Bellwoods Brewery

It was a big year for us here at Bellwoods Brewery, and although we haven’t quite been open for even 12 months yet, it feels simultaneously like it was just yesterday and also 100 years ago that we first opened our doors. We made it through the festivities of Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, Winter Solstice, Christmas, and New Year’s Eve — and now that we’ve choked down our kale smoothies to repent for our sins and ward off depressive shame spirals, we feel ready to take a good look at ourselves in the mirror and review 2012. 

We knew from the beginning that our beer was flavourful and shameless, and we hoped, as our doors opened for the first time in April, that this fermenting love affair would not be unrequited. It’s impossible to know for sure how a community will receive a new business, but we are so grateful and indebted that the lovely folks of Toronto have accepted our modest offerings of the almighty brewed beverage. We were lucky enough to get early shout outs and mentions from publications like The Globe and Mail, The National Post, The Grid, Toronto Star, Imbibe, The New York Times, and most notably, um, Yelp. How else would people find out that we have God forsaken pits still left in our olives? Damn us anyways!

For us, 2012 highlights include a gold medal from the Canadian Brewing Awards for our Lost River Baltic Porter, a Golden Tap Editor’s Choice Award, two Best in Show awards for Cask Days (Toronto, and Beau’s/Van Leek Hill), and a Ontario 2012 Brewery of The Year nod from Stephen Beaumont/World of Beer. We also moved decisively to triple our fermenting capacity just 9 months into our existence. The awards were flattering of course, and the tanks, well, how ambitious of us…19 back-to-back brews in two weeks was a breeze! Really! A breeze that tears through your precious sleep pattern like a 1 and a half year old child. Oh wait, Luke already has one of those I guess…

Our retail store survived as a twice per month pop-up shop, and though we’re sorry for the huge line-ups (see below), we’re glad that people wanted craft beer so badly! We’ve now printed our second edition of Bellwoods t-shirts and have added hoodies to the mix, because we still have some depths of winter to endure. 

We held events with The Group of 7 Chefs, Grand Electric, and Chantecler, where we were able to showcase the dynamic qualities of beer paired with food. Whether it’s spicy Mexican tacos, or delicate heart tartar with scallops, we’ve got a beer that can blow your mind-doors off. Of course, tied in with our events were the successful releases of our collaboration beers.

First up was Fruit Helmet — an american style pale ale brewed with mangoes and apricots — that was a joint effort with Jeppe Jarnit-Bjergsø of Evil Twin Brewing. Released in the height of summer, this refreshing pale ale was hoppy but not aggressively so, and showcased bright fruity flavours that served to be very thirst-quenching. It was hard to just have one, and has been greatly missed in the months since the final pint was poured. I believe I poured the last pint myself, and it went to the lovely Caitlin Stewart of local Pizza Hut Commerical fame. 

Our second collaboration was with Luc “Bim” Lafontaine, formerly of Dieu Du Ciel, right before he jetted off to Japan to build his new brewery. We were very honoured to work with Luc, and devised a complex hoppy strong ale recipe that focused on the Wakatu hop from New Zealand. Last Splash is a beer that really developed with age and impressed us at all stages. The last keg was tapped with some sadness, and we hope that somewhere out there, someone has saved a bottle. 

In addition to our collaborative ales, we have a special place in our hearts for the beers that quickly became instant favourites among staff and patrons. In no particular order we’d like to pay thanks to Grandma’s Boy (both Cuvee and Barrel-Aged Sour), Hellwoods (bless its 10% heart), Roman Candle (a fine american IPA, no bells or whistles), Monogamy Summit (the most assertive in the single-hop series), the Bootknife (see, we can do malty too!) and of course, the inimitable Witchshark IIPA (we’re not picking favourites because we love all our children equally but just sayin’, if we were forced…our favourite). Luckily all of these will come back to grace the brewpub and retail store, so fear not. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, remember.

