![]() Collective Arts Brewery in Hamilton, Ontario is one of my most familiar breweries. As of posting today, I have had 31 different beers from the brewery. I have made multiple trips to this location and will continue to make more in the future. I would dare to say that, in Ontario, there are 2 big craft brewers who have set the standard and this company is one of them. To add to this, the building that Collective Arts occupies has a very long history in the beer industry, so I’m starting today’s post with a history lesson. I hope you enjoy! Collective Arts is located in Hamilton, Ontario in a building that was built in 1947 for a brewer called Peller Brewing Company. At this time in Hamilton history, lots of the land that houses the steel industry and what is the current home of Collective Arts was not even there. All this land was being reclaimed and the building was one of the first built on this land. While it looked very different from its current look (as pictured) part of the brewery was covered by metal siding which became the building’s signature look. In the 1955 Peller sold the brewery to Brading Breweries and moved into the wine business. It was during the Brading Brewery era that beer was not allowed to be sold anywhere else other than the Beer Store in Ontario. This was because you needed to sign a document in order to get your beer. As a way around this, Brading Brewery opened an ice store that also sold beer. Eventually Carling bought Brading Breweries and in 1960, they moved production to Toronto. This lead to the first time the building did not have a brewer to call the building home. In fact, the Hamilton Port Authority used the building as a storage warehouse for 12 years. In 1972 Henninger Brewery of Germany brought beer production back to the facility. Then, in 1981 Henninger sold to Amstel Brewery from Holland. The beer was marketed as “The Canadian Lager with the Dutch touch”. The height of the Amstel Era was in March of 1985. At that time a lockout had paralyzed Ontario’s Big Three – Molson, Labatt and Carling O’Keefe (which together sold 98 per cent of the province’s beer) and Amstel became the busiest beer store in Canada. Legend says at times there were 500 people in line at the store and the company was selling 10,000 cases of beer a day. 1992 saw the Lakeport Brewing Company take over the building. During this period of time the Beer Stores in Ontario were closed on Sunday but the Lakeport store was able to be open (Similar to how a lot of breweries are open on holidays now when the Beer Store is not) and Sundays were the day Lakeport made most of their money, legend says lines were up to 2 hours long. At this time Lakeport was a brewer of premium beer (as well as contracting out to others like President’s Choice). That changed in 2002 when Lakeport, who had been through bankruptcy protection started selling “a buck a beer” which was, and now is again, the lowest legal price in Ontario. Within 4 years Lakeport went from having a 2% market share to having 2 top 10 selling brands in Ontario. Labatt Brewery (owned by InBev) came calling in 2007 and purchased Lakeport for 201 million dollars and, by 2010 moved all brewing of Lakeport to their already established London, Ontario facility. Once again the brewery on Burlington Street had no brewer occupying their space. In fact, Labatt had gone so far as to completely strip the inside of the building so that it no longer even resembled a brewery on the inside. In 2014 2 gentlemen who worked at the plant prior to Lakeport's move to London: Bob Sorell and Allan Linkletter (who had a combined 30 years’ experience working at the brewery) decided they wanted to bring beer production back to Hamilton. They formed a partnership with Burlington, Ontario’s Nickle Brook Brewing and, after removing about 63,000 square feet of the building (for parking and a beer garden) and installing about 60 loads of equipment (trucked in from a decommissioned Sleeman plant in Nova Scotia) Science and Arts was born. Both breweries continued to brew in the building until 2017 when a mutual agreement between Nickle Brook and Collective Arts was agreed to so both companies could continue to grow as the space is not large enough for both companies. Collective Arts is very involved with the arts and has a history of allowing artists to apply for their artwork to be featured on their cans. The company also hosts many events like dinners, cruises, launch parties, tasting parties, concerts, after parties and, the list goes on. In fact, in June of 2018 they held their own festival of art, music and, beer including international breweries. Speaking of other breweries, Collective Arts has a history of making a fair number of collaboration beers with other breweries and even once a did collaboration with Donut Monster bakery (also from Hamilton). Collective Arts has a very unique space because they have a bottle shop/tap room and a beer garden. These are on different sides of the building so it’s almost as if they are 2 completely different spaces. The bottle shop/tap room is the old store from the previous breweries. There is a room with walls of old bottle art and the main room. In the main room you can find posters, glassware, clothing, growler fills, canned beer, grab a pint or, a flight. Pretty much every Sunday they have a live band in the taproom as well. Each week Collective Arts has a “yard of ale” promotion in which they select one beer on tap and sell the growler refills for $10. Recently, Collective