUNCH BREWER VS BREWER: YOURS TO DISCOVER PUTTING AWAY PINTS HIP HOPS TRAVEL: KITCHENER/WATERLOO RECIPE: SCOTCH EGGS VINES & BINES BEER TO THE GROUND

LEGEND

reading the growler for newbies Beer Glassware

A guide of recommended glassware that will cover most of the beers in this book. Impress friends and annoy enemies (or vice versa) with this knowledge.

STANGE Kölsch Alt Gose

PILSNER Lagers Pilsner Witbier

NONIC PINT

Pale ale Porter Most ales, actually

Beer Colour Guide PALE

GROWLER FILLS

PALE GOLD

BOTTLES / CANS

GOLD

KEGS

PALE AMBER

TASTING ROOM

MEDIUM AMBER

ON-SITE KITCHEN OR FOOD TRUCK

DEEP AMBER

TOURS

BROWN

KID FRIENDLY

RUBY BROWN

GLUTEN-FREE BOOZE OPTIONS

BLACK

Growler ApproveD

WEIZEN

Hefeweizen Weizenbock American wheat

TULIP

Saison Double IPA Strong ales

GOBLET

Dubbel Belgian Strong Tripel

Brewery Details

Beer Profiles

Indication of beer colour and suggested glassware

IT'S CALLED WHAT? W H AT T Y P E O F B E E R I S T H AT ? Availability Where to get it

SNIFTER

ABV

Barley wine Quad Anything funky

IBU

00% 00

Editor's note

Welcome to The Growler. I’m very happy to be part of a great team covering Ontario craft breweries at such an exciting moment.

We’re your ultimate guide to the amazing beer being brewed in this province, and the fascinating people who make it happen. We're combining brewery profiles with features about Ontario’s growing craft brewing indus-

Denotes 10 new, exciting or otherwise excellent beers that we think are worth drinking now. Is the beer available year-round, seasonally or as a one-off ? Where to find it: B (Brewery), L (Licensees, bars and restaurants), LCBO (liquor store) and TBS (The Beer Store). ABV (alcohol by volume) tells you how boozy the beer is. IBU (International Bitterness Units) tells you about a beer's perceived bitterness.

try to create an indispensable resource for those who love beer.

For this issue, our handy directory covers Toronto and the surrounding area, including Hamilton and the Niagara Region. (Happy studying, there will be a quiz later.) In the early fall, we’ll add sections for southwestern Ontario and grow from there.

But enough from me, let's get into the excellent beer. Cheers! —David Ort, editor

Brew A PLACE to

by David Ort

e’ve come to an important juncture in Ontario’s craft beer revival.

News dropped this season that with the opening of People’s Pint in the Junction, we have 250 operating breweries in the province. That’s up from the five companies (big and small) who were manufacturing beer in the late 1970s. Also on the “pro” side of the whiteboard is the fact that Ralph Morana and family will be reopening Bar Volo, their seminal pub that figures prominently in so many of Ontario’s “how I got into good beer” stories. Other pluses were Bar Hop opening a third location, Silversmith announcing a huge expansion and craft beer’s success finding a home everywhere from Niagara’s wine country to Toronto’s Bay Street, to the revitalized areas of Steeltown, to the small towns in Durham. On the “con” side I have bullet points for the well-substantiated rumour that LCBO sales for local craft beer, from established breweries, has slipped for the first time in years. More concretely, Ben’s Beer Blog (by Growler contributor, Ben Johnson) broke the news that Stonehammer Brewing in Guelph has closed. That’s surprising because during their former life as F&M, one of Ontario’s most recognizable brewing talents, Charles MacLean was the “M” in the name. Word soon followed that Grand River Brewing in Cambridge was up for sale. If it goes, I’ll miss their Mill Race mild and Ploughman’s ale. It would be nice if breweries only ever opened, but sometimes businesses just run out of gas. This is not a reckoning; we have not reached peak craft beer. You can hold me to that. As an example, Toronto continues to do a remarkable job of attracting world-class brewmasters. Luc

Beau's All-Natural Brewing has joined the ranks of Ontario breweries with an online bottle shop. David Ort photo.

“Bim” Lafontaine’s Godspeed Brewery just turned one year old and seems to have hit its stride. Nearby, Brunswick Bierworks landed Lodewijk Swinkels as the head of operations for their host brewing facility. He comes from more than a decade at De Koningshoeven Brewery, the Dutch makers of La Trappe. Ontario breweries are also experimenting with new ways to get their product into our hands. Across the province, from Beau’s in Vankleek Hill to Block Three in St. Jacob’s, they have set up shop on the internet to sell their beer Etsy-style. More often than ever before, craft beer is going into cans. At Eastbound, Junction and People’s Pint (to name just three) some of these are large, one-litre-ish crowlers that are filled to order. Left Field (and others) have started to experiment with a wide-mouth option, as well. It’s a wonderful time for craft beer in Ontario. I’m thrilled that The Growler gets to be in the mix and report back as the industry and its innovators and craftspeople grow and flourish. j

Brewing a bunch Relief is coming for those raising a family in the craft beer industry by Crystal Luxmore

A few months back, Wellington Brewery’s head brewer came to management with a request to take six weeks of paternity leave when his new baby is born this year. Brewmaster Marvin Dyck, 38, was surprised. He has six kids of his own, all born while he was working at the brewery. When his first child, son Ryan, was born in 2003, Dyck took one day off work. He slept overnight in the delivery room with his wife and new baby before returning to the brewery to oversee production. “I didn’t feel I could be away that long,” he explains.

To encourage more partners to take time off work post-baby, the plan would mean that a couple gets 40 weeks, instead of 35, if they both participate and each take at least five weeks off. The bureaucratic details go further, trust me, and it’s good news for the people who dedicate themselves to craft beer and are eager about starting a family. But it will also be a new stress for small and medium-sized breweries in Ontario. Of the six I spoke to for this story, between 75 to 85 per cent of employees are male, and these potential dads are now more likely to take paternity leave.

By the time his fifth daughter was born three years ago, he took a one-week vacation. “I had seniority by then and the brewery has more capacity now so there are actually people who can step in when I’m gone,” he says.

“What happens when someone who is crucial to your operations wants six weeks off during the summer, our peak time?” asks Dyck. After all, it was only last year that the brewery allowed employees to take two weeks vacation in a row, he says.

The new federal EI Parental Sharing Benefit (that definitely sounds like a government program, right?) will mean that new fathers and same-sex spouses will have more time at home.

Even the idea of paternity leave can be hard for those who call the shots at breweries to wrap their head around since it isn’t something senior male managers experienced when they had children.

If I choose to bring my kids to work, I can. My son was behind the bar with me at the taproom all weekend.

—Erin Broadfoot, Little Beasts Brewing Co.