And sooner or later we had to address all the less than ideal aspects of the past year, so here goes…(A) There was the lack of supply (trust us, no problem with the demand) for the retail store, various beers even running out before people at the end of the line could purchase them, (B) The limited food menu in the brewpub due to the microscopic kitchen under the stairs and mezzanine, (C) No rain shelter on the patio (mother nature does what she wants), (D) Line ups for the bathroom, and (E) General cramped seating downstairs. Lucky for y’all, we’ve got some solutions.

(A) First of all, the retail store should be up and ready to go towards the end of January or beginning of February with regular hours due to all our new tanks. We have a lot more fermenters and that means a lot more beer to sell. Now we don’t have to save everything for the brewpub, and can confidently bottle it so that you can take it home and enjoy it while you do laundry. I can’t guarantee you’ll ever enjoy the laundry part itself. 

(B) The food menu has been limited because we have never had a commercial kitchen with adequate ventilation to allow frying, gas cooking etc. We’ve scraped by with a residential electric stove and a space the size of a closet, so it’s impressive that we’ve been able to churn out house-made sausages, roasted squash, braised beef dishes, and of course grilled duck hearts. However, in conjunction with our tank expansion is the building of a brand spanking new kitchen complete with a holy deep fryer. This means the menu will get a big upgrade, and though my mouth will love the new fries we’re adding, I can’t say that it’ll work wonders for my ass (or yours). Regardless, we’re taking care of business.

(C) We’ll spare you the snooze fest of details (going back a year) on this one…..but maddening holes in the building/zoning code covering “garden pergolas” (there’s apparently no such thing in the arcane world of Toronto zoning code) have forced us into a very long permitting process concerning a permanent rain shelter solution. Anyway…the take home message is we’re on it and there will be rain coverage by spring 2013. 

(D) Have I talked about the expansion yet? Well, along with the tanks and the kitchen is also a couple more bathrooms. No more line ups for you.

(E) We’ll be able to make seating downstairs a little roomier and comfortable with the kitchen relocation. The space we formerly used for our kitchen will accommodate more tables, and more people, which should alleviate some of the bottleneck in the door line up as well.

For all these reasons we feel that 2013 is going to be a great year at Bellwoods. In fact February will see us firing on all cylinders for the first time. We should be finished building/renovating, the retail store will open for full time hours, many of the bars/restaurants on our wholesale waiting list will finally get the beer they’re asking for, the food will get a face lift, the seating will expand a bit, and the beer will continue to be delicious and full of integrity. We’re committed to furthering the craft beer industry, and improving upon everything we do. And although I know I generally reserve this blog for communicating my arbitrary love for Arnold Schwarzenegger or making jokes about celebrities in general (don’t worry, this will still prevail in 2013), I want to take a second to get serious. 

The outpouring of support for Bellwoods both in our brewpub/retail store, and at festivals like Session 99, Brewer’s Backyard, and Cask Days has given us a lot of hope about the future of craft beer in Ontario and beyond. If people are this excited to drink beer with a backbone, support local businesses, and vote with their purchases — perhaps flavourful and diverse beer selections will one day become the norm. So we’d like to send out a big thank you from us Bellwoods folk to you, for making 2012 so incredible. Your backing has been invaluable to us.

For 2013 we have lots of incredible beers on the horizon. On Jan 2 we picked up 20 wine barrels from Norman Hardie, within the month we’ll see the return of several old favourites to the bar (Roman Candle, White Picket Fence, Lost River Baltic Porter, to name a few), and if we’re lucky, the Flanders Red that’s been aging for almost a year now will be released before the year is up. These are just a few of our plans for brews to come, but stay tuned for what will surely be a creative and delicious year. 

Cheers to a great year gone by, and an even better one on the horizon!

PS - Honourable mention: We dodged the Mayan apocalypse. No, big, whoop.

Holy Hannah is it Christmas morning or what?! Who needs a gameboy when you can have a Bellwoods Brewery t-shirt/sweatshirt/poster/glass/tote/growler/bottle?

