Bad picture snapped from my dash while driving
After a quick stop in Cornwall or somewhere to buy some Doritos and soda to quell rumbling tummies, we headed north towards Vankleek Hill, and what can only be defined as “The Country”. Fields, grass, sheep, cows, the usual. Country. Even those fun country-esque sign posts.
Country-esque Sign-post
You might note in the above picture, we’re close enough to Montreal, despite still being in Ontario, that there is a sign for Mirabel Airport. Crazy. Anyways, if you pass east through the pleasantly quaint and country-esque town of Vankleek Hill, then hang a left onto Terry Fox Drive, you will be greeted, first by the pleasing aroma of wet malted barley, then by a truly wonderful sight. A brewery.
Beau's All Natural Brewing
I am fortunate enough to know Rob, one of Beau’s reps in Toronto who deals with us at Castro’s, so Rob emailed the brewery to give them a head’s up we were coming. Thus, we were greeted by Steve Beauchesne, co-owner of the brewery. He was stepping out to lunch (we were late), but said he’d catch up with us after the tour. He gave some mysterious directions to give us the sticke in bright tank two. I know what a bright tank is, but sticke was a new one to me. So our tour started with Jennifer, our guide. She poured us samples (we both opted for Festivale) and took us into the brewery area, where they also have a good sized event space. They host events with local musicians, etc, and have BBQs and drink beer. My kind of people. While Jennifer discussed what makes up beer (the usual talk) a gentleman walked over who turned out to be Matt O’Hara, the brewmaster. So he added some fairly insightful insight into the whole brewing process. Here’s where Matt works, the brewhouse:
Beau's Brewhouse
Once he’s done stuff in here, he moves the stuff over here, the fermenting tanks:
Some of Beau's Fermenting Tanks
So we wandered over to see some of the fermenting tanks, which in and of itself is not that exciting, but in this case it was going to be, as we were going to get to drink some sweet wort from the tank (for you non-geeks out there, sweet wort is the liquid that has had the barley and hops added, and is all sugary and ready to ferment with the help of yeast). In this case the wort had been fermenting a bit, and would probably have had an alcohol content of 1-2%. Really grainy and sweet, with a touch of hops, and a pretty yeasty note. Here’s my pic of the sample:
Lug-Tread sweet wort
Note the cup? Yeah, that’s a biodegradable cup. Because Beau’s rolls like that.
Anyways, as we walked past the row of fermenting tanks, I noticed three casks stacked up between two of them. I asked Jennifer where they were heading (being a fan of cask ale), and found out another tidbit of really-cool-ness: For each all-staff meeting, one employee gets to work with Matt to brew a one-off batch of any style beer they want, then everybody gets to have some and discuss it. The brew goes into those casks for service. I decided if I worked there, I would make a Lite Lime Lug-Tread, just to piss everyone off.
Up next was the bottling line, which is a fairly new addition to Beau’s. Having settled on those great 600ml bottles, they needed to actually get a proper bottling line. When they first started using them, they only had an old two bottle set-up. And when that went down, they had to do it by hand. Oh yeah, and remember those beautiful ceramic bottles that were available at the LCBO through Christmas? The only way to confirm they had been properly filled was to hand-weigh each one. When Beau’s says they’re DIY, they mean it. Here’s some bottles awaiting consumption:
Yummy bottles of Lug-Tread Ale
So then we were lead to the bright-tanks, which are in a refrigerator. It’s like heaven on a hot summer’s day: nice and cold, and filled with beer. Anyways, this was where things got extra-cool. Beau’s is brewing a sticke (schtick-uh). Don’t worry if that means nothing to you; I was out to sea too. But here’s the deal: A sticke is a special one-off beer brewed in German brewing tradition. The word means “secret”, and the beer would be made by a brewer, then made available for a very short time (Beau’s is doing one day) through the brewery and their licensees. In this case, Beau’s is making something they call Festiavale Plus (despite the whole “secret” thing, Steve said it was okay for me to blog this), which is basically a doppel-alt. Bigger warm malts and a sharper hop bite, even young, this beer was awesome. The date of release is yet to be set, but when they announce it, I’ll post it, and I encourage you to seek it out. It is going to be a hell of a beer.
Beau's Festivale Plus
So after a bit more brewing talk, we headed back into the brewery store to grab some beer and stuff, and low and behold, there was Steve. So we chatted a bit more with him, some Brewery history, plans for upcoming events (check out their Oktoberfest party, it’s going to go off), and just stuff in general. Loaded down with some beer and swag, we made our thanks and farewells, and hopped in the car to head to Montreal.
We had an absolutely incredible time with the folks at Beau’s. The entire vibe of the brewery is so cool and craft. The people all obviously care about what they are doing, and love where they work. The company is heavily involved, both in their community and the beer scene at large. And seriously, getting to just chill out with one of the owners? Try doing that at the Keith’s tour.
Thanks to Rob for the introduction, Steve for having such a cool brewery and taking some time out to chat to us, and Jennifer for a great tour, one of the better ones I’ve been on in some time.