“But our world is changing,” says Dyck. “We have so much data on work stress and what it’s doing to people’s work lives, there’s a reason for this legislation.” Indeed. People don’t get into craft brewing to get rich. They’re driven by passion—often starting their careers fresh out of university or college. But when it comes to growing a family, benefits and salaries have to be in place to support employees, or else they exit, taking valuable skills with them. The new EI Benefit is just one of a slew of legislative changes introduced this year aimed at fostering gender equity and protecting vulnerable workers. And these new standards will make it a little easier to raise a family while working at a craft brewery. Like most small businesses, the vast majority of craft breweries do not offer maternity leave top-ups and vary widely when it comes to benefits packages, flex time and salaries. “Lots of craft beer jobs are minimum wage,” says Erin Broadfoot, brewmaster and co-owner of Little Beasts Brew-

ing in Whitby. “And as for the doorways in—you have to shovel your fair amount of junk as you climb the ranks.” Broadfoot learned this firsthand when she broke into the industry. The mother of three was working as a naturopath when she caught the homebrew bug in 2015. She waited two years until her three kids were out of daycare before she took the pay cut to follow her dream to become a brewer. But with her husband, Keir, now the chief breadwinner, she was also the parent who had to be home for Maia (14), Ruari (8), and Caius (7). She brewed professionally for two years, but the hours weren’t working. Broadfoot started looking at job postings at larger breweries hoping for 9-to5 hours, but all of the positions there also required eight or 12-hour shifts—and if the brew went wrong—who knew what time you’d get home? “I decided then, if I’m going to be broke and overworked, I was going to do it on my own terms.” Together with business partner John Henley, she opened Little Beasts Brewing Co., in Whitby last October. While Broadfoot and Henley >>

I asked if I could make a formal request in writing outlining why I think a maternity leave policy would be great, given that it aligns really well with Muskoka’s values. —Shannon Mulligan, Muskoka Brewing Co. both have young kids, they named the brewery after yeast, the “little beasts” of beer. At the back of the small space is a kids zone—they have snacks in the fridge, board games, video games and books to keep the future beer aficionados busy. “Financially and timewise there are big challenges with owning your own brewery,” says Broadfoot. “But if I choose to bring my kids to work, I can. My son was behind the bar with me at the taproom all weekend.” Working weekends while raising a family isn’t something Shannon Mulligan wanted to do. So, knowing she was planning to have a family, the 29-year-old stayed away from a sales position, which required a lot of late nights, weekends or travel. These days, as Muskoka’s marketing specialist, she works from her Toronto home and has lots of flexibility. Mulligan had her baby this March and faced the question of how much her income would change

while she was on maternity leave. Most breweries can’t afford to top up the government’s maternity leave benefit, and at Muskoka there wasn’t a topup in place. “So I asked if I could make a formal request in writing outlining why I think a maternity leave policy would be great, given that it aligns really well with Muskoka’s values,” says Mulligan. “In the three years I’ve been here we’ve added an RRSP plan and employer contributions, so it seems like a natural progression to me.” Two months later, her request was granted. Now, along with Steam Whistle, the 22-year-old brewery now offers one of the best employee benefits, education and vacation programs in the province. And Muskoka is the only brewery in Ontario that is Living Wage certified. That means it pays all of its employees a wage that is above a regulated calculation of how much a family of four, with two full-time earners, needs to get by above the poverty line in a given community. The Ontario Living Wage Network calculated that for people in Muskoka it’s $15.85 per hour. In Toronto, it’s $18.52. If a large number of brewery jobs are paying minimum wage, that doesn’t leave room to support a family. As breweries grow larger, hopefully more benefits and perks above the bare minimum will come into play. But most change comes when employees ask for it. Whether it’s an entitlement or a perk that isn’t being offered, “it can never hurt to ask for it,” says Mulligan, “And it just might not be on anybody’s radar… but unless you bring it to the forefront it’s very unlikely that things will change.” j

BREWER Iain McOustra

vs.

Subtitle Subtitle

by David Ort

Mike Lackey

Words and photos by David Ort

BREWER

The young masters edition

f you’re at least a little bit committed to craft beer in Ontario, especially the southern part of the province, you’ve had a beer made by Amsterdam or Great Lakes. From Canuck and Boneshaker to Karma Citra and Double Tempest, these are foundational beers. Now, if you’re really lucky, your Untappd list includes a beer made by both breweries—Life Sentence, Ezra or Maverick & Gose to name three. Amsterdam was founded in 1986, Great Lakes a year later in 1987. Both have grown remarkably over that combined 60 years of making beer, but also have maintained a reputation for consistent quality. Undoubtedly, that has a lot to do with the creative heads of the respective brewing teams—Iain McOustra at Amsterdam and Mike Lackey at Great Lakes. Lackey and McOustra are friends and both fit the same humble, soft-spoken, “I’d rather my beer speak for me” model. But with experience and a devotion to improvement comes a deep well of opinions on the craft beer situation in Ontario, circa 2018. The three of us gathered at Bryden’s, a casual sports bar in Toronto’s Bloor West neighbourhood, for a few hometown pints and a discussion of the current state of their industry. >>

LACKEY For Iain, I think it might have been hard to say to the bosses: “Hey, I’m going to make a gose” at that point. MCOUSTRA Oh, for sure. LACKEY But it’s a collab so we’re going to do crazy stuff no one’s heard of. And it’s a collab with this idiot down at Great Lakes and [he could] put the blame on it being a fun thing. MCOUSTRA Back in the day, you were taking risks. You were also learning from that person. Almost always back then, for a collaboration, you were doing a style you wouldn’t normally do. Something that was new. For its 30th anniversary last year, Great Lakes released some more of Ezra, including the No. 10, which was a Belgian-style farmhouse ale aged in West Avenue cider barrels.

GROWLER Are collaboration brews worthwhile? What do you guys get out of it? MCOUSTRA Oh, you gotta go first, brother. LACKEY Well, for sure. At the start, when I first met Iain, it was about trying to find like-minded people in the industry as we were trying to do some different things. I think we met at Volo the first time and just started talking. We realised we had some of the same ideas and goals. Collaboration, pretty early on, was about getting to make a beer together. GROWLER What did you get out of the process? MCOUSTRA I certainly learned a lot more from some of the collaborations I’ve done, particularly with Lackey. Also from one I did with Matt Tweedy. I’ve learned more through that than some of the formal brewing education I’ve done. It’s a matter of talking ideas through; understanding flavour impact a bit more; really taking risks with that person on styles we haven’t brewed before. I’ve kind of moved away from doing collaborations because there is so much of that out there. And there doesn’t seem like there’s the same impact. LACKEY Maverick & Gose was the one I was thinking of. For me, I didn’t know what a gose was. I don’t think many people in Ontario did. MCOUSTRA And a barrel-aged one at that. 12

