Bellwoods Brewery

Come Get Your Samurai On!

Fri, 17 May 2013 13:55:15 -0400

I think it’s safe to say that community plays a big role in the success and enjoyment of the craft beer industry. Here at Bellwoods we brew some pretty experimental and flavourful beers, and we feel lucky to be supported by so many craft beer enthusiasts who receive our ideas with open arms.

So when we were approached by Toronto Beer Week last year to see if we’d like to participate in a homebrew challenge, we thought, why not? The winner would come to our brewery to brew their very own recipe, and see it on the big screen! As a wise man once said, it takes a village to brew a beer, er - drink a beer? Well, whatever, the village of Toronto will get a very delicious beer to drink.

As of Saturday May 18th we’ll be tapping the Bellwoods Samurai Saison brewed by David Thompson, the winner of the 2012 TBW Homebrew Competition. Dry-hopped with Sorachi Ace and Nelson Sauvin hops, this 6.4% sessionable Belgian style beer is a perfect refreshing brew to sip on the patio. Well-balanced with a pleasing dry finish, this Saison has an incredibly distinct herbaceous nose and fruity palate from the addition of those Japanese and New Zealand hops. Subtle notes of lime and coconut reveal themselves in the aftertaste.

We brewed a 7 hectolitre batch, and while this is definitely bigger than any homebrew quantity, it definitely won’t last long.

We’ll be open all (long) weekend long, for lunch as well as dinner, starting from 2pm each day (and noon in the retail store). Keep in mind that the Samurai Saison is only available on draft!

Cheers to David and to a great long weekend!

Canadian Scooting Awards

Thu, 16 May 2013 12:33:49 -0400

Hello Toronto! I hope you didn’t miss us too painfully. We’re back from our very brief but very fun trip to Victoria for the Canadian Brewing Awards and getting down to brewsness (see what I did there?) as usual. And if you’re sitting at your desk wondering why it took me until Thursday to blog about it, instead of Monday like everyone else, I say wonder not. You don’t want to know the truth (which is that I stayed a couple extra days in Vancouver eating raw fish, staring at the sunny mountain tops, and relaxing. Please send all hate mail to wazzup@vacay.com).

But on to the real matter at hand, the reason we flew across the country and put all brewery-related work on hold for the first time ever: Scooters.

We came, we saw, we scooted. (If we were to shoot a made for TV movie about our recent escapades in Victoria this past weekend it would definitely bear this stoic title).

Weaving their way (politely) through lanes of traffic and into the hearts if viewers everywhere, 5 brewers band together to make the ultimate bad-ass gang: The Hellwoodies.

With determination fermenting in their brains the gang cruise along the Vancouver island coastline at dangerously legal speeds. Elderly residents look on with blurred focus, cursing their lack of resolve to finally update their God damn prescriptions. Children mistake their menacing hogs for toys, locals roll their eyes, but haters won’t get this gang down!

(In this photo we see Luke and John being really badass, stopping to appreciate nature and take a picture of a baby deer)

It’s a tale of self-discovery and perseverance - but ultimately how five people learn that scootering is just metaphor for life, which is just a metaphor for brewing…which is a metaphor for life.

Coming out the summer of 2013, it’s the feel decent-ish movie of the year you won’t wanna miss!

Oh also, we one an award! Actually four of them, which we’re pretty happy about considering we’re new kids on the block. Blitzen took a gold in the Belgian Strong category, Hellwoods our beloved stout took home a silver, and both the Lost River Baltic Porter and Wizard Wolf Dry-Hopped Session Ale earned a bronze. All in all we placed in some pretty competitive categories and had a chance to try lots of the winning brews. A big thank you goes out to everyone who worked so hard to make the awards a success and also congratulations to Great Lakes Brewery who took home the award for best brewery of the year (no big deal)!!!

Cheers to even more successes in 2014, great Ontario beer, and of course, the almighty scooter!

Food For Thought

Tue, 09 Apr 2013 10:54:40 -0400

As many of you know, this past Saturday we celebrated our one year anniversary with Bring Out Your Dead (cognac barrel aged imperial stout), the first of two exclusive beer releases to commemorate the event. We were excited to feature such a labour intensive beer on draft, but we wanted to let everyone know that in addition to the delicious beer offerings in the brewpub, we’ve made some big changes to the food.

