Town Brewery takes a Leap of Faith (and nails the landing)

When you're on a roof and you take that first step onto the ladder to head down to safety, there's that moment of trepidation before you step out into the thin air.

It's the Leap of Faith, I call it, though for me it's more like the very-careful-slow-motion-hold-the-ladder-steady-willya Step of Faith.

Roofers and the awesome people who hang your Christmas lights for you (#christmasdecorshamelessplug) may consider this routine, all-in-a-days-work stuff, but for less experienced people like myself, it can be a bit terrifying.

So is falling off a ladder, which I do (unfortunately) have a little bit of experience in, as my pals Brandon, the (possibly self-proclaimed) Boy Wonder, and Scottie, the Directionally Challenged (but getting better) Soldier Boy, can attest.

Christmas lights are not recommended
as a point of contact. Trust me

But I just get up and get back on that ladder anyway, because Rick and Nancy are great bosses, the lovely Steph is an awesome foreman and I'm finally getting enough hours to pay the bills AND spring for a few Christmas presents.

And maybe even visit a brewery or two on the rare evening I'm not so exhausted that I just stumble off to bed at the end of the day.

That's how I found myself at Whitby's newest brewing establishment, Town Brewery.

I had heard great things about this place from quite a few people, notably Matt from Brewer's Pantry, who raved about it when we chatted a couple of weeks ago.

I was aware Town had a bit of money behind them. I also knew they had poached their brewmaster, Tim, from Toronto's acclaimed Great Lakes Brewery - perhaps the greatest IPA producers in the free world - and I had been told the taproom was something to see.

No kidding. The place is YUUUUGE! Big enough for a ping-pong table and some sort of giant Jenga thing on the other side of the room. And popular enough to be teeming with beer lovers on a Sunday night 20 minutes before closing.

Located down by the lake in Whitby's marina district (I dunno if Whitby actually has a 'marina district,' but that's what I'm calling it), Town Brewery is the newest kid on Whitby's rapidly expanding brewery block.

A few of the beers in the Leap of Faith series

I enjoyed several of their offerings earlier in the month, as Buster Rhino's in Oshawa was quick to put their first series of beers on tap as soon as Town opened its doors, and the night I popped in they had seven beers on tap and in the fridge. So naturally I asked Travis behind the bar for a flight.

The Session Pale - light, dry and peachy at 4.8 per cent - was the only beer on the flight new to me, and it was an easy decision to choose Town's Saison (six per cent), IPA (6.6 per cent, quite bitter and delicious) and Pale Ale (5.2 per cent) for the rest of my flight paddle, as all three had already passed the awesomeness taste test with flying colours.

All of these beers, by the way, are part of the brewery's Leap of Faith series, which meant it only took me 13 paragraphs to make the connection from the lead.

(That could be a record for me, though I doubt it would make the top 10 of Beer Bro Don's Brew Ha Ha blogs. But I digress.)

The next beer on my list was the first not called Leap of Faith and one of the main reasons I drove down here on this November night: Square Wheels Wheat IPA, a 6.8 per cent beer, (that wasn't technically a White IPA because the yeast was American and not Belgian, I was told) came highly recommended by my friend Josh.

It was all it cracked up to be. Grapefruit and pineapple deliciousness with a super juicy texture, this could be my favourite Wheat IPA. Ever. Which is what I told Jeff, one of the brewery owners, when he stopped by my bar stool to shoot the breeze.

Square Wheels Wheat IPA. Yum

I asked him about the Leap of Faith name, and why it was attached to the brewery's first series of beers. He gestured at the brewhouse and taproom and said it was how they all felt when they started brewing for real.

"We went from 20 litre test batches to brewing 2,000 litres at a time," he explained. "I said to our Brewmaster, that's kind of like a leap of faith."

Jeff then brought me a sample of a Rye Saison collaboration with 5 Paddles and when I made that face of delight I use when I taste delicious free beer, he said "come with me" and walked me into the brewery side of the space and offered me a taste straight from the tank of another collaboration beer that was so secret hush-hush that I can't reveal what it is in this space.

Actually, in all the excitement of more free beer, I just forgot what it was, though I think it was an Imperial IPA. But it was tasty.