We’ve done a bunch. Niambic, obviously. That was one of our first ones. I think collabs have been incredibly important for me in my brewing career. GROWLER If you were opening a brewery now, would you jump in with the beers you have or would you start again with the originals and grow into Boneshaker and Octopus Wants to Fight? MCOUSTRA If I was going to open up a brewery right now? I would go opposite to market trends. I would go pilsner, porter, probably an IPA and a light saison. I wouldn’t do flavours. I wouldn’t do lactose. I wouldn’t do anything over the top. Solid, solid beers that really stand out. LACKEY I’m similar. Keep it simple. I certainly don’t think Great Lakes would do it again the way we did it. That was kinda the only way we knew. Just the mainstream lagers. There wasn’t much info out there, certainly in Ontario. GROWLER Flipside of that: What beer that you don’t make any more, would you like to revive? LACKEY Really admire what Luc’s doing at Godspeed. He came out and the market’s really pressuring for crazy sour beers. He’s going to kick it out of the park. And he just made a Dortmunder, which just wasn’t around. He’s just doing simple styles really well. I think people are actually realising how good the beer is down there. GROWLER Let’s talk about package format. Does it matter to the beer? Is there a format you prefer? MCOUSTRA As long as your dissolved oxygen levels are low, it doesn’t matter. Clean beer goes in, with

low dissolved oxygen and that’s the beer we want our customers to be drinking. LACKEY With growlers and especially crowlers I’d be worried about the dissolved oxygen. GROWLER What’s the one thing that the Ontario government could change that would make a big difference for Ontario breweries? LACKEY Sell each other’s beer is the one thing I was going to say. Our retail store should be able to sell their beer. I don’t see why that law exists. Other than opening your own stores. MCOUSTRA That’s a big one, but also taxes. They are crushing. Once you hit our size, it’s taxes. There’s been some good work on that this week. That was due to a lot of hard work by the owners of both of our breweries as well as Cam [Heaps, Steam Whistle Brewing] and a few other people who worked on it for years. GROWLER So, the changes are important? MCOUSTRA I’d like to see the government offer tax protection to bricks-and-mortar breweries as opposed to contract breweries. I think that’s truly something that’s becoming an issue. In a regulated province like ours, there’s only so much shelf space and contract brewers are treated the same way as bricks-and-mortar breweries and that doesn’t work. And if we’re being taxed the same way and processed the same way, I think that breweries like

I'd like to see the government offer tax protection to bricksand-mortar breweries as opposed to contract breweries.

- Iain McOustra, Amsterdam Brewing Co.

ours who have been open over 30 years, don’t see the benefits that, I feel, we deserve. We’ve got over 100 jobs at our main facility and over 240 between our two brewpubs. That is not inconsequential as opposed to someone coming and saying “I want this recipe made.” I really think that if the Ontario Craft Brewers and government really do a bit more to support bricks-and-mortar breweries, while perhaps taxing the contract brewers the way they would an import, it would benefit all of us. GROWLER We talked, a few years ago, about how difficult it can be to get the hops you want. Is it different now? MCOUSTRA Oh man, that was then. You can get any type of hops you want, at any point. The issue now is: What’s the quality? Everyone started putting in new plantings. And they started really pushing in Idaho and Oregon. And the thing is if you’re not there for selection— and Lackey and I have gone together for several years now—picking your hops from a table, you’re not defining what type of hops you want. It’s no longer just about varietal. It’s “okay, I like Centennial from CLS Farms because I know Eric is one of the best farmers and I know his Centennial every year is perfect.” But if I’m not at that table, shaking his hand, going to Sports Center afterwards, watching him do karaoke... LACKEY Watching karaoke? You’re up there, man. He’s amazing. MCOUSTRA The quality is just relationships. Going there, meeting the farmers and learning for five or six years. It’s something I want to do every year.

In 2013, when McOustra and Lackey made Maverick & Gose together, it was the first gose many Ontarians had tasted. That year, the style went through a certain vogue.

This is a chopped-down version of our our hour-plus discussion that covered the Ontario-grown hops, Brazilian pop singers, and the status of the Niambic project. More at on.thegrowler.ca/bvb j

Putting Away Pints

Are beer cellars worth the time and space or just an expensive beer purgatory? by Ben Johnson

hen I mention my beer cellar, my wife usually rolls her eyes.

Mainly she does this because she knows when I say something like, “I’ve got some really good stuff in the cellar right now,” I’m actually referring to rows of dusty bottles on the metal shelving that I bought at Home Depot and put in our basement. And while, of course, it is a tad pretentious to refer to these shelves next to the laundry tub as a “cellar,” it doesn't take much more to have a functioning beer storage space. Indeed, the ideal conditions for storing beer are essentially just a cool, dark place where you can fit a bunch of big bottles. Tomas Morana is the co-owner of Birreria Volo, arguably one of Canada’s best beer bars. He’s also a co-founder of Keep6Imports, a company that works to bring rare and funky imports to Ontario. At Birreria Volo in Toronto’s Little Italy, the cellaring program is very much part of the venue’s draw and he takes it seriously. “Temperature control and no exposure to light are the most important factors to consider when building a cellar,” he says. “Keeping your beers at a consistent cellar temperature of 10-13C is key. Humidity is another important factor to avoid having corks dry out.” And while my makeshift basement cellar roughly approximates Morana’s specifications, his cellar is a little more aesthetically pleasing. Like the rest of the bar that Morana designed with his brother, Julian, and father, Ralph, the cellar was built to exacting specifications, and it’s clear that thought was put into the wooden-shelved, closet-sized space at the centre of their small venue. “The cantina,” Morana prefers the Italian for cellar, “is the heart of the bar and is the focal point of our customer experience. The cellar was built with a custom warehouse-style window frame so you can see bottles inside the cellar from the outside. The floor is concrete and built with a drain in case any bottles break on the floor and each beer has a designated spot and is organized in the cellar with a code, so it’s easy to find during service.” Once you’ve got your own Home Depot shelving or cedar-lined, vintage-factory-windowed cellar

Typical candidates for cellaring include big, barrel-aged offerings with bold flavours or boozy heat. constructed, the question becomes which beers will you keep there. Typical candidates for cellaring include big, barrel-aged offerings with bold flavours or boozy heat. These can potentially round out or mellow over time as part of the various processes connected to yeast maturity and controlled oxidation. For this reason, my cellar is mostly filled with Belgian strong ales, barley wines, and imperial stouts. Morana, however, tends to stick to wild ales when it comes to his aging program. “The only beers I tend to age or cellar intentionally are lambic,” he says. “At the bar, we have 32 beer options on tap so anything meant to be consumed fresh should always be a draught option. My rules for cellaring are: Do not age fresh beers. I recommend the only types of beers to cellar are lambics, sours, or brett beers, or, if you want to, strong styles above eight per cent like imperial stouts, porters and barley wines.” Of course, the real question about cellaring beer is whether or not it makes much of a difference to a particular beer, or if it’s even actually worth the effort. In my own basement-aging experience, it isn’t really. The inherent difficulty of actually storing beer to save for later is that you never actually know when the right time will come to open them. Indeed, the only way to tell if your beer is ready to drink is to drink it. Iain McOustra is the head of brewing at Toronto’s Amsterdam Brewery, and he has, over his tenure, produced many an excellent wild ale and a plethora of big, boozy stouts. Even he admits that cellaring beer is something of a crap shoot. >>

How do you know when a beer is ready to drink? You don’t. You never really know how a bottle that’s been aging will taste. —Iain McOustra, Amsterdam Brewery “How do you know when a beer is ready to drink?” he asks. “You don’t. Temperature swings, the packaging process, and batch differences mean you never really know how a bottle that’s been aging will taste. Big imperial stouts and barley wines are a safer bet, but you still never know.” I didn’t have the foresight to put a drain near my beer shelves like Morana did. I’m reminded of my lack of foresight when I open a wild or bottle-conditioned ale and am met with the familiar and disappointing “gusher,” a beer that essentially explodes when you open it because the live yeast has continued to consume sugar in the beer, resulting in excess carbonation and... kapow! Memorably, this happened to me with a red-winebarrel-aged stout I brought home from Italy, and I now have a couch that will never be the same. The less furniture-destroying but equally disappointing alternative to a gusher is often that I’ve just let the oxidative process carry on for too long and am now left with a flat beer devoid of flavour, save on of wet cardboard. for perhaps a soupÇon McOustra admits to me he’s had similar results. “My wife and I have a beer cellar, and it’s a good place to see all the beers we’ve let sit too long,” he says. “We have maybe a 50 per cent success rate with anything over a year. It’s easier once you find a few classics that work but generally, beer is better fresh. Everyone has a great story of a decade old lambic or Thomas Hardy but for every one of those there are ten drain pours you don’t hear about.”

