An urban farmhouse brewery. Crazy as it sounds, that’s always been our goal.
Drawing on our rooftop farm and a network of local farmers, our kitchen has featured local ingredients from the start. In the brewery, though, sourcing local ingredients is more of a challenge. But given that supporting and developing local businesses is more important than ever, now is the perfect time to introduce our new line of 99% Ontario-grown beers.
The 99% symbol now found on a number of our cans means that everything that goes into the beer, save the odd minuscule water adjustment, comes from Ontario. The grain, the hops, the yeast, and any flavourings are all local. During the shutdown, we released (and quickly sold out of) our Fallow Year Ontario Lager, our first ninety-nine percenter. More recently, we released our second member of the 99% club: Skyward IPA with Ontario Cabernet Franc skins.
Most wine-beer hybrids blend sour beer with wine juice or skins to highlight the yeasty and acidic nature of the wine grapes, but with Skyward, we wanted to focus on aromatics. The wine grapes add a complex herbal backbone, while also mimicking and intensifying the red berry notes of our IPA. It’s our sunny Ontario summer in a glass—fresh, fruity, and 100% refreshing.
Looking forward, crowd favourite Cherry Brevis Tart Saison will soon be a ninety-nine percenter, as will our Calm Sea Ontario Pale Ale. A new saison will follow, along with a host of other exciting brews. Our ultimate goal, though, is to make an all-Ontario pilsner. To make a pils that meets our quality standards, we need very particular hops, and to date there just hasn’t been market demand to grow them in Ontario. That’s why we’re now working closely with our friends at Highland Hop Yard to grow a special hop bill. It may take a year, even two, before the crop is ready for us, but we’re committed to building up the local ecosystem alongside partners like Highland, and we know the quality will be reflected in the beer.
The global pandemic has only reinforced our belief in the importance of local food systems and businesses. We don’t want to be local just for local’s sake; we want to make quality beer, and we want to create meaningful partnerships that help grow and improve our local supply chain. We want to help build up local suppliers, not just for our benefit, but for other restaurants and brewers as well. Equally importantly, we want to bring this bounty of local products to you—from the local food boxes and fare from our kitchen to a unique selection of beers that showcase the best Ontario grains, hops, and fruit.