The Open House ran from 2-10pm on Sunday and gave my friends and family a chance to check out my new design inspirations.  I was very excited to have local brewery, Mill Street, sponsor the event. I served up Mill Street Organic, Tankhouse and Belgian Wit to all of my guests with the obligatory camera shot for this blog.

Thanks to everyone that came out and checked out my new revitalized living space!

SEP 16 11 – 6 AM — Renovations appear to be going nicely, and more or less on schedule, as Mill Street Brewery plans to open its first brewpub outside Toronto in mid- to late-November at an historic 165-year-old limestone mill on the south shore of the Ottawa River, between the Portage Bridge and LeBreton Flats.

I originally blogged about their new venture in April, and dropped by on Wednesday for a peek and chat with brewmaster Joel Manning, 44, who’s overseeing renovations at the site. Owned by the National Capital Commission, the property was originally the Thompson-Perkins Mill and, more recently, home of a forgettable meat-and-potatoes eatery that closed amid virtually no sense of loss.

These days the place is very much a construction site with wires, metal wall studs and bits of wood strewn across the floor. On the south side sits a yawning abyss at least two floors deep where the copper mash kettle will be installed in about two weeks. A glass enclosure separating the brewing operation from tables and chairs on two floors will allow patrons to ponder the nuances of beer making while downing a few pints with their meals.

Check out my campy video with Joel (photo, above) at the end of this blog.

“We’re hoping to open by the end of November,” Joel says, over a satisfying lunch of seared scallops on home-made linguine creole, and pork tenderloin on a salad dressed with simple red wine vinaigrette, at the new Burnt Butter Italian Kitchen on Wellington St. Really tasty, with pasta perfectly al dente — not that common in these parts, I’m afraid.

“The brewery should be commissioned by the second week in October,” Joel says. ”The equipment will arrive in about two weeks to set up, so that gives us about a month to start brewing before the pub opens.”

Expect a full restaurant with 270 seats inside and another 120 on the patio. The 6,000-square-foot venue will offer an open-concept brewery, sampling bar, full restaurant, retail store and event space with 18-foot ceiling and four enormous skylights with, of course, natural limestone walls that present the building’s own historic charm.

Equipment will include a 1,000-litre brewing kettle, a 1,000-litre lauter tun (that separates sweet wort from spent grain), six fermenting and aging tanks and a 1,000-litre bright beer tank from which brewmasters will fill 1.8-litre bottles, called growlers, as well as 30- and 50-litre kegs. Growlers will be for sale at its retail store on premises, while kegged draft will be available on tap at other licensed establishments in the Ottawa area.

The Mill Street Brewery, which makes a dozen different craft beers, sells various labels at the Beer Store and LCBO in every province except Quebec (which it is working on). It opened in December 2002 in an original tankhouse in the historic 1870 Gooderham & Worts Distillery complex (photo, above left), now called the Distillery District in Toronto. The main Toronto brewery was relocated to Scarborough in 2006, the same year it renovated the original Mill Street location and turned it into the popular Mill Street Brewpub.

Mill Street has won numerous accolades. As recently as last week, it picked up three Canadian Brewing Awards: Gold for its brown ale, another gold for a coffee porter, and bronze for a honey beer called Royal York Stinger (the honey comes from hives on the roof of the Fairmont Royal York hotel, if you can imagine bees foraging for nectar in the canyons of downtown Toronto).

Joel has been brewmaster at Mill Street since 2005; before that, he was at Amsterdam Brewing Co. in Toronto for 18 years. He’s also past president (2004) of the Master Brewers Association of Canada, a technical trade association with some 200 members, so I’m thinking this guy knows a thing or two about beer.

Joel says the emphasis here will be very much on a local clientele. “We’ll have two full-time brewers here in Ottawa. One is our head brewer from the Toronto brewpub, Adam Raider, who we’re relocating as we speak. And we’re looking for a second person to join him.

“We’ll be brewing proably six brews here, either three or four permanent and two seasonals on rotating taps so that over the course of a year we’ll offer a dozen or 15 beers — maybe as many as 20 — all brewed here in Ottawa. We’ll have 12 to 14 on tap, six brought in from Toronto and six brewed in Ottawa.

“The ones we brew here will only be available in Ottawa, either at the brewpub or to take home from our on-site store. And we’ll also sell draft in kegs to licensed premises in Ottawa.”