Ultimately, most beer cellars are akin to something like an expensive beer purgatory. You put what is surely a reasonably good beer on a shelf, hoping that you’ll remember to open it in time and praying that, when you do, the result is a marginally improved experience. I’ve got probably a few hundred dollars’ worth of excellent beer haphazardly tied up in an experimental process that one of Canada’s best publicans strictly monitors with a spreadsheet and that one of Canada’s best beer makers admits to having a 50 per cent success rate with. My wife is probably right to roll her eyes at my “cellar.” If you have an urge to cellar a beer, your best bet is to ignore that urge. If you’re buying a beer from a brewery you know to make good beer, it’s probably a safe bet that, unless they say otherwise, that beer will taste pretty good if you crack it and drink it right away. But if you really feel the need to hoard beer in hopes that the yeast in it will continue to do interesting and not terrifying things or that age will mellow the alcohol heat rather than dull the flavour, at least buy two of the beers and drink one right away. And, when you eventually open the other one for comparison and end up drain-pouring it, make sure you have a six-pack of something fresh on hand in the basement to cleanse the disappointment from your palate. j Yeast can build up quite the fervour in a bottle that's been cellared for too long. If you think you might have a gusher, open carefully, preferably near a sink and plenty of paper towel.

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Brewers get hip to new hops by Lito Howse

hen most folks think of hops, they think bitterness. What comes to mind are the bitter hops used in classic northwest IPAs; hops like Columbia and Centennial that emphasize the bitter profiles and can include floral, piney, herbal, and spicy notes. Not everyone enjoys the bold, bitter flavour, and that’s legit. But hops are in every beer, so to say you don’t like hops but you like beer is fundamentally inaccurate. It would be more apt to say that you don’t like bitter hops. Over the last year or so, many breweries have pivoted from heavily featuring bitter hops in their IPAs to using juicy, citrusy hops. Citra, Azacca, Galaxy, El Dorado, and Amarillo are examples of hops with juicy notes that can include mango, nectarine, melon, and pineapple profiles. Basically this new guard of hops taste tropical AF.

Alpha and Beta Acids So to understand hops better, let’s start with alpha and beta acids. These acids are responsible for the bitterness of the beer and also much of the aroma. Hop suppliers test for alpha and beta acids to determine what percentage of the hops’ weight each acid makes up. Brewers apply that data to get a better sense of what a certain hop will do in their brew. There are five types of alpha acids but the ones to note are called humulone and cohumulone. Humulone acids bring out gentler bitterness like that in Citra hops. Citra hops can measure high in alpha acids but don’t have that classic bitter flavour because the humulone percentage is relatively high. Cohumulone is responsible for harsher bitterness and is about twice as potent as humulone acids.

Ultimately when beers are measured for International Bittering Units (IBUs), these acids are what are being tested. Therefore a juicy IPA with a melony profile could end up with similar readings to a classically bitter IPA with a pine and herbal profile—if all else is constant. Juicy IPA recipes are crafted to balance the perceived bitterness with the perceived sweetness in order to highlight the less bitter flavours of the beer. Everything from the yeast, malt, and hops factor in to these perceived tastes. The timing of when the hops are added to the beer is significant as well. Hops used during the boil will release alpha acids and highlight bitter notes while hops used to dry hop (added during a later fermentation stage) will add to the aroma of the beer. Beta acids break down over time and will change the flavour profile of a beer. This is why it’s best to drink IPAs as fresh as possible since the full, desired taste is evident within the first few weeks. You may not notice these changes in flavour profiles of lagers and pilsners, by comparison, because lagering slows down the process of beta acids breaking down.

Essential Oils Hops also contain essential oils that greatly affect the non-bitter aspects of a taste and aroma profile. Essential oil flavours and aromas include woody, piney, floral and spicy. Brewers can use different methods to draw the oils out. For example, a hop stand is when the temperature in the kettle is dropped from a boil and then hops are added causing the oils to emulsify into the rest of the

liquid. This generally results in a more cloudy beer because the oils are dispersed throughout, and also amplifies the oil flavours and aroma.

What’s Hop-pening? In the last couple of years, a trend of single-hopped beers has emerged that really showcases what each hop tastes like. Manantler in Bowmanville has their Lollihop single-hop series, the Monogamy series at Bellwoods has covered off 20 hop varieties in its time, and Left Field has taken it a step further with Turn Two, which features pairs like Amarillo and Ekuanot hops. Hop farmers are getting more playful with their delivery methods as well. Generally hops are sold as either whole hops which are dried or hop pellets, which have been ground down from whole hops. Sometimes fresh hops are used, which means the hops were picked, shipped, and tossed into the brew all on the same day. Hop hash is another new product hop growers like Chilliwack Hop Farms are making and breweries are experimenting with. If you haven’t figured it out from the name (or are new to 4/20-friendly terminology), hop hash is a condensed version of a hop just like marijuana bud can be condensed into marijuana hash. Faculty Brewing Co. in B.C. made a white IPA with Amarillo and Mosaic hop hash from Chilliwack Hop Farms, while Big Rock celebrated 4/20 last year with a hemp infused hop hash that Chilliwack custom made for the brew. So the next time you walk into a brewery don’t discount the IPA because you assume it will be too bitter. Be sure to ask staff about the beer’s flavour profile to ensure you are not missing out of a tasty brew. j

proudly brewed in collingwood ontario since 2014

ladiesdrinkbeer.com @ladiesdrinkbeer 20

photo courtesy St. Jacobs Country Tourism

wler guide to the gro

KITCHENER& WATERLOO CRAFT BEER AND GREAT FOOD HAVE FOUND A HOME BETWEEN THE TRADITIONAL FARMS AND HIGH-TECH FIRMS OF WATERLOO REGION

by David Ort

ld ways and new ideas are the two influences that define Kitchener-Waterloo and the surrounding area. It’s not the only place that has such a duality, but I think the contrast is stronger here than anywhere else in Ontario. Where else can you drive past a horse and buggy driven by a Mennonite farmer on his way to market, while you’re heading towards the global headquarters for a tech company?