For the past few months we’ve been renovating big time — not just adding more fermenters, but also the makings of a commercial kitchen. We were able to get by on a limited menu of meats and cheeses for the first while, working with a teeny tiny residential stove, but our (selfish) appetites for fried chicken and the desire to provide more options for diners won out. We caved in the best way possible, and after much preparation and very difficult tasting meetings, we’ve rolled out an exciting new food menu.

Because technology isn’t quite at the point of scratch ‘n sniff for the computer screen, I’m gonna provide for you thousands of ‘words’ with these tantalizing pictures. Take a seat, get a bowl of popcorn, and hunker down for a special screening of Bellwoods Kitchen: Love In The Time Of Fried Things.

Whether it’s the pork belly with clams, the panko crusted coconut tofu, or a simple bowl of fries with rosemary, thyme, and shredded toscano cheese, theses dishes are delicious and full of integrity. We’ve taken the time to source produce from small farm collectives throughout the Kawarthas, meat from Sanagan’s, and seafood from Hooked. We’re so passionate about craft beer, and it only makes sense that we want the food we serve to be all about that same level of quality. Rest assured, these chickens were roaming free and going to bars as they pleased before ending up on your plate.

So if you get home from work tonight and you don’t feel like cooking, I know a place that’ll set you up. Or, if you’re at work right now looking at these pictures and thinking they look delicious, you can blow off your kitchen and we won’t say a word. Your secret’s safe with us.

Click HERE to see today’s menu.

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 13:00:00 -0400

Happy Birthday To Us

Wed, 03 Apr 2013 17:30:42 -0400

Often times when birthdays roll around you sort of wish they didn’t, hoping instead that you could just go back to a time when they meant eating 4 pieces of cake (guilt-free) and then passing out on your tricycle.

Fortunately for us, this Saturday we only turn a year old, and at this age we don’t need to buy orthotics or expensive wrinkle cream. And because we’re feeling sentimental, we decided to brew not 1, but 2 anniversary beers! Masochistic, right? The first is “Bring Out Your Dead”, an Imperial stout that was aged in cognac barrels for 3 months, weighing in at 10% ABV. The second is “Motley Cru” (11%), a sour blend of Tripel aged for a year in red wine barrels, and Quad aged for 3 months in port barrels.

The stout will be available on draft this Saturday, but the Motley Cru was primed and bottle conditioned with Champagne yeast, so you’ll need to wait another month before we release it in bottles. Let it be known, if any poor soul shall ask for Motley Cru this Saturday, it’s off with their heads!

In addition to the stout (which will be released in bottles as early as next week) we’ll also have a festive birthday cake — but considering my appetite for all that is sickeningly sweet, I can’t guarantee it’ll last for too long.

And we should mention our industrial kitchen is finally finished (can I get a what what?), which means that on the anniversary of our opening, we’ll be launching our new and improved menu with lots of tasty options for dinner. Specifics will come later in the week, with pictures to boot, but in terms of the sorts of dishes you can expect in your future, think pork belly and clams, coconut tofu in galangal broth, fried chicken, braised short ribs and deep fried pickles. These pickles, I’m telling you, they’re life changing.

So get out of the house, embrace the supposed arrival of spring, and on Saturday (April 6th) we hope to see those of you who’ve enjoyed Bellwoods beer over the past year, and perhaps some new faces too. Come by for our exclusive cognac barrel-aged stout and some cake!

It's Okay To Judge A Beer By Its Cover

Fri, 29 Mar 2013 16:25:16 -0400

Just when I felt ready to throw my bike into a slush filled ditch and admit defeat to mother nature (why must you torture us with more snow?!) the sun reared its beautiful lioness mane and showed us all that the icy death-grip of winter will soon be a thing of the past. Moods are looking up, the kitchen relocation is almost complete, and as I type this Luke is sprawled out on a beach somewhere in Miami for a much needed vacation where he will surely be keeping up with the Kardashians. Either that, or sitting beside the water and drinking blue slushie cocktails with umbrella garnishes poking out the top.

I suppose spring is symbolic of growth and change, and in keeping with this poetic sentiment, I want to tell you about a pretty exciting change here at the brewery. No, we’re not going to start serving wine, and no, even though at 7am we curse our lack of foresight, we did not buy a fancy espresso machine. The changes I’m referring to have to do with beer (go figure), and more specifically, how that beer looks.

Sure, our classic Bellwoods label is simple and sufficient, but if there’s anything I’ve learned about plastic surgery, it’s that a facelift always looks better. Okay, that’s a total lie, but trust me, these NEW LABELS we’re introducing are the most awesome thing ever!!! So awesome that my annoying penchant for exclamation points is getting out of hand! Seriously!

