![]() To date, I've posted about breweries that I've wanted to go see really badly or have really influenced my beer drinking choices. In some cases (my Barrie trip) I literally learned about a brewery and just went there, blindly. This one, is very different. Wellington Brewery is one that's always been around. I mean that literally. It was established in 1985, the year I was born. I've certainly tried some of the core beers but, as silly as this sounds now, until this past summer it never really clicked that this was a local craft brewery. I guess I just assumed, as they were always available, that they were macro. Obviously that is not the case and I'm embarrassed to admit that I didn't figure that out until 2018. What is it that the kids say? "Don't @ me". The truth is, Wellington is pioneer of the craft beer industry. The core beers are traditional style ales but they dabble in just about everything. In fact, Wellington came to be after a law change in Ontario in 1985 that allowed small brewers to operate in the province (side note: where would we be without that law change? I don't even want to think about it.). Phil Gosling was the founder who's vision was for a brewery that would produce English style ales; also known as cask-conditioned beers. This process is different than the normal as the beers are naturally carbonated and are served at cellar temperature (granted, if you read this site you probably knew that). To get that authentic English style the brewing equipment was flown in from England. Seems appropriate that they set up the brewery in Guelph aka "The Royal City". The core brands, who remain to this day, were developed at this time. These brands are; Special Pale Ale, County Brown Ale and, Arkell Best Bitter. It didn't take long for Wellington to become recognized. By 1987 they were winning local and national awards for their beers. In they year 2000 major changes were afoot for Wellington. The original owner, Phil Gosling, decided to retire and sold the brewery to 2 of his longtime employees; Doug Dawkins and Michael Stirrup. It was at this time that the added focus of sales to restaurants and bars was a business growth strategy that came into play. That is something that I normally wouldn't mention but as a result of this we got the famous boot tap handle that remains a staple in bars and restaurants today. 2007 brought more changes. The 25th anniversary was celebrated with a big party. The brewery installed their first canning line and, Michael Stirrup retired as the president. Doug Dawkins, who was the co-owner with Michael, took over as president and brought Brent Davies in to assist. Brent had been in sales with Wellington previously. It was also in 2007 that the Welly One-Off series kicked off. This series was a rotating series of small batch specialty beers. 2011 saw Wellington officially change their logo to the boot that had been featured on the top handles. This was also the year that tank capacity grew for the first time. The second time being in 2013. The 30th anniversary year in 2015 was very special as a 12,000 square foot addition broke ground. New brewing equipment and a new packing line was also added. Sadly and unexpectedly in 2016 Doug Dawkins passed away. A sad moment for the brewery as he was at the helm while so much growth was experienced. In September the brewery hosts Welly Cask Fest which is a celebration of casked beers. In 2018 over $2500 was raised for Habitat for Humanity at Cask Fest. I made my first visit to Wellington at the end of January this year. I went early (about noon) on a Tuesday, so it wasn't exactly peak busy hours but I was in the area and really wanted to check it out. The building is a cool Oast house style of building. The taproom and the bottle shop are connected but the taproom is a larger space than most craft breweries out there and I'd love to come back on a Friday night and see it packed. As I admitted earlier, what this brewery means to the scene really didn't click and as a result I see I haven't really dug too deep into what they have to offer until this past summer when I ordered a couple beers online that I really wanted to try. As a result I've only tried 5 of their beers. So for Jer's picks I'm going to pick my favorite of their year-round offerings as well as my favorite one-off that I really liked. Before I do that though, Wellington released a glass as part of the Welly Cask Days in 2018 and it's probably the coolest looking beer glass I've ever seen (and now own!). So shout out to the Welly CaskBuddy glass. I'll have a photo of it in the pictures below. Jer's Picks: Upside IPA: This is the year-round offering. This is a east cost style IPA with a Vermont ale yeast and has hints of grapefruit and peach. It's just a really well done IPA that is always a good grab. Shubie: Shubie is an IPA but I really wouldn't be surprised if people called it a sour either. It's a raspberry lover's dream, and I am a raspberry lover. It's juicy and tart as you would expect from a Raspberry beer. Just a really nice beer on a hot summer day. The can art was pretty cool too!
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