Lost Breweries of Toronto Walking Tour

Today Teena and I went on a walk put on by Heritage Toronto on the Lost Breweries of Toronto. The walk was led by Jordan St John, in the blue shirt above, a beer expert who literally wrote the book on the subject, Lost Breweries of Toronto.

We started outside the Moss Park Community Centre, where we were given a short history of beer. Then it was off to the site of Toronto's first brewery, Henderson's Brewery.

Here it is then.

And now.

A historic walk on beer and an ad for Moosehead beer which has been around since 1867.

This was not part of the tour but is a building I just love. It was Paul Bishop's house built in 1848, upon the stone foundations of the original house built in 1798 for William Jarvis.

At the corner of Front and Parliament was W. Copeland's East Brewery. Once again, then and now.

Jordan also talked about brewers whose breweries were not on the tour. Bloor Street is named after brewery Joseph Bloor, who Jordan suggested that we Google a picture of. Yes, he is a frightening looking fellow.

We stopped in a park (and shade) beside Enoch Turner's schoolhouse. Jordan explained how Enoch had a brilliant business plan. People liked to drink and he wanted them to drink his beer. People needed money in order to buy his beer, so needed good jobs. To get a good job, one needed an education. So he built a school to educate them!

Then it was over to Old Brewery Lane behind the Toronto Humane Society where the Don Brewery once operated. It is one of the few remaining brewery buildings from the original period and is now condos called the Malt House.

Thomas Davies, who owned the brewery and was also a Toronto Alderman, was so influential that he actually had the city pay to have the Don River straightened so it no longer ran beside the brewery so he could make a railway siding to ship his beer.

Our final stop was the Dominion Breweries building, that is still standing and was run by Thomas Davies' brother Robert. The brewery won world beer awards and seemed to be a decent place to work in that across the road at Davies Terrace, Robert built places for his workers to live.

Jordan's book was excellent and he is a great tour guide. He has funny, interesting and extremely knowledgeable. He really knows his stuff and there wasn't a question asked that he couldn't answer.

We stopped at a few more places than was shown here. It was a really enjoyable tour.

Beer of the Week - Oast House Biere de Garde plus the Niagara Oast House Brewery Tour

One great thing about Niagara-on-the-Lake is that you are in the middle of wine country and there are all kinds of wine tours and tastings available. Last Sunday on our way home from a weekend stay at the Olde Angel Inn Teena and I stopped in for a tour, only ours was at a craft brewery, Niagara Oast House Brewers.

 

Oscar was our guide. He was fun and informative.

My first question was "what is an oast house?" Oscar took us over to painting of an old European oast house which was used for drying hops. I never knew that.

Niagara Oast House Brewers have been around for a couple of years and during the time we were there lots of people were stopping in to buy beer.

The inside of the brew house.

 

 

 

 

This weeks Beer of the Week is the barrel aged Oast House Biere de Garde, "beers for keeping". This is a French-style farmhouse ale that has a long conditioning period to bring out a delicate but clean malty character with no hop bitterness

And the beer?

This beer is fermented in a barrel, then bottle conditioned by adding some yeast to the beer as it is bottled to go through a secondary fermentation in the bottle as it ages. As a result, the cork came off with a loud pop when I gave it just a quarter turn. That was fun. The secondary fermentation makes for a lively beer and causes a large head when poured, no matter how carefully. The fluffy, creamy, slightly brownish head, determinedly stayed for a long while.

I can smell the malt along with some other aromas, a bit of wine perhaps?

It was not as sweet as I thought it would be when I read about the absence of any hop bitterness. In fact, the Beire de Garde comes in a little on the sour side. This is a multi-layered, complex tasting beer. I taste wine and a little cherry. The beer finishes with a nice bit of sourness, which I find refreshing.

Although I love my hoppy beers, I am really enjoying this. It is a great sipping beer, which I would really enjoy on a cool evening. This is not the last Beir de Garde I will have.