And, sure, Blackberry’s stock has fallen since the heady days of 2007 when everyone was clicking away on their blue devices and Apple and Google were trying to catch up to the Canadian smartphone pioneer. But these days, that search giant has a strong presence in the region and high-tech continues to be a major employer. The Perimeter Institute—co-founded by Blackberry’s Mike Lazaridis—has helped Waterloo maintain its membership in the high-tech elite. So who plans a vacation based on what place has more software engineers? Fair question. And I’ve been to Waterloo a few times (especially to visit Relish Cooking Studio), so why go back now?

For great beer, of course. While a few of the top beers from area breweries are making it to Toronto, I had heard that much of the best was filling the cups of locals before having the chance to make it further afield. I’d also discovered a new option, beyond the usual planes and trains, for making a road trip feasible. Have you guys heard of Turo? The easy way to explain the startup is that it’s Airbnb for cars. Some people have more car than they need and others have no car, so the app brings them together. That’s great for getting a Tesla into the hands of the trend fiend who really wants to drive a Model X, but it also works for someone like me who needs a Nissan Rogue to get to and from the province’s up-and-coming beer destination. (I hope it goes without saying that drinking and driving do not mix—walk or have someone else to drive you on your four-brewery tour once the tastings start.) Having been set up with an opportunity to test out this new service the transportation box was ticked and we were off for a long weekend excursion to the twin towns a couple hours’ drive from Toronto’s west end. >>

Part wall, part menu, blue tiles at Arabella Park in Kitchener do an attractive job of presenting the bar's all-craft selection of options (plus cider). The strong local focus is balanced by selections from across Ontario. David Ort photo

Abe Erb

Block Three

Named after Abraham Erb, the Mennonite settler who traveled from Pennsylvania to found Waterloo, this has grown into one of the region’s most popular beer makers. In fact, the brewpub concept took off so quickly that they had to open a second location in Kitchener across King Street from the Google Waterloo building.

I first visited this brewery, tucked away in downtown St. Jacobs, in late 2014. That trip was to brew a collaborative beer with their team for a beer dinner I was putting on with Nick Benninger at Nick & Nat’s Uptown 21.

Even before dinner, the comfortable, warm space has filled up with groups sharing beer flights, jerk chicken tacos and lively conversation. The range of styles brewed here is so extensive that the paddle of samplers really is the best place to start. Their Buggy Whip IPA (6.5% ABV) has a clean, slightly sweet malt background highlighted with American-style tropical hop notes and a pleasant dose of bitterness. For a more sessionable option, go with the 1857 Kolsch (4.8% ABV) that ends on a crisp and clean, moreish finish. Rob Theodosiu, Abe Erb’s founder, also operates Settlement Co., a popular Waterloo-area destination for craft coffee.

As we worked on creating our cardamom-cranberry saison (did I mention that it was 2014?) we talked pretty extensively about how keen they were to get a barrel-aging programme underway. Since then, Kevin Freer, has taken over the role of head brewer and really brought that undertaking to fruition. They’re making complex, refined beers, including with cherries and raspberries. We timed our visit to Arabella Park perfectly— one day after a tap takeover by Block Three. The cobalt tiles covering one of the long walls cast cool, blue light back into the room and also do an attractive and thorough job of announcing the beer selection, which is augmented by cider. Happily, one of them was for the Block Three Rhapsody (6.5% ABV), a red-wine-barrel-aged version of their sasion made with brett drie. I’m hard-pressed to remember a more refined and spot-on brett saison. All elements, the dry funk of brett, tannic red wine and fruity saison, are cast in an ideal balance. This is a real knee-slapper.

Innocente

Golden, amber or dark the range of options at Abe Erb is obvious at first sight. David Ort photo

Before craft beer was fully established in the area, Steve Innocente arrived from the UK to open his brewery. He came with a couple decades’ of experience as a cancer researcher, and that meant he also had an in-depth understanding of how yeast work. He also brought the award-winning home

LEFT: House-cured bacon is really the only appropriate way to make Harmony Lunch's grilled cheese sandwich complete. RIGHT: Neon signs draw local university students in for the daily specials at Ethel's. David Ort photos

brew recipes that gave him the confidence to start his own operation. The wide range of offerings stretches from a sharp and snappy Conscience American-style IPA (5.7% ABV) to the Charcoal Porter (5.1% ABV). The latter, originally made as an exclusive for a local restaurant group, won a gold medal at the Canadian Brewing Awards in 2015. It touches the right bases for the style with subtle hints of coffee, chocolate, malty sweetness and a roast bitterness.

What else is worth a visit? After a day on the snowshoe trails I had a specific and severe craving for a bacon grilled cheese sandwich. Harmony Lunch, in downtown Waterloo, to the rescue. Just the right amount of elbow polish and kitsch (collected over roughly 90 years in business) set against an updated kitchen. Chef Nick Benninger applies the same, no-corners-cut approach that has helped drive his restaurants, Uptown 21, Taco Farm and Marbles to popularity with locals in the area. The Birds and Beers Blonde (5% ABV) made in collaboration with Together We’re Bitter has a golden-grain malt body and a crisp dry finish with a delicate touch from noble hops. It matched with both my sandwich and my girlfriend’s lox-andbagel plate with smoked salmon from local fish favourite T & J Seafood (worth a visit in its own right). The perfect first beer of the day. It’s available across Benninger’s Fat Sparrow group of four restaurants. “I went and physically brewed

it with their brewer, Peter,” Benninger explains. “Not that 'we can label our PBR for your bar' bullshit. Real-deal, local collaboration between like-minded businesses.” TWB is obviously popular with the local growler-fill crowd and is one of the area breweries to watch as it continues to experiment. Grand Trunk Saloon is the place for a nightcap with a refined twist and bar snacks that are good enough to make into an entire meal. The “libations” are presented as a fascinating Venn diagram that includes bold, dry and sweet categories and has options like Brown Butter Ol’ Fashioned and Secretariat made with pecan vodka and rose gin. Picking just one snack to recommend is a trial, but I’m still dreaming about the Fried Bird Biscuits. The light biscuits did a great job of soaking up the herb-seasoned and abundant juices from the crispy buttermilk fried chicken. For a late-night complement head to the classic Ethel’s Lounge. It feels like a sports bar, but also has a cozy atmosphere and boasts on their website that they only have three TVs. Follow the lead set by the crowd of undergrads and stick to comfort classics like pulled pork or the meatloaf special. That’s the remarkable thing about Waterloo. The presence of so many campuses—academic and corporate—means that there’s always an audience for testing new ideas. And when your diners and drinkers have spent time in places like southern California and North Carolina they expect quality execution with their innovation. j

RECIPE

Scotch eggs

paired with Merit Young Rival BY CHEF JESSE VALLINS, MAPLE LEAF TAVERN & MERIT BREWING

