Merit Brewing Company has taken great strides since opening in 2017. A destination for excellent food and beer, it has helped rejuvenate Downtown Hamilton and co-founder Tej Sandhu hopes other breweries will follow suit.
Words: Tim Sheahan | Photos: Jakub Mulik
Ratios….It’s all about the context.
Some are good, some are bad. It all depends who and what we’re talking about.
Rewind less than three years, to when Merit Brewing Company opened its doors in Hamilton, Ontario. This brought the number of breweries open in the port city to three. Modest, to say the least. Even more so when you’re talking about a city that in excess of 500,000 people call home.
One brewery per 170,000? Not an ideal ratio…
Granted, in 2020, that number has more than doubled to the healthier figure of seven brewing operations so we’re getting there, at least.
But if outfits like Merit, and their contemporaries in Collective Arts, Fairweather and Grain & Grit, continue to grow at pace, then don’t be at all surprised to see that number swell sooner rather than later and that’s great news for everyone, right?
Until then, however, only Merit calls the Downtown area of Hamilton its home. Opened in 2017, the brewery was founded by Tej Sandhu, Aaron Spinney, and Jesse Vallins.
Three individuals that each bring their own expertise to the operation, Merit is defined by encouraging exploration, nurtured through inclusivity.
“Exploration is what excites us,” explains Sandhu. “It’s our job to encourage our guests to leave their preconceptions at the door and, whether it’s the beer they try or the food they sample, give them an experience they are glad to have had.”
Sandhu met Aaron Spinney during their studies. The former attended McMaster’s DeGroote School of Business while Spinney studied marketing at Mohawk College.
After graduation, Sandhu would pursue his interests in the music industry while Spinney completed the brewing program at Niagara College before demonstrating his skills at several breweries across Canada including the prestigious role of head brewer at Sawdust City in Gravenhurst.
Sandhu and Spinney both loved beer and the seemingly-endless level of exploration offered by the diversity of styles and ingredients available to them. They knew they wanted to open a brewery but one that paid its food offering as much attention as the beers they’d be producing in it.
Step in Jesse Vallins, the executive chef of Toronto’s Maple Leaf Tavern. His expertise and desire to explore the realms of flavour creation was the perfect fit and the last part of the early Merit jigsaw.
“The welcome we had from the community was fantastic,” recalls Sandhu. “There were lines of people and we were even on the front of the local newspaper!”
Consumers welcomed the Merit proposition with open arms. Not only is it the sole brewery in Downtown but it’s the only one in Hamilton with a restaurant.
“What we do is driven by keeping people interested and excited. The scene here is still so young. Only Collective Arts and Shawn and Ed Brewing were operating in Hamilton when we started out,” he says. “It’s been great to see new breweries open since because it makes the idea of buying and enjoying local beer the norm. Hamilton’s brewing scene is a community, it’s collaborative and long may it stay that way.”
Although the welcome Merit received from the consumer was unanimously positive, getting to that point wasn’t always plain sailing.
“Getting Merit off the ground involved more than year working with others on a municipal level. The idea of us opening such an operation Downtown were uncharted waters so it was something of a nightmare,” Sandhu sighs. “But we worked with the highest levels of government, demonstrated it was something the city wanted and got there in the end. It just needed a lot of swimming to make it happen.”
Now, Sandhu’s relationship with the government continues to flourish, with him called upon to take part in consultations and plans regarding the city, and the parameters to work within to enable more businesses like Merit to open and call Hamilton’s Downtown their home.
Two and a half years into the brewery’s journey, Sandhu is proud of how far the business has come.
“We’re long term thinkers,” he explains. “Taking things at a considered pace is our M.O. of sorts. Look at distribution. Why even consider the rest of Ontario just now when there’s only seven breweries in Hamilton. There are more than 500,000 people living here, which gives us so much room to grow in our own backyard.”