Arts has added an outdoor patio in the parking lot. The Beer Garden has beers on tap, yard games and, plenty of space to sit both inside and outside. This area has hosted many events like yoga, mini markets, food trucks and, has hosted musical guests as well. At the time of me posting this article it seems that the area is undergoing some changes and the space doesn’t seem to be in use as often. ![]() As I mentioned earlier in the post, I’ve had over 30 different types of beer brewed by Collective Arts so I won’t be mentioning them all by name but I have included pictures of my Untappd check ins below. This bring me to something else I want to do with this blog. As I mentioned in my post on Grain and Grit: I’m not looking to rate breweries so much as I am here to provide insight and awareness. What I would like to do though is make a “Jer’s pick” from each brewery to give you a beer or 2 to try (I’m going to be loose with this rule, if I really like 2 or 3 then that’s what you get. If I only like 1 then that will be my single pick). Jer’s Picks for Collective Arts will be: Raspberry Milkshake IPA With Habanero Peppers: This is the collaboration between Collective Arts and Donut Monster. It was also Collective Art’s first Milkshake IPA. I love Raspberries and that flavour dominates but the lactose and vanilla give it a sweetness and a nice mouthfeel. I don’t remember there being much of a kick from the peppers, more like a little hint of peppers to finish it off. Unfortunately, this beer is no longer in production. I guess that kind of makes it a crappy “pick” but it introduced me to the world of Milkshake IPAs which have quickly become my one of favorite styles of beer. Life in the Clouds IPA: New England Style IPAs are always a safe bet in my book. This one is nice and hazy, with the hoppy flavour kind of cutting the sweetness from the juicy flavour you get. It’s a really nice balance of both tastes. Liquid Arts Fest Milkshake IPA: This is actually one of my all-time favorite beers period. It’s brewed with mango, lactose, vanilla, 2 hops and, fruit puree. What you’ve got here is actually a really refreshing beer that drinks like orange juice. It’s sweet, but not too sweet. The only drawback is that this beer is not cheap ($4.95 a tall can at the LCBO) but for this quality, it’s well worth it in my opinion.
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![]() This past weekend was the boys weekend up at my buddy's cottage in Perry Sound. Unfortunately the rain started coming down pretty hard on Saturday but that opened the door for me to jump into town and check out Trestle Brewing Company. Actually, I think it opened the door for everyone as it was jam packed! First impression is that Trestle is a restaurant. They have a kitchen and a food truck but no bar to just sit at and have a beer (I wasn't looking to have food but was told I'd still need to wait for a table). The location is perfect, downtown and right on the water with the train bridge (featuring, you guessed it, trestles!) in the backdrop. I opted to leave (go into town for some other items) and come back an hour later to see what the line was like; still packed! Crappy for me but great to see a independent brewery to doing such great business! There are many food options, as you can guess, and it looks like there are many events too as there was a bulletin board full of ads. Seems like this is the hot spot on Perry Sound. So I picked up a 4 pack and a glass (Weizen style) and headed back to the cottage. I tried the flagship beer; Golden Ale, South Channel Session IPA, Red Rock Rye Porter (my 700th unique beer according to Untappd) and, 30,000 Islands IPA which was my favorite of the bunch. I hope to go back next summer on a nice day and enjoy some of the food as well. ![]() Yesterday I stopped by Cameron's Brewing. Cameron's is a veteran of the craft brewing scene, having started in 1997. Their claim to fame at the time was selling beer in 9 packs as opposed to the traditional 6. They are located at the end of a dead end street in a industrial section. Coincidentally, that street also houses the head office of another of my favorite things: the Toronto Rock Lacrosse Club. To be honest, you could easily miss this place if you weren't looking hard as it just looks like another business. The taproom/bottle shop is very small but has recently been renovated and has a cool all wood look. Out in the parking lot they have set up a couple of picnic tables, surrounded by some planters to sit at. No flights available but the core beers are available on tap, and they have a small merch selection. Edit: Cameron's has reached out to me on Instagram and confirmed that they do have flights available. I guess there was some confusion between myself and the person who was working that day? It's possible I misheard. Regardless; thanks to Cameron's for reading this and thanks for reaching out to clear that up! I did not stay to have a drink, I picked up a glass and a few of their beers (all of which are available at the LCBO) but there were 2 beers in the selection I purchased that I had not had and tried later in the evening: Black Forest and Dark and Sticky. Seeing as I'm not the biggest dark beer fan, I was very pleasantly surprised by Dark and Sticky. That said 12 Mile India Pale Lager remains my favorite Cameron's selection. ![]() Back in July I checked out Oast House for the first time. Right in the heart of wine country is this brewery that is in an old barn. The barn