Joel says Mill Street offers a “new style” for Ottawa that celebrates brewing history in the national capital region. They’re still researching the details, which ought to prove fascinating. Among the tidbits: Did you know Eastern Ontario once grew hops before the Second World War? Only now is it starting to make a comeback.

“Craft-brewed beer is very human scale — hand-made stuff that’s meant to be consumed by a local audience. Beer is best consumed fresh and it’s important to us to have a connection with our local market.”

The brewery is already involved in the Ottawa region in partnership and participating in such events as Cisco Bluesfest, the Dragon Boat Festival, and Bon Appetit.

“Craft brewing is not just a trendy thing,” Joel says. “It’s a connection back to the way things were in the 1800s when there were literally hundreds of brewers across Ontario, many from immigrants making specialty beers they were used to in the old country.

“So everything we do as craft brewers has been largely done before. It really is a throwback to the way beer was traditionally done in this country, and that’s the appeal.

“Part of that is brewing on a small scale for our local community. And it’s also getting to know your brewer, sitting down and having a beer with him or going on a tour of the brewery.”

Small wonder that craft beer is becoming more popular each year. In Ontario, sales of Ontario Craft Brewers’ products, with more than 25 brewery members, soared during the LCBO’s annual summer beer promotion, increasing 36-per-cent over the same period in 2010. In fact, Ontario craft beer sales outpaced total LCBO beer sales in the same period by 5.7 per cent.

What’s the appeal, you ask? Well, favour is a good place to start. And variety.

“Gone are the days when people drank only one beer and you were known by your favourite brand,” Joel says.

“Today, people don’t just buy Beau’s Lug Tread or Mill Street Tankhouse, they’re trying dozens of beers depending on their mood, the season, what you’re having for dinner and who’s coming over. As a craft brewer, what you want is a place on a person’s rotation of beers.”

Mill Street Brewpub plans to make some cask-conditioned beers, a unique and expensive process where beer is fermented in casks with a finishing hops to develop depth, fragrance, and a softer and more natural level of carbonation. Cask-conditioned beers are typically served at cellar temperature, not freezing cold.

Just one of many exciting things to look forward to as Mill Street Brewpub finds its niche in the nation’s capital.

Today the Financial Post has published an article about a lawsuit that MacDonald’s is facing in California. A U.S. district judge ruled that the case couldn’t be argued in federal court. Federal court is seen to be more pro corporate defendants. The lawsuit is about MacDonald’s using toys to advertise to children. This is seen as a huge problem as it helps get kids hooked on fast food, which can lead to childhood obesity.

http://business.financialpost.com/2011/07/20/mcdonalds-loses-bid-to-move-happy-meal-lawsuit/

Good news for all of the beer drinkers in Ottawa. The Mill Street Brewery’s newest brewpub is set to open in Ottawa this fall. Ottawa City council has approved a zoning change to allow for beer to be brewed at the new location.

http://www.yourottawaregion.com/news/news/article/1045585

Earlier this year there was a huge fire in New Edinburgh. (if you don’t remember check this out) Unfortunately the fire destroyed the location of the awesome Epicuria. Fortunately the business has been able to survive and is planning to come back to their old Beechwood location after everything is fixed up. If you can’t wait for that, check out their temporary location at 112 Nelson St.

http://www.yourottawaregion.com/news/news/article/1045992

If you live in Vanier and want to be a member of the community garden, you better get on the waiting list! Your Ottawa Region has published an article about the Vanier community garden. In their second year of operation, demand is high and the plants are blooming. The only problem is the beetles!

http://www.yourottawaregion.com/news/news/article/1046015

I had one more article but the link wouldn’t work. It was about the upcoming Herbfest. In its 16th year, Herbfest is all about herbs, gardening, cooking and living a healthy lifestyle. The popular Chef Cook-off, boasting three esteemed local chefs, uses audience members as judges. If you’re looking for something to do this Sunday, between 9:00am to 5:00pm, check out Herbfest at 3840 Old Almonte Road.

More info can be found on their website: www.herbfest.ca

So far you can look forward to Mapleton’s Organic Dairy, Muskoka Cottage Brewery, Mill St. Brewery, ChocoSol, Steam Whistle Brewing and Toronto’s Grindhouse.