And for those people on your list that defy the neatly framed demographics (Soccer-lovin’ dad, mini dog-totin’ trophy wife, computer nerd bro, etc.) outlined by lifestyle magazines, give them the gift of beer shaped money, aka a gift card. Aka, the most thoughtful of the not-so-thoughtful presents. 

All you need to do is show up to our last pre-Christmas retail pop-up sale this Saturday December 22, from 2-5. Just set an alarm on your phone, it’s easy — as long as it’s not the same phone our employee John uses to wake up. Or else you will surely be one hour late. 

We’re looking at you John.

PS — If you want to see dogs pulling a barrel sled (like reindeer!) then watch our holiday video here.

If you want to see our retail homepage, click here. 

Whether or not you’re a religious person, there’s no denying the gravitational pull this time of year towards all that is red, green, and merry. Hell, when I was at Dollarama on the first of November sheepishly looking for discounted Halloween candy, already I was being bombarded by fluffy santa beards, garish fake pine ornaments, and candy cane scented candles that actually smelled like plastic grocery bags. Admittedly, the euphoria of Christmas morning has probably worn off for anyone above the age of nine [and a half], and as an adult you need other exciting events to look forward to in the holiday season aside from an overweight geriatric stranger breaking into your house in the middle of the night to eat baked goods. 

So, ladies and gentleman, I give you the Bellwoods holiday beer line-up, AKA grown up candy, AKA Those Things You Get To Look Forward To On Christmas Morning After Your Partner Realizes: 

- Those bags by the fireplace aren’t big enough to hold an all inclusive trip to Jamaica

And after you realize:

- That you’ll be, for the duration of your time off, explaining to your in-laws how everything in your life is going according to plan, your six-pack abs are emerging quite nicely, money just seems to be piling up in your savings account and no, you never polish off an entire bag of potato chips while watching Netflix in your messy studio apartment.

Stop! Enough with your eager cries and roaring applause! Here’s a look at what will get you through the darkest of nights:

This giant sack that looks like bull testis is actually a nylong mesh bag full of orangey clovey goodness. Fear not!

Imperial Spiced Saison with orange and clove: It’s a lot of fun to brew some of the more labour-intensive beers in and amongst the regular contenders. We picked up 16 kg of navel oranges and 16 kg of tangerines from Kensington, cloves, and kefir lime leaves from Canada Herb here on Ossington. We peeled all the citrus, juiced the remaining fruit, toasted the cloves, and crushed the lime leaves just a bit to release some of their intoxicating aromas. Everything was thrown into nylon mesh bags that we added late in the boil, giving it just enough time to steep without cooking. The saison yeast compliments the citrus flavours nicely with a dry finish, making it a perfect beer to pair with sweeter foods or nothing at all. The beer encompasses a lot of traditional flavours we associate with this time of year, namely that strange ornamental  orange with cloves stuck in it. (Tomas from Volo told us that his grandmother makes these ‘balls’, and we briefly considered naming the beer “Grandma’s Balls”. Our sense of decency won out, however, and we will decide on another (hopefully) more appropriate name).

Dry Hopped Session Ale: Though this style is hardly reminiscent of the holidays, I still wanted to fit it in here because it’s upcoming and exciting. Many patrons have requested lower alcohol more sessionable ales, and though the Muggelweisse is under 4%, we wanted to do an American style modeled after a couple of our favourites. We love Pride and Joy from Three Floyds, and though it’s not available in Canada, we have managed to get a couple cases of Hebrew Genesis Dry Hopped Session Ale for the brewpub from Shmaltz Brewing Company. Our version is estimated to come out around 4.5%, a nice light amber colour, with lots of Amarillo and Cascade added late in the boil for optimal citrus hop aromatics. Though the IBU’s will be lower than our Monogamy series, or Roman Candle IPA, the flavours will still be big and punchy despite it’s small frame. So come on down and get to the bottom of the keg age old question with us: Do good things come in small packages?