But I will be back for more, Jeff. Next Saturday, in fact, when a rag-tag band of out-of-town beer writers, beer lovers (including the aforementioned Don) and other ne'er-do-wells will join Josh and I for an all-day takeover of Whitby's four breweries.

Given the size of our party and the size of your taproom, I think we will make Town our last brewery stop of the day.

See you Saturday afternoon.

Ontario's best guide to craft beer

When I got a message on Facebook from Jordan St. John asking if I had received the book yet, my first thought was What book? You mean your book? The one you wrote with Robin LeBlanc? That book? You sent me a copy of your book? Why? Did you want me to review it? Really?

And on and on like that.

Jordan is one the icons of the beer writing world, at least in this country, along with Stephen Beaumont, Ben Johnson, Robert Arseneault (Drunk Polkeroo) and Robin, aka The Thirsty Wench. And as my beer writings are sporadic at best, I was surprised he would want my opinion.

But as I established in the previous story, I like free stuff, so I told Jordan that I had not received a copy of the Ontario Craft Beer Guide and perhaps he had the wrong address but I would be honoured to receive a copy.

And so forth.

His due diligence revealed an oversight on his publicist's end and in due time a copy of said book landed in my mail box.

That was a few months back. What can I say? My eyes ain't what they used to be so I'm a slow reader.

But I can tell you that if you're looking for information on Ontario's breweries and our brewing scene and how we got to this point, this is the book for you. There is a section not to be missed on the province's brewing history; information on where we buy beer and the ingredients that are used in making that beer; recommendations on Ontario's best craft beer pubs and restaurants and nearly 500 pages of information (and ratings) on the province's breweries.

But before you go straight to the middle of the book to see how your favourite brewery measures up, check out the history section. Yeah, I know, you probably slept through history class in high school. But Jordan and Robin bring Ontario's colourful beer history to life and it's well worth knowing how we got from E.P. Taylor and his Canadian Breweries kingdom (and the consolidation and tied houses and everything else that goes with a brewing empire) to Molson and Labatt's to the first wave of craft beer in the mid-80s.

Jordan St. John

Besides, your history teacher might be reading this. And judging you.

That first wave, which spawned Brick Brewery and Upper Canada among others, got its kick start by a beer strike, of all things, in February, 1985.

The LCBO wasn't really much into beer back then, so beer drinkers didn't have a lot of options to get their suds. Enter a few homebrewers, who started producing beer in huge quantities (far more than the biggest craft breweries of today) to meet the demand.

The problem, however, was consistency, combined with cheap short-cuts such as malt extract. In short, the beer was shit and the diversity of styles was practically non-existent. As the authors noted, the 1980s may have been "the only time in Ontario history when people anticipated the annual release of a Bock beer."

'Nuff said.

Robin LeBlanc

Many of the new breweries stuck it out for a while, at least until discount brands such as President's Choice came around in the early 90s, just about killing the craft beer sector.

Jordan and Robin identify 1995-2007 as the second wave of craft beer, and while the selection was still poor, the quality improved dramatically, as now you had brewers with a bit of experience.

The real craft beer explosion has happened in the last decade - the third wave - and in particular, the past five years, which has seen the addition of more than 200 new breweries.

The book is eminently readable, the tone and style is remarkably consistent for a co-authored book, and is a source of information on Ontario's now world class beer scene that you can't find anywhere else.

You can wait until one of the authors sends you a copy like I did, but the authors would much prefer you go out and buy a book yourself.

After all, as Jordan and Robin state so eloquently, "every day that passes (is) the best day for beer that the province has ever had."

Amen to that.

Meet Corey Fairs - Manantler Brewing's new Head Brewer

Manantler Brewing in Bowmanville, once and always my favourite local brewer, has hired a new Brewmaster.

Manantler's Corey Fairs

Corey Fairs, a graduate of Niagara College's acclaimed brewing program and a Matt Soos scholarship winner in 2016, was hired to lead the brewing team last month.

Corey takes over from Chris, the co-founder of the three year-old brewery, giving Chris time to concentrate on the management of the company and to play with his sweet new 3-D printer.

My only concern is the timing of the announcement. Corey's hiring comes awful close to Chris buying the 3-D printer on Black Friday. How are we to know he didn't just create Corey? Those damn things can do a lot of magical things. A little DNA here, the addition of a few hops there. You never know these days.

I guess I'll have to meet Corey to know for sure.

Cheers!