Ontario Craft Beer Week means a chance to celebrate our province’s craft beers through a series of beer dinners, tap takeovers, pairings, beer fests and themed events. It’s a chance for OCB breweries to reach new audiences and to show why local craft beer is best. My favourite part of OCB Week is trying one-off and collaboration brews. The inspiration for the brews can come from anywhere, and it highlights the diverse, creative, and ever evolving side of brewing.

How did the collaboration brew with Great Lakes & Amsterdam come about?

When the OCB Week organizers announced that one of the key themes this year was collaboration, brewers at Amsterdam and Great Lakes decided to get together and invited other OCB brewers to join. Although at Steam Whistle we do one thing, I’ve always been encouraged to take part in collabs which are lots of fun and a great learning experience for me. We decided to brew the GTA Farmhouse Ale, a Belgian style beer fermented with a saison yeast, and we spiced it with sage, cardamom, and peppercorns. The result was a dry, refreshing beer with a distinctive spicy aroma that I thought paired really well with food.  It was available on draught at various bars throughout the city, and in bottles at the Great Lakes and Amsterdam retail stores. With only one small batch made, you have to seek it out if you want to try it, and that’s part of the appeal. Once it’s gone, it’s gone…until next year maybe?

What events did you attend?

My OCB Week kicked off on Friday with a launch at the Summerhill LCBO where we heard about growth in the craft beer industry while toasting with a glass of GTA Farmhouse Ale. Saturday I went to Wvrst for a Dieu du Ciel Brewery tap-takeover where I tasted some delicious new creations, including 2 collaboration beers. I spent Sunday afternoon at the Brickworks enjoying the Brewers Backyard, which is a series of events showcasing a local brewery in a casual and relaxed setting with top-notch food vendors and live music. By Monday I was a bit tired, but I just could not miss the Amsterdam Brewery vs. Flat Rock Winery dinner at Beast restaurant. Tuesday I went out to one of my favourite bars, Brydens on Bloor St, for their Best of the West event. Several breweries from the west end participated by sending a keg of their best beer, including the GTA Farmhouse, for this collaborative tap takeover. By Wednesday I was ready for a couple of nights off, but I was back at it Friday for Bar Volo’s Belgian night, featuring all local Begian-inspired brews. Saturday was the Session 99 Craft Beer Fest with over 100 beers, food sampling, live music, and I got to catch up with several friends to talk about which OCB week events they liked best. It was a busy but amazing week, I can’t wait to do it all again during Toronto Beer Week in September!

The Amsterdam/Flat Rock dinner at Beast restaurant on Monday was one of my favourites. It was part of the Canadian Beer News dinner series, which brings together top breweries and restaurants to create unique beer and food pairings. The chef paired each of the four courses with a wine and a beer, and the dessert was paired with a special collaborative brew from Amsterdam and Flat Rock Cellars’ head winemaker Ross Wise. Ross was a brewer before getting into wine, and the sour cherry Imperial Stout aged on oak that they produced was spectacular. Overall, the food and pairings were fabulous, the atmosphere was nice and relaxed, and the winery and brewery working together really pushed the collaboration theme to the next level. Congratulations to all involved, it was a great night.

Can you sum up the week in one sentence?

Probably not! There was just way too much good stuff going on.

Cheers to keeping the craft beer industry strong!  

Being on the road with a truck full of Steam Whistle Pilsner usually never goes unnoticed and our drivers’ road stories are nothing short of exciting.

Here’s one of our drivers, Tim Tormey with his truck, at the 2nd oldest Beer Store (#3253) in Windsor.

Tim shares his favourite road story:

“When I first started at Steam Whistle in 2007, we had yet to send a truck to Thunder Bay and we were having trouble getting our empties back from the great white north.  So I packed up my son and took our maiden voyage around Lake Superior to investigate.

Of course when you’re taking a trip like this, you want to take in as much as you can (I still have the parking ticket from the Michipicoten police in Wawa).  When we came around the elbow of the lake, I had made a last second decision to turn off and visit the beautiful town of Marathon.  Talk about isolated!

We went to visit The Beer Store and LCBO where Steam Whistle was not listed at the time.  Turns out several people caught the truck as we were coming in and followed us.  They were all asking if Steam Whistle was coming to town as some were making the 3 hour drive to T-Bay or the 5 hour drive to the Soo to get their delicious nectar fix.  By the time I made it into The Beer Store, Kelly the manager just looked at me and said “I guess I have no choice but to bring in Steam Whistle now”, and we were listed on the spot.