Witchshark IIPA: Hey wait, why is this on the list if it’s just an old favourite? Good question my pupil. It’s because WE’RE ON THE LAST KEG AND I NEED TO CONVEY A SENSE OF URGENCY TO YOU. But we’re making more, right? Yes, of course, but those new tanks took a bit of time to set up and there will be a short little teeny weeny gap between this batch and the next being on tap. So don’t say I didn’t warn you when you come into the brewpub for your aggressive hop fix and that elusive boy with the head of a shark and a flying broom just isn’t around. Let’s just say he’s not always reliable and barely answers my calls. 

Hellwoods Imperial Stout: This will be our second Hellwoods release. We added a touch more smoked malt and made it a little bigger to arrive at a beautifully balanced stout that will surely knock your stockings off. This beer would pair well with vanilla ice cream and that bland fruitcake that you’d like to forget but don’t have the heart to regift.

As it turns out, this beer is so big that its ego can’t fit through the front door, and it needs a little bit more time to work out the conditions of our contract together (celebrities, hey?). All this means is that Hellwoods might be a brew served in the new year when you need to console your broken heart re: all those resolutions and new life goals that you’ve already not achieved.

With all this on the horizon who gives a ding dong if you get a rotten potato in your stocking? 

The tanks are here, the copper lines are soldered, and now we’re on the home stretch to christening these fermentors. What beers will we brew first? When can we expect the celebrated Lost River Baltic Porter to return on draft? And who the hell killed Colonel Mustard with the candle stick?

Patience, young grasshoppers.

Most of our old favourites will be the first to start hibernating in the 5 new 20 BBL tanks — the Witchshark, Monogamy (Nelson Sauvin), Roman Candle IPA,  Bootknife, and the White Picket Fence, among others — and you can expect the staggered release of these beginning in mid January. Our retail store is slated to open with more regular hours (with frequent pop ups until then) in the last two weeks of January, just in time for the coldest, darkest, most depressing months of the year when a delicious beer is like a comforting pat on the back. 

As for Colonel Mustard and that lethal candle stick… I’m gonna have to get back to you on that one.

There are plenty of unglamorous jobs in a brewery. Though it’s always very rewarding to sit down at the bar and enjoy the fruits of your craft, the reality is that there are more tasks in a day than just brewing. There are, of course, the kegging days, the bottling days (we are happiest on these…), and then all the days where we clean tanks. Mike has affectionately deemed the task of hosing out the compost bins where we dispose of the spent grains as “The Worst Task At Bellwoods”, but I would argue that it’s the second worst, the first being that day when three of us loaded, by hand, one by one, three skids of bottles into a van, then drove that van to Mike’s house, and unloaded them, by hand, one by one, into his basement. Though most of you probably stopped reading about one paragraph ago, what I’m trying to get at here is that if you had a sneak peak at the average day in our brewery, it definitely wouldn’t look like the set of Keeping Up With The Kardashians or anything. 

Despite all the blood sweat and tears that goes into making this place run successfully (full disclosure here, there has been exponentially more blood than tears. Just last week I managed to cut myself on a fermentor of all things…) we do have rare days where we drink beers and don’t work on our triceps. 

Yesterday we did just that and sampled all our barrelled beers next door. In oak Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot barrels from Creekside Estate Winery we have several versions of a Flanders Red aging away. We figure they’ll need at least another year or so to meditate, but it’s good to check the progress and see how the critters are souring. 

Unanimously our favourite was barrel 79, a promising sneak peak full of tart cherry and soft oak flavours. Alas, they still have many months to hibernate while we return to our usual day-to-day mashing of grains and pumping of iron.

This beer doesn’t just brew itself, and as the great Arnold Schwarzenegger once said, “Milk is for babies. When you grow up, you have to drink beer.”

Need I say more?

