Ottawa Brewery Tour!
Last weekend was awesome! My friends and I purchased some tickets for one of Brewdonkey's tasting tours in the Ottawa area. The tour featured the craft beer scene in Ottawa which included 2 local breweries, 1 brewpub and 1 craft beer bar.
Brad Campeau (left) was our tour host and manages Brewdonkey's delivery / tour / merchandising services while Josh (right) was our tour beer information specialist with a refreshing passion for home brewing. All around nice guys and full of interesting conversation!
Ottawa has some interesting craft beer action going on although this tour is only the tip of the iceberg. I am somewhat familiar with the Toronto craft beer world but Ottawa had brands I had never seen before. This is a nice opportunity for anyone to broaden their beer horizons so I highly recommend it. Not to mention Quebec is just around the corner where you can find beers deeply influenced by their traditions and culture.
The tour started with Kichesippi Beer Co., tour of their brewery. As explained in their website "Kichesippi means 'The Great River'. Prior to 1855, when the City of Ottawa was founded, the river running through it was known as the Kichesippi. The river has always been an integral part of the history of Ottawa and Eastern Ontario".
We met our brewery tour guide who had beer ready for us as soon as we came in to the store. We began with the Kichesippi Natural Blonde (ABV 4.9% / IBU 26 - American Pale Ale). Apparently the Kechisippi guys had their New Year's party the day before so our trusty tour guide was only having coffee.
Their fermentation tanks are all perfectly lined and numbered.
Their bottling line was pretty neat! The same guy that helped with Flying Monkey's bottling line helped them set up this beauty. As it happens with most micro breweries, equipment is acquired from other breweries who eventually outgrow their capacity and Kichesippi is no exception.
At this point we were led back to the store front to taste another beer on tap - Kichesippi 1855 (ABV 5.2% / IBU 27 - Amber Ale). We then continued the tour with beer in hand.
This is the first place I have seen that has a silo inside the brewery! Kichesippi uses the same malt in all their beers and adds other specialty malt based on specific recipes
As an extra bonus we got to try a 3 week fermented Rauchbier aptly named Phoenix. This batch was brewed in honour of The Cheschire Cat Pub in the Ottawa area that had burned down and is supposed to hit the Cheschire Cat taps for their re-opening sometime this month. Like a Phoenix rising from the ashes the beer had a nice smokey taste. It was incomplete at this point as it needed 1 more week, but I am sure it will eventually become a great beer to pair with a bacon & cheese burger.
We finished this tour with a tasting of their last beer Kichesippi Wuchak Black (ABV 6.2% / IBU 77 - Black IPA) which was my favourite. I ended up leaving with a delicious growler which did not last long.
Next up, we headed to Broadhead Brewing Co. to continue our action packed tour. What a place to be! Wonderful energy all around! This time our tour was presented by Josh Larocque and Jamie White who did an exceptional job at presenting their dream brewery. Everything was built by hand and customized to meet their needs, including the computer programming and interface that runs the brewery. Apparently the reason why it was called it Broadhead is because of the "physically large noggins of the brewery owners". They were pretty big.
We started this tour with a beer tasting moving from lighter to stronger beers as we progressed. The beer we tasted included:
Backbone Standard (ABV 5% / IBU 15 - Blonde Ale) Long Shot White (ABV 5% / IBU 13.5 - Wheat Ale) Grindstone Amber (ABV 4.8% / IBU 25.7 - Amber Ale) Wildcard Pale (ABV 5% / IBU 22.7 - American Pale Ale) Underdog Pale Ale (ABV 5.2% / IBU 41.2 - American Pale Ale) Dark Horse Stout (ABV 5.5% / IBU 25.5 - Oatmeal Stout) *Bonus* Mommy Kissing Santa Claus (ABV ?% / IBU ? - Sweet Stout)
The cooling unit was built out of a modified cooler!
The guys showed us the equipment they used to brew back in the day which consisted of a modified brew pots.
And the mash tun was a modified version of a milk container they purchased from a farm. Jamie used to work in milk farm so he was knowledgeable about this kind of thing. Josh studied something along the lines of aeronautical engineering and programming which is why they were able to customized their brewery software.
Their boiler design was also quite unique. As the wort boils and vapor rises up it condenses in the lining of the vapor stack and drops back to the boiling vessel which is not hygienic under Ontario rules created by "the man" since vapor could be subject to bacteria. So they engineered this drip tray kind of system so that condensed water fall back into the waste pipe.
As for their fermentation tanks, they are actually wine fermentation tanks! As the tour guys explained these are actually 1/15 of the cost of a stainless steel vessel and are lined with a special polymer so no off-flavours are leached to the beer. Of course plastic will deteriorate faster and at some point require replacing, but it is nonetheless an adequate system to start with. They had just started using stainless steel vessels which were temperature controlled using their trusty cooling system (they where behind the plastic ones and I forgot to take pictures). Eventually as funding is obtained, they will continue to replace their fermentation vessels with stainless steel.
After seeing these guys in action I was thrilled to see you can actually build up a brewery from the ground up with your own 2 hands. I bought one of their bright orange t-shirts they sell on premises which I will wear to any bee event I go to because I really do admire what these guys have done and want to support them. Just take a look at their website. How can you not support so much quirkiness?! Their brews were nicely done too. I specially enjoyed their Underdog Pale Ale (ABV 5.2% / IBU 41.2 - American Pale Ale) and Wildcard Pale (ABV 5% / IBU 22.7 - American Pale Ale). The consistency of the Wildcard may be an issue in the future since the whole premise behind this beer is too use different citrusy kind of hops once in a while so you never know what you are going to get. But I enjoyed it for what it is and I give a tip of my hat to you sirs!
Our second-last stop was The Clocktower Brew Pub | Craft Brewery which boast a modest open fermentation tank which was a pleasant surprise. Here we tried a paddle of their beer line-up which included:
Raspberry Wheat (ABV 4.4% / IBU 25 - Wheat Ale) Kölsch (ABV 4.4% / IBU 25 - German Kölsch) Wishart's Bitter (ABV 5% / IBU 32 - British Estra Special Bitter) Clocktower Red (ABV 5.3% / IBU 43 - Red Ale) Bytown Brown (ABV 4.8% / IBU 28 - Brown Ale) *Bonus* Clocktower IPA (ABV 5.8% / IBU 50 - IPA)
Clocktower was an interesting place since they brew some basic traditional styles and try to maintain consistent. Their brown ale was the one that surprised me the most with its overall balance. The malts were not overpowering each other and the beer had the right amount of hops to balance the sweetness of the malts used (coffee, chocolate, caramel, toffee malts). Their seasonal offerings are also quite interesting and I will be sure to visit them during the summer and fall. The food was amazing! I tried their poutine and highly recommend it!
In the end we ended up in Corner Bar & Grill Westboro to finish off the night. There I had an Anchor Steam Beer by Anchor Brewing Co. and a casked stout from one of the local breweries (not sure which but it hit a sweet spot in my belly).
Overall, it was a fun day specially because I was not driving and got to ride a big yellow bus. Did I tell you we also had amazing beer? The Ottawa beer scene was interesting and I am sure I missed a lot which is perfect because then I will have an excuse to make the 4-hour drive. I ended up winning a growler bag and a marble coaster on our drive back to the last place we visited (graciously provided by Brad).
I wonder if anyone in Toronto offers this kind of service ...
Some pictures graciously donated by Louis Francia. Check out his website here.
Stay crafty!