Photos by David Ort

n a city known as Hogtown, it’s no small feat to capture broad acclaim as the best sausage maker in Toronto. Jesse Vallins, the executive chef at Maple Leaf Tavern in Leslieville, has made his reputation as someone who cooks unpretentious food fit for special occasions. That’s a niche where good beer thrives, so no surprise that he’s also a partner at Merit Brewing, one of the cornerstones of Hamilton’s thriving upstart scene. There, the food side of the menu focuses on Vallins’s ground-and-stuffed creations like the Scotch egg recipe opposite. Back at MLT, he prepares a menu of classics— with plenty of contemporary reinterpretations—fit

for the old-school tavern surroundings. Other than “brass taps and oak” I can’t think of a better emblem for that type of place than his pickled egg recipe. (See on.thegrowler.ca/eggs for this additional recipe and for an expanded version of the Scotch eggs.) Vallins is a rare classically trained chef who is comfortable talking and writing about craft beer. Even more unusual he’s both a certified cicerone and a wine sommelier. Deep-frying is easy to do at home, but be safe about it. Have a fire extinguisher on hand and either use a purpose-built deep fryer or a heavy-bottom Dutch oven with tall sides, filled no more than halfway. —David Ort

I N g r ed i ents Breakfast sausage: • 1 kg coarsely ground pork • 18 g kosher salt • 2 g white pepper • 2 g dried sage • 0.5 g ground ginger • 0.5 g mace, finely ground • 0.25 g nutmeg, finely grated • 5 g granulated onion • 8 g maple syrup • 75 g crushed ice Scotch eggs: • Dozen eggs, soft poached 3-4 mins • 600 g sausage mix • All-purpose flour • Egg beaten with water • Panko breadcrumbs, for breading

d i r ecti o ns 1. Place all sausage ingredients in the bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. 2. Mix on low until all are incorporated. Raise speed to medium-low and mix until ice is melted and everything is well emulsified. 3. Portion sausage mix into 50-g balls and with wet hands, flatten to a thin, round disk shape. 4. Place an egg in the middle of each sausage disk and gently form the sausage around it. Chill for an hour. 5. Preheat oven to 250F. Cook wrapped eggs on a rack-lined baking sheet until sausage reaches 155F. Cool completely.

9. At Merit, they serve the Scotch eggs with a brown sauce made from stout, orange juice, dried fruit and spices. The recipe is also available online. j

6. Set up flour, beaten egg and panko in separate pie plates or bowls. Dredge cooked eggs in that order. 7. Deep-fry in batches of no more than 4 eggs at a time, in 325 F oil, until the breading is deep brown and golden and the egg is warmed through. 8. Keep warm in a low oven while you fry the other batches.

TOP: Young Rival from Merit falls into the hop-forward, lighter end of the IPA range at 6.5% ABV and 48 IBU. Tropical and juicy, it has what it takes to complement an egg wrapped in sausage and deep fried. Supplied photo ABOVE: Merit serves flights of tasters in their Hamilton taproom. This one has four takes on their Nowhere Imperial stout.

Finding a place for beer on wine’s doorstep with Shawn & Ed in Dundas by Jordan St. John

Ed Madronich is living out the adage that "it takes many pints of beer to make great wine." He went from Wine Council Ontario chair to co-founding a brewery.Tiffany Mayer photo

ecause of the popularity of craft beer in Ontario, the industry draws business owners from many different walks of life. In some cases, new brewery owners are rank amateurs who have just barely graduated from basic homebrew equipment. However, even with all of the necessary tools and experience, starting a craft brewery from scratch can be a difficult proposition. In a market sector that is supposed to be about the quality of the liquid in the can or bottle, sometimes the X-factor can be the way a brand feels; an identity for beer drinkers to latch on to. Shawn & Ed Brewing in Dundas is a solid example of how such an identity can develop over time,

rather than emerging on day one as a fully formed and polished entity. For Shawn Till and Ed Madronich, the dream of opening their own brewery began in high school but wasn’t realized until both men had lengthy and fairly successful careers behind them. In Till’s case, a background in engineering and a significant amount of executive experience would help him construct the business he had long wanted. For Madronich, a decade and a half in Ontario’s rapidly growing wine industry provided him with knowledge of beverage alcohol sales and marketing, not to mention production through Flat Rock Cellars winery down the road in Jordan Station. >>

“I believe in beer and terroir, but in really leaning on a sense of geography. Place is important to the brand.” - Ed Madronich, Shawn & Ed Brewing

Bus destination banners hang between beer tanks as a reminder of one of the the building's many former lives as a bus maintenance and storage barn. Supplied photo

“It took ten years to build to a new challenge,” he says. The level of expertise and the amount of funding made possible by those careers afforded a certain amount of luxury to the startup process. “We started with no timeframe to find a location and a sense that starting as a contract brewer would compromise the brand’s authenticity,” says Madronich. The location eventually chosen as Shawn & Ed’s home was a former furniture factory in Dundas. “I believe in beer and terroir,” says Madronich, “but in really leaning on a sense of geography. Place is important to the brand.”

skating rink in the 1890s once the citizens of Dundas had become wealthy enough through manufacturing to embrace leisure activities. As automobiles began to replace the horse and buggy, the building became a maintenance depot for local buses, transporting people to the much larger factories that had replaced the original foundry. After the Second World War, a company manufacturing crokinole boards moved in. All of this legacy is on view under the airy expanse of the wooden beamed roof. In the walls are ports where coal-fired heaters kept the rink at a comfortable temperature for skaters and curlers. Festooned on racks are destination rolls from buses that were housed in the building. A legion of crokinole boards sits on a shelf waiting to be used. In the corner, a heavily rusted hulk of a Studebaker pickup truck is parked amongst Flat Rock wine barrels. In practice, the slick brand seemed too concise to contain all of the experience that the brewery taproom displays; the pieces that make up

At launch, the packaging focused more on the founders of the company than it gave a sense of place. It referred to the brewery as Shawn & Ed in some spots and in others by the contraction “Shed.” Amongst the crowded shelves where Ontarians buy beer that was confusing. We needed to know more before buying into the idea that terroir matters to beer. Walking into the brewery, things become more clear. Shawn & Ed’s taproom is something of a living museum for Dundas. Before its incarnation as Valley City Furniture, the building at 65 Hatt Street had lived many lives, mirroring at every step the development of the town. Initially constructed as a foundry, it was reinvented as a curling and

In the airy, light-filled space locals from Dundas seem to connect with the LagerShed line of three approachable beers in various shades of lager. Supplied photo

the brewery are pulled from so many disparate lives. Brewer Rob Creighton contributes his own lengthy experience to the mix. He started brewing for Labatt in London, Ontario, in the 1970s before he was old enough to legally buy a beer and has been involved with a number of breweries over the years. A tenure at Upper Canada got him started in Ontario’s craft beer scene in the 1980s, and more recently he was the brewer for Grand River in Cambridge. It’s a career that has run parallel to the entire development of craft beer in Ontario and one which continues to find experimentation in its fourth decade.