includes a bottle shop (called the beer shed) which also has a ping pong table. There is an event space (called the hayloft) which can be booked for parties/events. I wasn't able to see this area when I visited unfortunately, but it sounds really cool. Out back of the brewery is a 2 level patio made from an old storage container which serves beer and bar snacks. Also around back is a BBQ restaurant called Brushfire Smoke. While it is a very cool location, and it clearly is a hot spot (the place was packed) I found it weird that they do not offer flights. Oast is a brewery that I don't have much familiarity with. Prior to my visit I had only tried one of their beers. On this visit I had the Sour Cherry Berliner Weiss. It wasn't overly sour and I love cherries so it was nice. ![]() My first entry is a place I'm very familiar with: Grain and Grit. The story of this place is one I love: A couple who dreamed of starting their own business (the husband being a home brewer) just decided to go for it! They took over an old garage, cleaned it up and made it ready for the brewery, and away they went. Grain and Grit is has a small tap room/bottle shop that offers pints and flights as well as chips. There are a number of board games available to play while enjoying a pint. Every Saturday in the summer they host a community market with vendors who sell food and handmade goods. They have hosted a euchre league and they frequently have bands come to play. My visit today was just to pick up some beer to enjoy at home and some glassware. The glassware I got seemed like a cross between a thistle glass and a goblet, very cool. Today I picked up 3 beers. The first is called "Quenched". This is a dry raddler. I found it to have a lot of citrus and be very sour, probably from the cranberries. The next beer I had was "Nearly Noble Lagered Ale". An easy drinking German style pilsner. I enjoyed this outside as it was hot and it was refreshing! Last beer for today was "Chasing Summer" This is a tart ale thanks to the use of raspberries. Raspberries are some of my favorite fruits, so you can guess how I felt about this one. To wrap up my first entry, I want to advise something. I have no intentions of rating any breweries as I do this. I just want to share where I've been and hopefully help get the word out about these breweries. Also, I'll remember to take pictures next time. Sorry! Hi!
If you found this page then you are one of the first. Possibly THE first. Thanks for checking it out! So why did I start this blog? You might have seen my "about" section which will give you a quick answer to that question but today I'm posting the long version. I've been a beer fan for a long time. When I think back to the times when I first started introducing alcohol in my life beer was always my drink of choice. It was usually Richard's Red or Heineken. The first craft beer I recall ever trying was Waterloo Dark. I loved it, drank it all the time. It was only when I went to beer fest for the first time (2008, if I recall correctly) that I really discovered something different; Nickle Brook's Green Apple Lager. It was never easy to find at that time and when I did, I bought everything on the shelf. In 2013 I discovered Untappd. To be honest, I don't remember how. Maybe a friend recommended it? Either way it became a cool tool to use so I knew what beer I had tried and I could save what beers I wanted to try. I was also gifted a Brooklyn Brew Shop 1 gallon home brewing kit. I enjoyed learning how beer was made and it made me understand how we got these different flavors and what the different types of beers were. In this same time period Alexander Keith's released their Hop Series. I recall there being 4 beers in the series and that is where my love of hoppy beers really got started. It wasn't too long after that I tried Muskoka Brewery's Detour. After that, I was "off to the races" always looking for new beers to try at the beer store or the LCBO. In 2016 I was out for a random drive to Elora, Ontario with family. We chose to stop for lunch at the Elora Brewing company and I ordered a flight and got my first Untappd check in at a brewery. I went home with my first growler as well. It wasn't much longer than 2 weeks that I ventured down to Toronto's Great Lakes Brewery. During the summer of 2017 I moved to Hamilton, On. Hamilton has a pretty good craft beer scene and, being familiar with Collective Arts, I visited them often but it was really when I discovered Fairweather Brewery that it clicked in: some breweries have beers that you can only buy either on tap at a restaurant or at their bottle shop to take home. The Beer Store and LCBO doesn't sell everything! That changed the game for me. Suddenly I was following breweries on social media as much as possible to learn about limited releases and I started visiting a lot of spots in the Greater Toronto Area. After a summer Saturday (in 2018) in the Niagara region and Buffalo, checking out some more breweries, I decided to go on google and see if I could find a spreadsheet that I could download so I could mark down where I've been (or where I plan to go), list the name, physical address and, web address. It's a work in progress that I expect will always be part of this project. Having shared this spreadsheet with friends, I had a friend suggest that I should start a blog. So, here I am. Sharing this spreadsheet with anyone who reads this and journaling my adventures along the way. |
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