I can just picture myself walking across the grass with waffle spelt cone full of Mapleton’s dandelion ice cream in one hand and a plastic cup full of Mill Street’s crisp, cold lemon tea beer in the other. Put the festival on your calender folks, it’s only five weeks away!

First up I tried Mill Street Brewery’s Tank House Ale. This beer pours translucent amber with minimal head and a 5.2% ABV. The taste and nose seem vaguely like an IPA; clean drinking with a subtle bitterness but it does not have the bite of an IPA brewed on the North West Coast.  Drinkable but not particularly memorable; you will find this is a theme that will re-occur throughout this post.

I moved on to Orange Peel Ale from Great Lakes Brewing in Toronto and lo and behold much of the same.  The nose and appearance reminded me of wheat ale, and there was a subtle sweetness when drinking. Yet in a blind taste test I would be hard pressed to discern the ‘orange peel’ element that is the namesake of this beer.  Not a bad beer, but a definite summer sipper that you would want served ice cold.

Ever the resolute tippler I bought a six-pack of Campbellford-based Church-Key Brewing Company’s Northumberland Ale. Originally created to commemorate the anniversary of the Lift locks in Peterborough the popularity of this beer led to the continued production of the ale under the name Northumberland. The ale pours clear and amber with a diminishing amount of head. I wish I could spend more time waxing fondly on the subtle interplay of flavours but this is straight-up ale, a quiet mix of hops and malt that is easy to drink in multiple quantities (you can’t buy singles for a reason).

I have to say there is a highly drinkable quality underpinning all of these beers, kind of like the kid brothers of bigger bolder brews.  I should qualify that I have nothing but love for great everyday ale, the go-to beer that you can drink with anything and serve to anyone, but I hoped to discover something really unique that I could brag about when I got back to BC …the search continues.

Overall I would give Mill Street Tankhouse Ale a 3 out 5, Great Lakes Orange Peel Ale a 3 out of 5 and Church-Key Northumberland Ale a 3.5 out of 5

According to various mainstream media, Mill  Street Brewery is opening a brewery/restaurant in the former Mill Restaurant location. It should be an awesome location, close to Bluesfest and the water. And close to all those civil servants jammed into PDP.

CBC’s site says:

A Toronto microbrewery has signed a lease to set up a restaurant and brewery at the site of the old Mill restaurant along the Ottawa River.

The Mill Street Brewery, a popular brewer in Toronto that sells its beer at the Beer Store and the LCBO, unveiled its plans when it filled out a planning rationale and architectural drawings with the City of Ottawa.

It wants to brew about 40 kegs of beer a week, offer beer tastings and operate a large restaurant at the site of the 165-year old stone structure between the Portage Bridge and Lebreton Flats, co-founder Steve Abrams confirmed Friday.

“We’re all elated, it’s going to be a magnificent thing,” said Abrams. “We’re excited to be part of Ottawa community…[which has] a very vibrant culture and beer culture. We want to lay down roots there.”

The brewer signed a 10-year lease with an option to renew with the NCC, which owns the land. The NCC had put out a request for proposals for the site after the previous tenant, the Mill Restaurant, closed in 2007.

Abrams said he expects the restaurant-brew pub to open in the fall after renovations are complete.

The restaurant will be on the site of an old grist mill that dates back to the 1840s. Abrams said the brewer was intrigued by the location, which was near an area that once housed a number of breweries, the roots he says of what became Canada’s first major brewing empires.

The location also presents a challenge, however, as the spot is isolated from other businesses and cultural centres and has little pedestrian traffic. Abrams recognizes the challenge and says the plan is to entice customers with pairing good food with the brew pub experience.

Abrams said Mill Street faced a similar challenge when it moved into the Distillery District in Toronto in 2002, at a time when many of the buildings in the area were derelict and few other businesses were near. Since that time, he said, the area has become a destination spot for locals and tourists alike.

“It’s a little remote, a little out of the way, but if you give something people want, we’re hoping that will entice them to keep coming back,” he said.

The Mill restaurant closed its doors in 2007 and the building, a historic grist mill, has been unoccupied since. Giacomo Panico/CBC With files from the CBC’s Giacomo Panico

This is Chris and Aaron from Segway of Ontario, your Fun Officers.  In an effort to give you the most educationally fun experience around, we’re going to take you around the Distillery District through our videoblogs and highlight some of the businesses we deal with on a regular basis.