We concluded our visit to Marathon by visiting a park overlooking beautiful Peninsula Bay.  Again, we were followed to the park and probably had about a dozen locals asking about our scrumptious Pilsner.  It was a scene that I will not soon forget and one of many reasons why I love Northern Ontario!”

Next time you see a Good Beer Folk out on the road – please say hi!

Cheers!

On February 18th, our Erica along with Bridgid from Mill St began brewing a  Belgian Biere de Mars beer at Great Lakes Brewery. There’s nothing like female brewers coming together and sharing their talents. Here’s a photo of Erica mashing:

Erica Graholm previously worked at Amsterdam and Magnotta Brewing. She attended the prestigious Versuchs-und Lehranstalt fur Brauerei (VLB) in Berlin, Germany where she studied to become a certified brewer.

Read our Q&A with Erica where she shares what it’s like being a female brewer, her favourite craft beers, how she got involved with Beer For Boobs & why she decided to focus on beer instead of wine.

Q. What made you want to be a brewer and what’s it like being a female brewer?

I started homebrewing nearly a decade ago and my hobby quickly turned into an obsession.  I loved reading about the science and history of the craft, and exploring the many flavours of beer styles from around the world.  The latter involved a lot of tasting and evaluation, both of my own homebrewed beers and any commercial examples I could get my hands on.  When I realized this hobby could lead to a career there was no question I would go for it.  A job at a local homebrew shop eventually led to a job at Magnotta Brewery, which gave me a chance to speak to other brewers about how they got their start in the industry.  I was very fortunate with the opportunities that came my way, so I followed every one of them and never shied away from any hard work.

Being a female brewer is…pretty much like being a male brewer I suppose.  Except when we sweat it smells like lavender  Seriously though, it’s a lot of work but it’s even more fun.

Q. Do you have any suggestions for anyone wanting to pursue brewing as a career?

Homebrewing is a great place to start.  It can give you a good foundation about sanitation, fermentation, and you get to experiment, be creative, and make a lot of mistakes.  Some breweries will take volunteers or allow you to shadow a brewer, which is a good introduction into brewing on a commercial scale.  Yes, you will probably have to shovel the malt and scrub a lot, but you can also ask questions and that first beer at the end of the day will never taste better.

If you are serious about pursuing brewing as a career, take a program at one of the many brewing institutes around the globe.  Introductory and more in-depth programs are offered at Siebel Institute in Chicago, and the more local Niagara College offers a 2 year program, to name a couple.  While education is very helpful, when it comes to commercial brewing be prepared to start at the bottom and work your way up – experience counts!

Q. How did you get involved with Beer For Boobs?

Beer for Boobs is a breast cancer fundraising initiative started by Lisa White, vice president of White Labs, a yeast production company that services many craft breweries worldwide.  What started in 2008 as a 3 day, 60 mile fundraising walk, has turned into a series of events across the continent where anyone with an interest in beer and fundraising for breast cancer can put on their own unique event.  Kevin Freer from Magnotta Brewery and Tracy Phillippi from Black Oak Brewery simultaneously had the idea to put on such an event in Toronto in support of The Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation.  They joined forces and asked female brewers from around the GTA to collaborate on one-off small batches to be released at an event at BarVolo on March 25th.

I was thrilled to be asked to be involved because it’s a great learning experience for us brewers, and the event should be a lot of fun, not to mention that it’s for a good cause.  It’s great that so many breweries have got behind the idea either by donating raffle prizes, donating materials, and that the brewers at House Ales, Great Lakes, The Granite, Amsterdam, and Black Oak have collaborated with us to produce these beers on their pilot systems.

Events like this really showcase how craft beer folks work together as a community, which is what it’s all about to me.

Q. What are some of your favourite craft breweries & beers?

Well I’m glad you didn’t ask for my #1 favourite because that question is always too difficult to answer.  Locally some favourites are Beau’s Lug Tread for an easy drinking anytime beer, any Saison from Great Lakes Brewery, House Ales TuHop for a hop fix, Amsterdam Tempest Imperial Stout for a slow sipper, and King Brewery’s Vienna Lager.  Further afield, I love beers from Dieu du Ciel, Charlevoix, 3 Floyds, Jolly Pumpkin, and Goose Island to name a few.

Most beers are meant to be enjoyed fresh so travelling to the brewery is the best way to enjoy them.  This year I plan to travel to California where the craft brewing scene is absolutely raging and I can’t wait to try their wares!

Q. How did you decide on brewing beer instead of becoming a wine maker?

When I worked at Fermentations, a homebrewing and home winemaking shop on the Danforth, I learned a bit about the art of winemaking.  I do love wine and enjoy day trips out to Niagara, especially the Beamsville Bench area to taste the spectacular Rieslings and Pinot Noirs.  It’s amazing to me, as a Torontonian brewer and lover of all things fermented, that we have one of the best wine producing regions in the world on our doorstep.