No. Seriously. Check these puppies out. Designed by the fantastic brotherly duo at Doublenaut, our new labels say a little more about the unique personality of each brew. In total, they’ll be designing about 15 labels for us, so expect to see new releases as the summer approaches. And we should mention that the lovely witchshark illustration that has become something of an unofficial logo around here was actually drawn by Kate-Wakely Mulroney, and incorporated into the Doublenaut design. To check out more of Kate’s illustrations, you can visit her blog Labouring Beasts.

Of course, some beers will still have the classic label, but we’re trying our best to get something customized for our most popular releases. And if you’re sitting there wondering what the hell “Wizard Wolf” is, well, it’s our favourite version of the Common Session ale that, as of yet, hasn’t been released.

As for a timeline, the Witchshark will be our first release, making its debut in the retail store within the next week. The Roman Candle and Wizard Wolf will follow, with Hellwoods and Motley Crü (our much-anticipated anniversary beer) hot on their tail.

We’ll be seeing you soon in the bottle shop* where you can collect them all!

*[Our Easter hours are a bit modified. Remember the retail store will be closed Good Friday, open Saturday, and closed again on Sunday]

Boobsclusive

Mon, 25 Feb 2013 15:48:00 -0500

With the arrival of the new bottler, the acquisition of some white wine barrels from the Niagara region, and the impending opening of our new kitchen, things have been business as usual around these parts — which is to say, busy. So when we were approached by the lovely folks from “Beer For Boobs” about perhaps doing a special beer for the annual breast cancer fundraiser, we had to rearrange our brew schedule a bit to squeeze in a new recipe.

The event supports a great cause, but it also encourages women in the industry, and considering we have our very own female brewer (me) in house at Bellwoods, it was a no brainer to jump on board. We also have an almost exclusively female front of house team serving up the beer (and lugging kegs!) each and every night. Big thanks to Tamara Wise, one of our floor supervisors, for helping brew this tasty batch!

I would love to tell you that because it’s 2013 (2013! That’s practically the future!) everyone and their dog understands that Hey! Women do stuff! Interesting stuff! Creative stuff! Lots of stuff! But alas, there are still lots of sexist attitudes floating around out there in the atmosphere. What a bummer. The truth is it’s very much a male dominated industry still, but times are changing and it’s great to see growing numbers of females making a living off of beer. And if the trends in the brewpub are any indication, women are not afraid of flavourful beer.

The beer I decided to brew is interesting and flavourful, but not an overcompensation. Though I love imperial stouts and double IPAs, I decided that I wanted to do something a little more sessionable. Brewed with a good percentage of wheat malt, an aromatic new (to us) hop variety from New Zealand called Kohatu, and the addition of zest and juice from three cases of blood oranges, the resulting beer is refreshing and hoppy. It’s also the palest pink colour, which was my way of saying, “Yeah, so what, I’m a girl. Deal with it.”

But my real intention with this beer was not to prove anything, it’s simply to put out into the universe a beverage that anyone and everyone could enjoy. Having too many preconceived notions about the people you meet or the drinks you order will not a happy person make. Chill out, order a pink beer, and enjoy the emancipation from being an uptight wuss-ass.

This is a beer for those with boobs and those without. A beer that harbours no judgement.

Because it doesn’t matter if you’re black or white, right?

[The blood orange beer (yet to be named…) will be released in the brewpub in and around March. 1st, with two extra special kegs on reserve for the Beer For Boobs event at The Rhino (Toronto) on Sunday April 7th and The Casbah (Hamilton) on Sunday April 14th.]

On Fire

Thu, 14 Feb 2013 14:05:24 -0500

We made it through January folks! We’re past The Most Depressing Day Of The Year and we can graciously manoeuvre our way through Febrewary with the collective knowledge that warm weather and late night bike rides where your snot doesn’t freeze are definitely on the horizon! Also, at some point I will just calm down and stop using so many exclamation points. But that time hasn’t come quite yet!

The thing is, I’m excited about a couple new developments at the ol’ tank farm. First of all, the plumbers who emphatically belt out top 40 Mandarin dance anthems as they work have finally finished our new hot water system. (I actually kind of miss them already). What this seemingly boring statement means is that we will finally be able to seamlessly brew more beers in a day without the risk of running out of precious hot water. And for anyone who has ever showered in cold water, you might understand that, similarly, a brewery just likes it hot.

