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A boat, a banned berry and Ontario’s forgotten German village — here are three points to ponder about southern Ontario’s craft breweries this week.
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Sounds Like You Could Use a Pony Ride is the latest entry in the Tiny Batch series at Refined Fool in Sarnia. Pony Ride is an 8.5 per cent alcohol Belgian-style IPA. (REFINED FOOL photo)
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A boat, a banned berry and Ontario’s forgotten German village — here are three points to ponder about southern Ontario’s craft breweries this week.
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Equals buys Side Launch. Equals is the stellar brewing facility in an east London industrial park. It’s where brands such as Triple Bogey are brewed under contract and where the city’s best lager, Shake, is brewed under Equals’ own banner to support the Baker Centre for Pancreatic Research at London Health Sciences Centre.
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In a move few saw coming, Equals is now also the owner of a boat-building homage brewery, Side Launch in Collingwood.
From producing beer under contract for others to producing its own beer and the Bangarang line of seltzers to now scooping up an existing craft brewery, it’s been a fast rise since 2018 when Equals opened.
As company president Justin McKellar told Collingwood Today: “Having been in the industry for so long and knowing the history of Side Launch and the history of the beers and the location in Collingwood, they’ve always been an admirable craft brewer, in my opinion. As we were looking at potential partnerships and ways to grow our brand, Side Launch was honestly at the top of our list from the beginning.”
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What will Equals do with Side Launch? Adding capacity by brewing its beers in London is an easy first step. Side Launch has nine listings at the LCBO and its lineup includes a well-regarded and brisk-selling wheat beer.
Could new Side Launch brew pubs be next? Good locations exist in and near London — here’s looking at you, dockside in Port Stanley and trackside at Western Fair.
Banned beery berry. The Americans banned blackcurrants for decades because they thought the plants were helping transmit disease to white pines and ruining logging. Some states still ban the plant. While Canada never followed suit and labelled it a forbidden fruit, its tartness wasn’t well accepted outside first-generation Europeans. Now, there’s a renaissance and you can’t swing a cart at a farmers’ market without finding rich-in-vitamin-C blackcurrant jam. In Cambridge, Four Fathers has noticed and brewed Current Currants, a strong dark ale infused with the little berries. Current Currants, 7.5 per cent alcohol, is a timely cool weather beer sold in the Four Father taproom and in cans at the retail store.
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Four Fathers in Cambridge turned to tart blackcurrants to brew Current Currants, a 7.5 per cent alcohol dark ale.(FOUR FATHERS photo)
It takes a village to raise a German. Sure, Oktoberfest in Canada is synonymous with Kitchener-Waterloo where overconsumption is the buzz. Smaller communities and some breweries do Oktoberfest events tied to launches of festbiers. But a natural seems to have been forgotten — the tiny Grey County village of Neustadt, where 150-year-old stone buildings make this one of the province’s prettiest little places. Two of the nicest examples are a former hotel that’s now a family restaurant and the rejuvenated Neustadt Springs Brewing.
Mikyla Grau is in the Oktoberfest mood at Neustadt Springs. The brewery is the main draw for visitors to the Grey County village that has strong German roots.(NEUSTADT SPRINGS photo)
Neustadt Springs is taking baby steps with an Oktoberfest event Oct. 29-30 featuring Marvin the Marzen pints and German snack foods. Fingers crossed that it’ll be a bigger deal by 2023 as the village created by German immigrants champs at the bit to attract autumn tourists, including cyclists who might be enticed by the Neustadt Country Road Loop.
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Neustadt Springs Brewery, located in a long and narrow stone building constructed in 1859, is rolling out new brews along with a fresh twist on one of its classics. New and hitting the mark with loyal local patrons and travellers alike are West Grey APA, Fall Harvest Pumpkin Ale brewed with local pumpkins in the mash and spices, and Peach Mango Kettle Sour. A batch of Neustadt’s 10W30 aged for seven months in whiskey barrels is in the taproom. Next up: a new beer aged in bourbon barrels to be released in time for Christmas gift-buying.
NEW AND NOTED
In the tank and waiting for release at Caps Off in St. Thomas is Big Apple Newsie, an apple pie wheat beer featuring fruit harvested at Great Lakes Farms in Port Stanley along with spices and graham crackers. Watch for it in November.
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Tiny Batch beers continue to roll out at Refined Fool in Sarnia. The newest is Sounds Like You Could Use a Pony Ride, which is a bronco-strength 8.5 per cent alcohol. The style is Belgian IPA. Brewers used Belgian ale yeast and hops from Germany.
Babies and Brews is back at Anderson Craft Ales in London. The parent and baby gatherings have been cancelled for three years during the pandemic. It is on Thursdays, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., on the brewery mezzanine where babies roam free and moms socialize.
Exclusives in taprooms are de rigueur, but exclusives at the LCBO are package deals. London Brewing does it with a hop-forward four-pack dubbed 4GANIC. Thinking outside the box for what’s inside the box is a spectrum to sample: Runner’s High Hazy Pale Ale, Earl of Adelaide Double IPA, Front Porch Organic Session IPA and Organic Hazy IPA.
At the brewery, they’re still pouring Truly Local Grisette. It was brewed in collaboration with the London Homebrewers Guild. They used organic spelt from Howick, wheat from Elora, Triple Perle hops from Parkhill and Old World Saison Yeast from Guelph. This beer, also sold in cans, has notes of clove and banana and is noted as a staff pick.
Wayne Newton is a freelance journalist based in London.
Twitter.com/WayneWriteOn
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