He adds: “Growing up, Downtown wasn’t somewhere you went. But now, people are returning. We’d have guests in the brewery who would tell me they haven’t been around these streets for more than a decade.
“Thankfully that’s changing. There’s something of a community building. It’s one we’re part of and one we want to further facilitate the growth of.”
Much of the brewery’s personal growth is taking place on its own doorstep with 99% of the beer it produces sold directly at the brewery. Beers are brewed on its 15bbl NSI brewhouse with Merit currently boasting 105bbl (two 30bbl Fvs and three 15bbl FVs) of fermentation capacity.
These beers are sold for on-site consumption or packaged into 500ml bottles or in growler fills.
“From a revenue standpoint, being able to sell what we brew directly is obviously important,” says Sandhu. “But equally it’s the best space to enjoy those beers, too. I believe it’s where you can develop the greatest connection. It’s not just liquid in the glass, it’s our home and where we can tell our story.”
The beers produced by Merit Brewing Company are diverse in their very nature.
Currently on offer are numbers such as ‘Then’, a 7.34% Cab Franc Hybrid Saison.
“Our goal with this beer was to represent the beginning and end of harvest. Last year we took hundreds of pounds of Rosewood Crab Franc skins, sealed them, and stored them frozen so we could use them in the future,” says Sandhu.
He adds: “This past April, we went to the same vineyard the Cab Franc grapes came from, and trimmed the canes on the vines, making the way for new growth to start. We then took those canes, dried them, and used them to smoke a small portion of the grain we used in this beerWe then brewed a rustic saison base that was then aged on the Crab Franc skins.
“Our goal was to create a flavour profile similar to those found in piquettes, a style we’ve loved seeing the resurgence in. ‘Then’ displays bright spring fruitiness alongside subtle funk. ‘Then’ finishes very dry with bright and high carbonation.”
Also available is ‘By and By’, a Tripel with Leaning Post Pinot Noir Skins & Wild Lees. The beer was brewed thanks to the team getting their hands on more than 500lbs of freshly pressed and post-fermented Pinot Noir skins from their friends at Leaning Post Wines.
The skins bring notes of creamy strawberry, tart cherry, raspberry, currant, and rose to a classic Belgian-style Tripel base. By And By drinks like a Beaujolais-beer with major fruit balanced by subtle tannin and an even more subtle acidity.
But rewind a few years and attendees of the brewery’s popular ‘Milkshake Day’ would have sampled beers such as Cali Creamsicle, a 6.3% Grapefruit, Orange, & Lemon Milkshake IPA.
Merit calls itself a 5th ingredient brewery, meaning each beer features the addition of fruits, herbs, spices, teas, “or just a good story”.
Sandhu adds: “We are inspired by tradition but like breaking the rules. Through brewing and culinary techniques, we push flavours and aromas to the forefront of the “why” we brew. From simple to complex flavours that can be layered or singular, we want our beer to speak a lot, but also very little depending on situation.
“We have diverse tastes in beer. We want to give guests a spectrum to choose from and an entry point, too. Some breweries that entry point will be a Blonde or similar. For us, we will suggest our 3% SVP French Table Beer and take it from there.”
Many of the beers Merit brew now, or are in the process of releasing, stem from a comprehensive spreadsheet Sandhu and Spinney put together before the brewery came to life.
“We made a list of the ideas and worked with the ones that stood out. That doesn’t mean we won’t work on a whim if some amazing ingredients become available, though!” he says. “One of my favourite beers we’ve ever made was an American Dry Lager. It was delicious.”
And it’s offering something for everyone that continues to drive Merit Brewing Company forward.
“Inclusivity is at the core of what we do,” he says. “It’s about being familiar but taking a different approach to that familiarity.”
Sandhu adds: “Hamilton’s brewing scene continues to grow and we all bring something different to the table. I can genuinely look a customer in the eye and recommend each and every one of the breweries here.
“I hope we can keep this bar of quality high and have others that join the community raise it even higher. I’m very proud to call Hamilton home.”