Today we’re going to take you to probably our favourite business on-site, Mill Street Brewery.  Started in 2002 as an alternative to bad beer, Mill Street has managed to win the Canadian Brewing Awards Best Brewery designation 3 years in a row between 2o07-2009.  They kicked things off with their wildly popular Organic Lager and since then have added about 25 new beers to the mix.

The brew-pub attached to the brewery is one of the best places to eat and drink east of Yonge St., and with 14 beers rotating on tap including multiple seasonals, this  brew-pub truly rewards repeat visitors. Apart from their beer-related excellence, we love Mill St. Brewery because of its fun atmosphere and friendly staff. You can literally watch the staff brew beer as you eat, or choose to watch awesome sports on one of their multiple flat screens…unless you’re there between 1-5 in the afternoon, poker and bowling are not awesome sports.  Come on Mill Street!

No matter what we think of their boring afternoon sports, we still love their beer and food, so here’s a video with even more detail:

If this seems like a paid advertisement, it should, we are very good at would we do. But all levity aside, we are not paid by Mill St. Brewery, we just love their products, and that love is unconditional. If you are reading this and own Mill St. Brewery please make us co-owners. Until next time;

Aaron & Chris

Kings of the Distillery

While writing our past blog on Hot Pot and discussing the necessity of having a nice cold beer to accompany it, I began thinking about beer in all its glory. Beer is the perfect companion to drink while

a)     Eating Nachos & Wings

b)     Watching Sports

c)     Hanging out with friends

d)     All of the above

The list for the different occasions where beer is a welcomed addition is endless. This then led to further thought on the topic of beer which is the sole reason for our post today. When do we ever celebrate beer for the beer itself? We hope our post today will be a small step towards giving back for all that it has given us (are we still talking about beer?! W.O.W.). To accomplish this task, I enlisted the help of 8 of my fellow men (as in mankind N good thing you added this, I was about to have an aneurism) and we narrowed down the selection to 13 different beers for our tasting pleasure. Our panel of judges sent the 13 beers through a rigorous test of aesthetics and taste. Due to the intense nature of this event, we did have some fallen comrades along the way (Actually 1 comrade, Gerry) but after a fun night of tasting, we had our results. Without further ado, let’s introduce the combatants for our Friday’s Battle Royale. Being Canadian, there was a distinct home advantage and the Canadian contingent was very strong Friday night as 7 of the 13 beers tasted were from Canada. Go Canucks Go!

Top: Imports | Bottom: Exports

First up, hailing from Quebec’s Unibroue Brewery was Joe’s pick, La Fin du Monde (The End of the World). Our 8 panel of experts gave this beer a combined score of 5.4/10. It was definitely very tasty but being our first beer, we were very critical in our assessment. The alcohol content is 9% and it was a nice way to kick off the night. http://www.unibroue.com/en/beers/la_fin_du_monde/

Our second beer was a preview for our upcoming trip to San Fran and Napa Valley as N picked San Francisco’s very own, Anchor Steam Beer. Anchor Steam had the unfortunate position following our stellar first beer and fought an uphill battle, ranking a lowly 0 out of 10. http://www.anchorbrewing.com/beers/

Third up (Joe’s pick) was a local Alberta brewery in Canmore’s Grizzly Paw Grumpy Bear Honey Wheat. There was a wide range of scores in this beer as some really love it (9/10) while some didn’t like it at all (-5/10). The average score however was 3.4. http://www.thegrizzlypaw.com/drink/beer/grumpy-bear-honey-wheat

After the first 3 beers, we thought it would be a nice time to step back and try a nice clean beer. A clean beer? What does this mean? Being the health aficionado that I am ?!? Since when?!, I picked Toronto’s Mill St. Brewery’s Original Organic Beer which is Ontario’s first certified Organic beer. There was nothing much to like or hate about the beer and scored 2.3/10 as it did not stand out besides the novel concept of being organic. http://www.millstreetbrewery.com/#/ourbeers/bottled-beer/original-organic

Our fifth beer came from Belgium as we tried the Delirium Nocturnum  (Jewel’s Pick), known for the pink elephants on their label and the 9% alcohol content. This beer ranked 2.2 with us however, we would like to give this brewery one more shot in the future and try the Delirium Tremens which seems to be a very highly regarded beer around the world. http://www.delirium.be/Anglais/Histoire/histoire.htm