The second big change is our bottling line. Though we love bottling two at a time (sometimes one when the machine just throws a temper tantrum), the demand in the retail store is steadily growing and we finally admitted last week that we might need to buy a new one. Fast forward to this past week when Mike, Luke, and Patrick our Operations Manager flew to Pasco, Washington to train on a fancy new (life changing) machine. I guess you could say we were eager to get the bottle rolling. Ha, ha…Ha. This 6 head bottler can roughly tackle in one hour what we currently do in a day. Aaaand we’ve decided to switch up the format a bit (650ml bomber to 500ml heavy grade tall ale bottle) to allow for more bottle conditioned brews, which means we’re a step closer having a regular supply barrel-aged, blended, and soured ales in the convenience of our retail store, all year round.

The Oregonian countryside.

But just to recap, and because this is a source of great pride, in the three days they were gone in the US and A, the rest of us (there aren’t really that many of us) kept a small list of things achieved:

- didn’t burn down the brewery

- exhausted every episode of This American Life while bottling off a seemingly bottomless brite tank

- caught the witchshark

- had some beers with the witchshark

- lost the witchshark

- didn’t burn down the brewery

Alright enough. Shenanigans aside, we couldn’t be more excited about what’s on the horizon. I know I always say that, but I’m telling you, the construction around here is constant. I’ve even finally embraced the screeching yell of our plumber’s acetylene torch as our brewery’s anthem.

As if we needed a fire lit under our asses!

You're Gonna Wanna Read This

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 14:23:00 -0500

If I had a nickel for every time someone wandered into the brewpub and asked me if the bottle shop was open, I’d have enough nickels to fly to Abu Dhabi with a layover in Palm Springs to get my bronze on. I’d probably even have enough nickels left over to buy a life size Arnold Swarzennegger poster with a slogan like “I’ll be back, baby” or “No pain, No gain”.

But forget the desert and an ex-body builder for a moment because I have a very important message to communicate. A message that I have trudged through a veritable slurpee of snow to deliver.

Tomorrow, January 23, the Bellwoods Bottle Shop will officially open. Yes, my nickel jar will cease to overflow, but now our hearts can take on the responsibility of brimming with joy! Yes, things are still a little ‘under construction’ if I can borrow a phrase that has been dancing around my brain like a pinball for the last 3 months, but to be honest, we have so much beer it’s coming out of our eyeballs and need to find a place to hide it (your house).

And before a stampede of beer-thirsty zombies attempts to overtake the castle (brewery), let me lay down some specifics:

For the first three days upon opening (Wednesday Jan. 23 to Friday Jan. 25) the stores hours will be 5-11pm.

As of Saturday, we will assume regular hours, which look like the following:

Noon - 11pm EVERYDAY except Sunday, when the long arm of the law dictates that we can only be open from noon - 6pm.

Once more for those in the nosebleeds:

-Monday to Saturday (NOON TO 11PM) - Sunday (NOON TO 6PM)

For the opening lineup and more info click here.

Let the games begin!

Cognac, Porter, and Bears - Oh My!

Mon, 21 Jan 2013 15:58:00 -0500

Enough about reflections and the year that was. Live in the now, seize the day — it’s the 21st of January and I haven’t worked out once. Thank God I didn’t make that my unattainable New Year’s resolution. Sorry if you did.

We’ve set our sights on more practicable goals, and I know what you’re thinking right now, is ‘practicable’ even a word? To which I reply, yes, I looked it up in an online dictionary because I don’t think anyone I know even has a hard copy of one of those anymore, except maybe my grandmother, and she lives in Vancouver. But let’s get back to the point.

I was talking about goals, I believe. Things that we say we’re gonna try to do, and sometimes actually get around to doing. Things that we deem worth doing, because they will be awesome. And awesome updates I can provide for you today. I promise this is not a riddle.

Several weeks ago we contacted the country of Portugal, the president himself if I’m not mistaken, Aníbal Cavaco Silva, and asked him if he had any barrels kicking around that his people didn’t need anymore. Of course, as the fun-loving man he is, Anibal kindly offered us cognac and port barrels.

“But how big, approximately, are the barrels?” asked Mike and Luke.

“Approximately,” thought Aníbal, “well, like this,” and he texted us a couple pics on his phone.

We admitted that, not having much reference for his wing span, we still needed some specifics. Do you have a better picture? He then sent us this one,

before apologizing saying that it wasn’t about the barrels, he had meant to send that one to his wife.