I left the brewery with a couple of Country Ales, a two pack which contained a Saison and this Bier de Garde, plus a bottle of Pickled Hop Shoots, which are very tasty.

Of course, when you're visiting a brewery in wine country, there are wine orchards surrounding the building, so why not get a picture taken by the vines? Niagara Oast House Brewers is on the Niagara Stone road on the way into Niagara-on-the-Lake and definitely worth a stop.

Beer of the Week Stats 

Beers Profiled 252 
Breweries 225 
Countries 46

A Trip to the Junction Brewery

Teena and I are members of the Toronto Beer Lovers group. We have done a couple of events with them in the past and they were fun.

We have been wanting to get out to Junction Craft Brewing since it opened a month ago, and since the group had an event planned for there, we decided to go.

The place is very unassuming from the outside but great on the inside.

As the location is in the Junction, hence the name, the place is decorated with a railroad theme.

The Junction Triangle is a neighbourhood located in West Toronto, Ontario, Canada, roughly in the area of Bloor St., Dupont St., Lansdowne Ave, and Dundas St. West. The "triangle" shape of the neighbourhood is formed by the three sets of railroad tracks on the north, west, and east sides.

The staff there was friendly, easy to talk to and looked after us well. As it is a brewery and not a pub, you can buy 2 oz or 10 oz glasses of beer, plus beer to go. I was in a hoppy mood so stuck with the pale ales.  

We didn't get a chance to meet and talk to everyone but had a great time. Michael was the organizer tonight and we spent a long while talking to him. Mike is into beer and coffee, both topics that I have written about today, and has his own blog, Chaos in Moderation. I love the name! 

We also met Doug Pengelly, the head brewmaster , he recommended the Extra Pale Ale for Teena after she explained to him the type of beer she enjoys, and she really enjoyed it. Then we had a long conversation with Jason who is a brewer there and created my favorite of the night Shacklands Pale Ale, a nicely hopped pale ale. The brewery has a small brewhouse for the variety of beers they offer and Jason explained the efficiency of their process.

It was a fun time. Unfortunately we took transit to get there and had a walk ahead of us so I didn't bring any beer home with me.

I do see a drive to the Junction to pick up some beer though in my future.

An Afternoon of Beer Tasting at Bellwoods Brewery

Great things always happen during my birthday week. I don't know why, they just do.

Teena and I were put on a list to be a part of a beer tasting team for Bellwoods Brewery. The brewery, located at 124 Ossington Ave between Queen and Dundas, is right in our neighbourhood and is not yet opened to the public. Yesterday was my birthday. Today we were at Bellwoods Brewery for a private beer tasting.

They are planning to have a beer area inside that will seat 20, another seating area for 20 upstairs and a patio that will seat 40. We are looking so forward to the patio! The front of the brewery also has a large roll up door that will great for the warm/hot weather. The furniture and atmosphere is very casual, one I am very comfortable with.

Inside, along with the brewing equipment, is a small kitchen which plans on serving shared plates, oysters, and hopefully a BBQ on the patio. Jerked chicken was mentioned which made Teena's eyes light up.

There were three tasting sessions and we were part of the second one. We sat with a fun couple, Piper and Gatlin, who also were beer lovers. Bellwoods have a long list of one offs they wish to brew but have narrowed the list to 8 to be their first brews. We got to try the first 4 of their beers, which offered a great variety of styles. Very daring for a brand new brewery!

We started off with the Bellwoods Common, a 5% ale which uses American hops but keeps that extra hoppiness that come from that kind of hop toned down. It likely will be their mainstay brew and best seller as it is a very nice beer geared more towards the mainstream beer drinker. This was Teena's favorite of the day and a beer which I would have any time.

Second up was Farmhouse Ale, a saison. I love saisons but they are hard to find. With a place opening right around the corner from where we live and offering a saison, could it be too much to ask that they make a good one? Well, they make a very good one. I can see myself on a hot Friday night walking home from work, stopping in and having a couple of these on the patio, reading or just watching people going by.


