Long reads

On the right track | Junction Craft Brewing

Sleeping again. I’m looking forward to sleeping again.” Tom Paterson is looking forward to getting a full night’s rest and….dare he say it, relax. Because for Paterson, seven years after he founded Junction Craft Brewing with Doug Pengelly, the duo have finally got somewhere they can truly call home. Oh, and a decent-sized patio where…

Read More

Best of both worlds | The story of The Exchange Brewery

California’s Russian River Brewing Company is one of those rare finds. A brewery, so often revered for its Pliny the Elder and Pliny the Younger IPAs but one that is also treasured for its barrel-aged output. Be that a strong dark ale aged in Cabernet Sauvignon barrels, or a sour aged in Pinot barrels, the level…

Read More

Goose Island | Let’s bring more people into beer

It has been a phenomenal experience. Being able to bring Goose Island beers to Toronto and having the ability to experiment and adapt to drinkers’ tastes is something special. It’s great to be part of,” explains Bernard Priest, head brewer at Goose Island’s Toronto Brewhouse. The Goose Island Brewhouse in Toronto was six months young in…

Read More

The Craft of Coopering

Re-coopering is essentially a process used to remove all the neutral oak on the interior surface of a barrel, re-toasting, re-assembly and leak sealing to complete the process. Re-coopering a barrels costs one fifth the price of a new barrel, which typically costs $1000 – $1300CDN per 225L/228L barrel. It is a practice that has…

Read More

Scott Simmons, OCB | Six Months In

“The brewing industry is an extremely important part of the fabric on Ontario. As the sector grows, new breweries open and with that, jobs are created and there is a knock-on impact on the economy here in Ontario. And that is only a good thing,” explains Scott Simmons, the president of Ontario Craft Brewers. Simmons is…

Read More

Work hard, then play hard | The story of Garrison Brewing

The Brewers Association Craft Brewers Conference and BrewExpo was a different animal in 1998 compared to the annual giant it is now. Held in Atlanta, Georgia in the April of that year, the Brewing Studies National Craft Brewers Conference, as it was known then, was a melting pot of brewing knowledge. Companies like Wachsmann Brewing…

Read More

From Barn to Bar | Cowbell Brewing

“In the first 12 days we have had seven thousand people through the doors. It’s an incredible feeling and we are really appreciative of that.” The people behind Cowbell want Blyth, Ontario and the people of Blyth, Ontario want Cowbell. It’s no surprise that Grant Sparling, general manager and vice president of the new brewery…

Read More

Brewing Craft in BC

“I’ve lived here for years and had no idea there was a brewery here!”. It’s something Ryan Mackey, owner of Vancouver Brewery Tours loves to hear when giving tours of the west coast seaport’s breweries. But for somewhere growing like Vancouver, you can’t imagine too many of the cities being able to keep a low…

Read More

The story of Quebec’s Glutenberg

When David Cayer met Julien Niquet while studying business at Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), a French-language university in Montreal, neither would have guessed that they’d be running a successful brewery, distillery and distribution group less than a decade later. But that’s just what they are doing. They employ a team of 60, export…

Read More

Science | Malliard Reaction

A simplified definition would run as follows: in food chemistry, any heating steps involving the presence of sugars and amino compounds (ammonia, amino acids, proteins or polypeptides) lead to the complex reactions originally demonstrated by Louis-Camille Maillard (1878-1936) ca. 1912. Maillard demonstrated to scientists at the French Academy the formation of a yellowish-brown colored liquid,…

Read More