The elegant shape and spare label design connect Shawn & Ed's beer to the wines of Flat Rock Cellars, the winery Ed Madronich owns in Niagara's Jordan Station. Supplied photo

The standard offerings fall into two categories: LagerShed and BarrelShed. The LagerShed beers have become popular locally, filling an important niche in the Dundas community where people are not yet entirely convinced of the merits of more adventurous styles. With a brewhouse and fermenters designed for multiple batches, the lagers tend to get the aging time they need to ease off the rough edges, guaranteeing conditioning across the entire lineup. The LagerShed brands are gateway beers. That’s a concept that may seem foreign in a world of increased specialization, but the job is to sell beer locally. Rather than assume any knowledge on the part of the drinker, the LagerShed series is designed to act as a spectrum. Original is a fairly gently hopped European-style pilsner made with Bavarian ingredients and adhering to the standard 5% alcohol range. Lighter does exactly what it says on the tin, weighing in lighter in body, colour, and alcohol. It possesses some differences in that it is made with North American two-row malt and comes closest in character to being a standard North American lager despite its New World hop character. Of the three, Darker is the most compelling; a Munich-style dunkel ranking amongst the best in Ontario with the deep, bready Munich malt bringing to mind a chocolate chip cookie as the beer warms in the glass.

The BarrelShed range is a first cousin to the wine from Madronich’s Flatrock Cellars, with those beers aged in pinot noir barrels. Usually, if brewers are using a pinot noir barrel to finish their beer, they opt for a Belgian-style farmhouse ale or a big imperial stout that will incorporate the grape as part of its flavour profile. In this case, the choice of base beer is less common: an English-style extra special bitter. The wine barrel finish on the beer is restrained, and the beer only rests in the barrel for six weeks instead of the more typical months-long aging. Those choices mean the fruit character is subtly bolstered, and the oak comes through in the texture, rather than flavour. BarrelShed No. 1 managed to win a World Beer Award, so the esoteric decision has paid off. The group behind Shawn & Ed comes with a wealth of different experiences and from different walks of life, and they value contributions from all members of the team. For experimental batches, Creighton lets the assistant brewers play with newer styles. After visiting the comfortable taproom in Dundas it's finally clear how all of these influences coalesce. The result is greater than the sum of its parts, some kind of culmination of myriad different influences coming together to create an interesting lineup of beers. Plus, crokinole. j

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TORONTO

GREAT LAKES BREWING

30 Queen Elizabeth Blvd., Etobicoke | GreatLakesBeer.com SUN-THU 11AM-6PM ^ FRI-SAT 10AM-8PM EST. 1987 A veteran of craft beer, GLB’s brewing team put out 105 different beers to celebrate their 30th anniversary in 2017. One of Ontario’s most decorated breweries at the Canadian Brewing Awards.

CANUCK PALE ALE

A M E R I C A N - S T Y L E PA L E A L E Year-round: B,L,LCBO,TBS ABV

5.2%

IBU

A leader in the APA style, Canuck balances tropical citrus, pine and smooth carbonation.

OVER MY DAD BODY PILSNER

GERMAN LAGER Seasonal: B ABV

IBU

Malty sweet notes up front complement the grassy, lemony finish on this summer staple.

SUNNYSIDE SESSION IPA

SESSION ALE Seasonal: B,L,LCBO ABV

3.9%

IBU

Lemony citrus aroma leads into a light, juicy body that sets this up as a peak summer beer.

OCTOPUS WANTS TO FIGHT IPA

A M E R I C A N - S T Y L E I N D I A PA L E A L E Seasonal: B,L,LCBO ABV

6.2%

IBU

Plenty of hops lend tropical aromas and just the right bitterness to go with the malty body.

Still smells just as sweet The first ever release on the small pilot system was a beer called “My wife went to the west coast and all she brought me back was this lousy pale ale.” While the name didn’t stick, the beer did, and today we know it as “Canuck Pale Ale.”

TORONTO

INDIE ALE HOUSE BREWING CO.

2876 Dundas St. West | IndieAleHouse.com SUN-THU 12-11PM ^ FRI-SAT 12PM-12AM EST. 2012 The Junction’s all-ale brewery mixes strident independence with five years’ experience for a package of top-level beers and an accomplished restaurant. IPAs and anything from a barrel are must-trys.

INSTIGATOR IPA

LEMONADE STAND

Year-round: B,L

Seasonal: B,L

W E S T C OA S T- S T Y L E I N D I A PA L E ALE ABV

6.5%

IBU

An ode to craft beer trailblazers, this IPA is full of citrus and ends on a cleanly bitter note.

ABV

IBU

Lemons and lactose give this sour the balance of snap and sweet that is needed for hot afternoons.

COUCH SURFER

BROKEN HIPSTER

Seasonal: B,L

Year-round: B,L

S E S S I O N I PA

ABV

IBU

The aroma announces itself with dank, green hops and the moreish finish is pleasantly bitter.

SUNKICKED

BA R R E L - A G E D I M P E R I A L W I T Seasonal: B,L ABV

BELGIAN WIT

ABV

IBU

The pairing of sweet orange and ginger notes keep this wit sharp. A popular all-year option.

ICONOCLAST

B R E T T I N D I A PA L E A L E Seasonal: B,L

IBU

Is it summer? Is it 8%? So many questions to ponder while enjoying the barrel notes and warm, lasting finish. 34

D RY- H O P P E D S O U R W I T H L E M O N

ABV

IBU

Equal parts stone and citrus fruit–mainly peach and lemon–help the layered bitternss stand out.

TORONTO

MILL ST. BREW PUB

21 Tank House Ln. | MillStreetBrewery.com SUN-MON 11AM-10PM ^ TUE-WED 11AM-11PM ^ THU 11-12AM ^ FRI-SAT 11-2AM EST. 2002 A longstanding fixture in the historic Distillery District, the Brew Pub also has a sister beer hall. When it opened, it featured the only bierschnaps distillery in Canada and now has barrel-aged brews.

THUNDERHEAD

HIBISCUS GOSE

Small-batch: B

IMPERIAL BELGIAN WIT

ABV

11%

IBU

This powerful number spent five months in chardonnay barrels. All the tropical fruits plus spice.

GOSE

ABV

5.5%

IBU

Hibiscus pulls this tart thirst-quencher together. Look for lemon, lime, coriander and grassy malt.

AMPLE WEISS

BOURBON-BARREL AGED BLACK CHERRY SOUR S O U R A L E W I T H F R U I T

Small-batch: B

BERLINER WEISSE

ABV

3.8%

IBU

Kettle-soured and refreshing. Served in trad stoplight fashion with two syrups. Coming in June.

ABV

IBU

Amber ale with black cherry in secondary and eight months in bourbon barrels. Out in July.

Q&A With Brewmaster Joel Manning Q: If you could only brew one style for the rest of your career what would it be and why?

A: Bohemian pilsner. A very subtle lager with a great malt backbone and hops as perfume, not as air freshener. Control is needed and that fascinates me. 36

TORONTO

NORTHERN MAVERICK BREWING CO.

115 Bathurst St. | NorthernMaverick.ca

SUN-TUE 11-12AM ^ WED 11-1AM ^ THU-SAT 11-2AM EST. 2017 Experienced hands leading the brewing team (Andrew Crowder) and the kitchen (Mark Cutrara) help fill the sunny taproom on the regular. Don’t miss the charcuterie locker with a streetside window.

HAND CRAFTED LAGER VIENNA LAGER Year-round: B,LCBO ABV

IBU

A M E R I C A N - S T Y L E I N D I A PA L E A L E Year-round: B

Vienna malt gives a slightly sweet backbone to this otherwise crisp lager with a clean finsih.