“Look, how about you just tell us in liters how big they are,” we finally pleaded.

“Oh, like, about 200-320L, they vary, as they’re all handmade.”

So in the end we said yes, ordered a whole smack of them, and decided on the coldest day in ages to fill them on our frigid patio. The fermenting quad went in to the port barrels, and the imperial stout into the cognac. The remaining stout will be divided into casks, to which we’ll inevitably add strange fruits and herbs and release on Sunday (snack and cask!) nights each week.

And if you’re lucky, you can come by our patio and chip off a bit of the frozen stout that remains on the concrete to get a taste of what’s to come! We can’t attest to much carbonation, however.

Muito obrigado Portugal!

2012: A Year In Review

Fri, 04 Jan 2013 14:04:00 -0500

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.

Walking with a swagger

Wed, 19 Dec 2012 11:47:00 -0500

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.

I thought about various ways I could introduce this next video...

Tue, 18 Dec 2012 13:34:48 -0500

I thought about various ways I could introduce this next video but really, nothing does the actual 2 minute diddy much justice.

I will warn you that there are dogs, adorable dogs, and holiday spirit, and beer, and well — just watch it and consider your life enriched.

Your welcome. Also, thanks to every lovely person that’s ever enjoyed a pint of our beer here or at home. Happy holidays. Cheers to all.

Seriously, are you watching it already or what? For a link to other Bellwoods videos click here.

Let Us Be Your Ol' Saint Nick

Mon, 17 Dec 2012 14:12:11 -0500

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.

[I must say as a side note that mashing in 17 hectoliters of what is essentially a giant vat of oatmeal was really really difficult. I had not sugar plums, but visions of augers dancing in my head as I paddled for dear life. This beer was definitely brought to you by my wee (but growing) biceps.]

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

Tank Heaven

Fri, 07 Dec 2012 13:12:00 -0500

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.

The arrival of our new 24 hectoliter tanks for your viewing...

Wed, 05 Dec 2012 14:15:00 -0500

The arrival of our new 24 hectoliter tanks for your viewing pleasure. Why do I have so many grey hairs? I have no idea.

Enjoy.

PS — The witchshark swoops in once again to pull at our heart strings. That rugged lone wolf!

The Start Of Something Sour

Thu, 01 Nov 2012 13:52:36 -0400

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?

Mass Construction

Wed, 17 Oct 2012 15:19:00 -0400

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: Stuffed Like A Turkey

Wed, 03 Oct 2012 11:03:00 -0400

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!

Farmaggedon

Sat, 29 Sep 2012 19:01:03 -0400

This past Tuesday we decided to play hooky for the first time since opening and treat ourselves to a full day of farming and eating (to excess). We met at an ungodly, early morning hour, left a quick note explaining why we’d be gone for the day, and then set out to the Kawarthas — our destination being the farm of Mark Trealout and Laura Boyd.

After a few hours on the open road, fueled in part by coffee and largely by gas station energy drinks, we arrived at the picturesque farm ready for labour. Considering the heights of caffeine, gaurine, taurine, and panax ginseng extract in our bloodstreams, we probably could have run a marathon too, but that’s hardly the point. Back to Mark and Laura.

The farm was beautiful and though clouds had been looming over us earlier, the sun began to peak out just as we finished a tour of the property. After saying hello to the Cornish hens, chickens, and turkeys (Luke’s son named one “Fight” and the other “Bagel”), we got to work in the fields digging for sweet potatoes and picking black beans.

A few of us attacked the skids of onions, peeling and cutting them until they were ready to be boxed up. Inevitably we pulled out a couple of growlers, some Roman Candle IPA and the last of the White Picket Fence Belgian wheat beer, while the designated drivers in the group cursed their luck.

With the guidance of Mark and Laura we prepared a big lunch full of the most delicious and fresh ingredients, straight from the farm. Chickens were halved and cooked over an open fire, salads of wild dandelion greens and heirloom tomatoes were chopped up, and Luke learned how to press tortillas from a masa dough that Mark had whipped up. Fab threw some baby eggplants on the grill and when all was ready we sat in the grass, silently, rapidly scarfing down the simply impressive meal.

It was a great experience participating in the harvesting that helps make the brewery’s delicious local meals possible. We’d like to say a big thank you to Mark and Laura for welcoming us into their home, but also reprimand them for making us all want to live in an idyllic country setting!

Sadly, since returning to the city, our lives have involved decidedly less gourds.