But I was always much more passionate about beer than wine – maybe because craft beer is a bit of an underdog in terms of the industry as a whole, but I saw the potential for so much more.  It’s really rewarding to work in an industry that is seeing such immense growth, and to be able to reach people on a personal level and re-introduce them to a beverage they thought they knew, or maybe thought they didn’t even like.

That being said, winemakers and brewers in Ontario are starting to work more closely together, and I think this is a great trend that will help push both industries forward.

Here’s a few more shots from Erica’s and Mill St’s Bridgid brewing day at Great Lakes:

Share and come out to the event March 25th to see these awesome female brewers!

For all those folks who just can’t get enough beer science, we’re taking this chart  a step further.

Our Grain

We brew a 100% malt beer, using 2-Row malted prairie barley from Canada Malting (mainly from Saskatchewan but also Alberta), all GMO-free.  We use 2-Row barley because it is premium and a grade A version relating to larger kernel size, better extract, protein, and enzyme levels, as well as higher price. By comparison,  the 6-row barley is typically less expensive and lower quality.

Hops

While harvested as pale green flowers from a climbing vine, these hops all come to us in pelletized form, vacuum sealed for optimum storage to preserve their flavours over the year until the next hop’s harvest.

The four hops variety in our Pilsner are from Germany’s Hallertau region and the Saazer region of the Czech Republic. Our Brewmaster Marek use these types of hops specifically to brew accordingly to a traditional Czech style Pilsner recipe.

Water

Our water comes from Canadian Springs in Caledon. This water was selected for its purity, making it unnecessary to be filtered or treated before using for brewing (which can be a common practice in breweries using municipal tap water).

Our fermentation time is typically 7 days (yeast being a live product, this can vary from 6-7 days) and ageing is typically for 21 days (21-25 days), making it in total a 4 week time frame..

We also use a double Decoction method of brewing which involves twice taking a small portion of wort out of the Lauter Tun and boiling it in the Mash Tun and then returning it back to the Lauter Tun. The result of the decoction method is to fully extract the fermentable sugars out of the barley and to essentially carmelize them, contributing to our golden colour, a ‘cleaner’ beer with higher residual sugar, and a fuller, creamier head on the beer.

Combine all that with Good Beer Folk passion and what do you get?

Shared by James K Wallace on our Facebook page. 

Beer cheers!

(Source: kmpblog.com)

In 2012, expand your love and knowlege of craft beer by adding one of these resolutions to your list:

 1. Introduce someone to craft beer.
Ask your server for a craft brew, buy someone a craft beer at a bar, do your part in helping the Ontario Craft Brewers!

2. Educate others about craft beer.
Wine often has a reputation for being a more sophisticated choice for a dinner party but that is not necessarily true, as you may have read in our Cheese & Beer and Breaking Beer Myths blogs. Do your part in educating others about the delicious beverage and break the myths that can be associated with beer.

3. Try different craft beers.  
Experiment with variety of excellent brews from our friends in the Ontario Craft Brewers Association. Just don’t forget to come back to your beloved Canadian Czech style Pilsner.  We will be waiting!

4. Participate in Ontario Craft Beer Week. 
This event kicks off Father’s Day and will include a variety of events around craft beer education and tastings. Not to be missed!

5. Cook with craft beer and experiment with a variety of pairings.
To help you get started we have a variety of recipes on our website (over 150 to be exact!) for every occasion. Check them out here. Drunken shrimp anyone?

6. Give craft beer or merchandise as a present.
We found a solution to regifting and terrible gifts. I mean, who doesn’t love the gift of beer?! For instance, we have a brewery store and an e-store where a variety of items like our wall mounted openers and boots that can be purchased, as well as our holiday packs with a To&From tag for easy wrapping. Explore some craft brewers and what they have to offer!

7. Read up on history of craft.
Start with some Craft Beer 101 from Ontario Brewers Association.

8. Explore your own craft beer history.
We recommend the Old Toronto Beer Tour that takes you on a walking and tasting tour of Toronto’s beer history. Explore what your town has to offer.

9. Bring craft beer to a party.
And don’t forget to tell the beer’s story!

10. Visit a craft brewery.
See the process of how your favourite brew is made and meet the people that help to make it happen. We hope you come visit us for a taste of brewery fresh beers and see what’s brewing in our kitchen:

Support local & Canadian beer folks!

P.S. This guy might have a good excuse…