ABV

STOUT

Year-round: B

ABV

4.7%

IBU

HEFEWEIZEN

ABV

4.8%

IBU

Low ABV, chocolate and its smoothness make this a great pick-me-up. (It has oatmeal, right?)

EARL OF CHESWICK

HEFEWEIZEN

ESB WITH EARL GREY TEA

Seasonal: B

OAT M E A L S TO U T

Coriander accents this tart take on the gose style. Look out for the fruit variants.

ABV

IBU

Citrus, juicy and tropical hop aromas are the clubs in Enforcer’s golf bag.

GOSE-ZILLA GOSE

Seasonal: B IBU

Orchard fruits join the familiar hefe one-two of banana and clove spice.

ENFORCER

ABV

5.6%

IBU

Honey, lemon zest and Earl Grey all go in postboil, for an aromatic and complex take on ESB.

PURSUING HARMONY IN FOOD AND BEER Collaboration between our Executive Chef Mark Cutrara and Brewmaster Andrew Crowder is not only common within our walls, it is the foundation of our Brewpub. Andrew is passionate about true to style beers with new and balanced flavor profiles. Mark focuses on seasonal, local and artisanal ingredients in his culinary approach.

We use spent grain as a textural component in our house made hamburger buns, unhopped wort in our dressings and sauces, and reduce the wort down to provide glaze for our candied beer nuts. Andrew, what is the most exciting part of working with Mark: Working with Mark has given me an insight into different culinary combinations that can be adapted into flavour profiles for beer. Having the ability to source high quality spices, fruit, and local ingredients has opened up new and exciting possibilities in our brewery.

Mark, what is the most exciting part of working with Andrew: I have been using beer to make dishes for a long period of time. However, working closely with Andrew has lead to a cross pollination of ideas, in which we use beer ingredients rather than finished @NORTHERNMAVERICKBREWING product to make new dishes.

TORONTO

JUNCTION CRAFT BREWING

150 Symes Rd. | JunctionCraft.com DAILY 11AM-11PM EST. 2011

With roots going back to the Paddock, a classic Toronto dive bar, Junction has grown into one of the province’s most popular. Their beers are tuned so that you can line up two or three in a row.

TRAINSPOTTER HELLES LAGER

A M E R I C A N - S T Y L E PA L E A L E Year-round: B,L,LC,TBS

Year-round: B,L ABV

IBU

Cuts to the chase with a brightness and easy finish that sets it up nicely for hot days.

TRACKLAYER

5.3%

IBU

A five-by-five (malt and hops) recipe powers this pale ale that’s right at home beside the grill.

S C H WA R Z B I E R Seasonal: B,L

Year-round: B,L

ABV

BLACK ROAD BLACK LAGER

KÖ L S C H

ABV

CONDUCTOR’S CRAFT ALE

IBU

Properly aged for smoothness; fruity malt character meets warm-weather drinkability.

ABV

5.5%

IBU

Roasted and round rather than sweet with hop bitterness to balance. CBA gold medal winner.

One of Ontario’s Greenest For their new brewery on Symes Rd., head brewer Doug Penfold had a custom 25-hectolitre brewhouse built by Quebec’s IAI with maximum efficiency in mind. Waste is “sidestreamed” so that it stays out of the municipal system and heat from the morning is captured for batches later in the brew day. 40

Call for a Conductor’s!

Inspired by traditional beers created when life was more about the journey than the destination, Conductor’s Craft Ale from Junction Craft Brewing is fresh, aromatic and full of f lavour. Call for a Conductor’s at your favourite local, the LCBO, and select Beer and grocery stores.

junctioncraft.com

TORONTO

RAINHARD BREWING CO.

100 Symes Rd. | RainhardBrewing.com WED-SAT 12-9PM ^ SUN 12-5PM EST. 2015

The masterful use of hops is the focus for a beer programme that helps fill the former industrial space in the Aleyards with cheer.

ARMED ‘N’ CITRA

KAPOW!

Year-round: B,L,LCBO

D RY- H O P P E D PA L E A L E

ABV

5.2%

IBU

An easy option for hop heads on hot days. Namesake citra delivers pineapple and lemon.

I N D I A PA L E A L E

ABV

6.5%

IBU

West Coast-style throughout, citrus, resin and tropical aromas dominate this hazy IPA.

TORONTO

SHACKLANDS BREWING CO.

101-100 Symes Rd. | Shacklands.com THU-SAT 12-9PM ^ SUN 12-6PM EST. 2012 Go for the full-flavoured saisons, and other Belgian-style ales; stay for the kitschy decor and friendly conversation.

SAISON DAVENPORT

OBSCURE MONK BELGIAN-STYLE ALE

SAISON Year-round: B,L ABV

6.4%

IBU

Year-round: B,L

An all-star favourite for the delicate balance of saison yeast character with French aroma hops. 42

ABV

5.3%

IBU

Azacca hops give this lighter-than-average Belgian ale round notes of orchard fruit.

s d r a y e l A the

The Aleyards is one of the most compelling places to drink great beer in Toronto right now. Three thriving breweries, different in scale, are making beers that are remarkably different from the others’. That means drinkers are willing to talk preferences and compare favourites while they enjoy a rollicking, good time. 1 Rainhard The brewery Jordan Rainhard founded in 2015 has always been about the hops. Thanks to IPAs like Lazy Bones their trophy case is full of awards from both Ontario and Canada-wide competitions. Rainhard started on a 7-barrel system that served them ably and kept Toronto's hop heads well supplied with their favourite pale ales. (Think everything from the sessionable Daywalker to the mighty Hop Cone Syndrome DIPA.) A major expansion started last year (and just finished) means more room for a 15-barrel system. It also means that visitors to their Aleyards taproom—maybe for one of the weekend food pop-ups—will get a first look at the foeders and new barrels that will power the greatly expanded barrel programme.

2 Shacklands The newest of the Aleyards breweries—founded by Jason Tremblay in 2017—Shacklands draws inspiration from Belgian and farmhouse ales. Named after the rustic shacks Lawren Harris captured in his painting “January Thaw, Edge of Town” they have the same do-what-works approach to brewing. So, that means Obscure

Monk gets an Old-meets-New-World accent from Azacca hops or explain the dry-hopping that gives Saison Davenport its distinctive aroma. All are naturally carbonated in keg or can. Their Aleyards taproom is filled with the ephemera from all of our childhood clubhouses. Say “hi” to Dave Watts behind the bar and check out the collection of LPs before sitting down at the house piano.

3 Junction Back in 2016, Junction Craft Brewing announced hat they’d be moving north of St. Clair into a new Art Deco home on Symes in the Aleyards. The building, known as The Destructor, was a former municipal incinerator that originally opened in 1933. For Doug Pengelly’s brewing team the much bigger system that comes with the new space means an opportunity to focus on the best recipes they’ve developed over seven years. Generally, that means easy-drinking, American and British-style ales like Hey! Porter and Schnellbahn Festbier on the German side. They’re levelling up on their liquor license so that they’re able to serve wine, cider and beer from other breweries.

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