Next up was Toil & Trouble, a Double Belgian Double. It was nice and full of flavour. Michael, one of the brewers, says that they use the same yeast used by Trappist brewery Chimay. There was a comment on the Bar Towel about this which I loved and is so true ... "You guys want the full details or will a "damn good" suffice?" Layers of flavour, a little on the sweet side, it was a thoroughly enjoyable beer.

Last one offered was the Witch Shark Double IPA. Right away I could smell the citra hops in this one, although other hops were definitely in the mix. It was my favorite of the day. It is lighter in colour than I expected but the west coast hops are there. It is a well-balanced IPA as the hops don't slap you in the face right away but come on full in the finish. A well-done IPA which I hope is a regular of theirs, although at 9% APV, it is not a beer to have too many of.

Everybody there seemed to enjoy themselves and the staff all were great. For myself, the Witch Shark IPA was my favorite. I am happy that Teena did not like hers and gave it to me, plus Michael gave me another before we left. The saison was my next favorite followed by the Toil & Trouble and finally the Common.

The soft launch is next weekend. I hope the weather is great so Teena and I get to try out the patio. There is an excellent interview with co-founders Mike Clark and Luke Pestl here.

Teena's review is here.

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Here I am with my favorite, the Witch Shark IPA

Flying Monkeys Brewery Tour

Today I did something I have wanted to do for a couple of years ... visit and tour Flying Monkeys Brewery in downtown Barrie.

Teena has clients in Barrie and Orillia and will stop in when she is here on business just to pick me up some fresh beer. Now I get to do that myself and get a tour to boot!

I have always found that craft brewers usually set up in industrial neighborhoods or on the outskirts of a town. Not Flying Monkeys Brewery. In 2004, they took an old building, circa 1880s, restored it, added on an extension out the back and set up shop on Barrie's main strip. In 2005, they opened for business as the Robert Simpson Brewing Company, named after Barrie's first mayor. A couple of years later, they decided to change their image and brew more creative beers and in the process changed their name to Flying Monkeys Brewery.

For light beer drinkers, they make a tasty Anti-Gravity Light Ale which I have written about before. They also make some excellent non-mainstream beer such as Netherworld Cascadian dark ale, Smashbomb Atomic IPA (I'm wearing that tee-shirt right now) and Hoptical Illusion, which is a great session ale that visits my fridge often.

You can tell I'm a fan of this brewery.

The tour is an excellent deal. There is no cost for the tour and if you buy a glass, they will fill it up for free. After that, it is $4 to refill it. Great deal! I was surprised by the number of people on the tour as it is a Friday afternoon in the off season. There were seven of us.

Kaitlyn was our guide and she did a great job explaining the process. She also warned us when we went in that not only is it brew day but also the brewery has just added tanks to double capacity so it will be busy and crowded.

It was a fun tour and best told with pictures

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My favorite picture of the day!

Kaitlyn leads us into the brew house.

Our first stop was the area used for experimental brews. This is where they try and perfect new brews before going into full production. Andrew, one of the brewers (in the rolled up pants), listens in.

The mash turn and kettle area. I love this spot. Here you can see and smell the beer brewing.

The beer is cooled, then goes to the fermenters. Here the brew, now called wort, fills the fermenters to the door. Yeast is added here and then the door is clamped shut and the rest of the fermenter is filled. The tanks on the left are the old ones, the new shiny ones were installed in February.

The maturing tanks. Again you can see the difference between the old and the new.

The spent grains are collected below where farmers use them for feed. The grains were still hot a smelly.

The bottler and kegs on the pallet ready to ship!

A couple of final shots showing the original brewery name. The worn out tiles were on the floor in front of the main brewing area.

The pictures I took downstairs of their awards and medals turned out quite bad. They have won many. Not only the tour was great but everyone on the tour were great to talk to. If you are in Barrie, this is something you should do!