Though this plan has been in the works since we opened just under 6 months ago, we’ve only recently been able to break the news: We’re expecting!

…6 new tanks! In what is currently our retail space next door to the brewpub, we’ll be squeezing in some new tanks and tripling our brewing capacity. Our goal has always been to be a brewery first and foremost, with a brewpub that offers our great beer and simple selections of food. With this new arrival we’ll officially be rounding the corner on our original plans regarding size, production, and wholesale accounts. We’re also adding a production kitchen with lots of shiny new metal appliances that make our chef Fab a happy man. This is great news for a number of reasons, reasons that I’ll explain to you in a detailed point form list. 

- the retail store will finally transition into regular hours, being open until 11pm(!) every night except Sunday, when we’ll close at 6pm. All that beer you enjoy on tap in the brewpub will be only a hop, skip, jump, and then maybe two or three more jumps (depending on your gait) away!

- we’ll be introducing a permanent growler program. After you leave a deposit on your growler, you’ll be able to come back each time it’s empty and fill it with something new. No waiting around until the next sale.

- the fare from the kitchen will be a bit more varied. We’re still intent on keeping it simple, but let’s just say that some eepday riersfay may be in our future with the potential for the almighty Belgian frite! 

As for specifics, we’re hoping to have all the new heavy metal objects in full swing just before Christmas, which would mean that all your respective significant others won’t have to suffer yet another holiday season with useless gifts like ipods, clothing, and diamond rings. 

Because really, there’s nothing like giving gifts you selfishly want for yourself, to others. 

October is shaping up to be a big month, folks. Yes, we’re busy slaving away on our various slutty Witchshark costumes, but no, that’s not the excitement I’m referring to. Though much of Toronto is now lamenting the scorching summer passed, we’re actually pretty excited to work in a brewery that isn’t 9000 steamy degrees — so happy in fact, that we’ve managed to stuff more beery events into this month than could fit in a Thanksgiving turkey. Unfortunately we can’t take credit for planning Thanksgiving. Wikipedia tells me that you’ll have to thank Martin Frobisher, or maybe it’s Samuel de Champlain. Or get in a time machine with us and we’ll all go back to grade 9 social studies class.

I was gonna mention a few more events that we can’t really take credit for, things like the upcoming, highly-anticipated Schwarzenegger autobiography due out later this month, for example — but I’ve already gone over my requisite 140 characters and can take a hint.

Up first we have the Cask Days pre-event on October 13th from 1-4pm. Think of this as a warm up to the marathon. We’ll be tapping and pouring 10 casks from local breweries to give you a taste of what’s to come on the 26th and 27th. It should be noted that whoever receives the last pour from each cask gets a free Cask Days Session #3 pass! Tickets and additional info here.

Given the fact that we are overachievers (ask Mike what his GPA is…) and must take on as many projects in a day as possible, we will also be holding a bottle sale from 11am-2pm so that you have a chance to grab a few beers before or during the event.

After that, on the 23rd (Moved to NOV 6!) we’ll be doing a beer pairing dinner with chef Colin Tooke from Grand Electric. Returning from his ‘vacation’ renewed and restored, Colin’s guaranteed to cook up amazing fare, and we’ve got you covered with an extra special draft list. We’ve been saving kegs from our Monogamy single hop pale ale series (the Summit, Centennial, and Calypso will all make an appearance), along with multiple Bellwoods IPAs, and figured that since spice and hops go so well together, this dinner would be the perfect time to feature all our bitter brews. Details and tickets to come.

At the end of the week we’ll be participating in Bar Volo’s highly successful Cask Days festival (October 26th & 27th), which we feel is really the best [grown-up] way to go trick-or-treat-ing. We hope to see you all their in costume!

On the 29th we’ll be pouring our beers over at Chantecler for the Monday’s Dinner Chef Series. Again, we’re just teasing you, details and ticket info are on there way, but save the date!

And of course…Bellwoods becomes Hellwoods for one night only on Oct 31!