Our 6th beer was my pick coming out of Scotland called Innis & Gunn Original. This beer is unique for the fact that they pioneered the process of using used bourbon oak barrels to age their beer giving it a unique taste. Despite the exciting idea, it scored a 0.2/10. http://www.innisandgunn.com/index.htm

Our 7^th Beer was Quebec’s Brasserie Dieu Du Ciel’s, Aphrodisiac (N’s pick, purely due to the “pretty naked girl” on the label).  It was a dark stout beer with a hint of cocoa that nobody really enjoyed and received -1.3/10. Taste is subjective however, and the low score might be attributed to the fact that our judges are not fans of stout beer. It would be interesting to see how a big fan of dark ale would rank this beer. http://micro.dieuduciel.com/en/beers.php

Our 8^th beer was the Wraspberry Ale coming from another local Alberta brewery, Wild Rose (N’s Pick). Just as it sounds, it tastes like raspberry. The only judge who objected to this beer was Johnny who is not a fan of “fruity drinks”. This beer scored a 3.6 out of 10 and was well liked by our female judges. http://www.wildrosebrewery.com/beer/wraspberry.html

Despite J’s stamina for drinking beer, writing about it is another story and he has lost steam so I am forced to step in! For our 9^th beer, I thought we needed some Asian representation so we went with Japan’s oldest beer, Sapporo. The oversized can, designed to look like the steel of a samurai sword, is visually appealing but this beer only scored 0.4 for taste among our esteemed panel!http://www.sapporobeer.ca

Like our very first beer of the night, the 10^th one was also from Quebec’s Unibroue Brewery. It is the first ale brewed by Unibroue and as such, they chose to follow the Belgian tradition for white ales by naming it after the city in which it is brewed. With an average rating of 6.2, it scored second highest of the night! http://www.unibroue.com/en/beers/blanche_de_chambly/product#/product

Our 11^th beer, Affligem, is brewed in the Flemsh village of Opwijk, aka. 100% Belgium Beer. With a score of 4.3, it is a light to golden beer that tasted and looked average. Among a wide selection of beers, it is forgettable yet not offensive. Overall, the word that would best describe it amidst this beer tasting would be…”meh!” http://www.affligembeer.be/

Next came the appropriately named, What the Huck! Brewed in Fernie, the punny name quickly became the brunt of jokes after the taste test where it scored a measly 0.8 due to the sour first impression. Only one person (starts with J, rhymes with gulie ) seemed to enjoy it and it is safe to say that she was enjoying pretty much every beer she tried that night! http://www.ferniebrewing.com/what-huck-huckleberry-wheat

To complete Quebec’s Unibroue Brewery’s triple threat, our lastbeer was Trois Pistoles. Apparently, the third time really is the charm as here we have our WINNER! This was the best tasting beer of the night with an average score of 7.5. And what a coincidence, this beer has won many metals and awards around the world. It is named after a small village of Quebec and the name means “three coins” ~ so all our guesses stand corrected (J, you can stop using your hand as a pistol now)! Check out the recipe for Trois-Pistoles Brown Sugar Cookies @ http://www.unibroue.com/en/beers/recipe/89/ | http://www.unibroue.com/en/beers/trois_pistoles/#/product

All in all, this was a unique & enjoyable way to spend the evening with friends. We accompanied the beer with Korean-style BBQ meats and this self-serve style eating was a perfect companion for the evening activities. Consider planning your own beer tasting party and tell us your results! Just get each participant to bring 2-3 beers of their choice and supply them with scorecards to keep track of their findings. The boys initially bulked at the idea of having to do “homework” as they called it but after the 5th beer, they realized that it was a smart move (aka. girls are always right!) and it’s neat to see the overall results once everyone has sobered up a bit! Here is the scorecard we made for our tasting:

Final Note: If you plan on hosting your own beer tasting, please make sure to pace yourself accordingly. Although you might feel like a girly-man by sharing a bottle of beer with others (in separate cups of course), there’s no shame in admitting that we can’t all be Team Germany. Enjoying and remembering the different tastes is the name of the game. Big thanks to JJJJG for participating!

“Social media is about sociology and psychology
more than technology.” –Brian Solis

This week, I will be taking a hiatus from my usual philosophical mumbo-jumbo to write about Social Media Week, taking place in nine cities across the globe. Tonight, I’ll be attending Wikibrands: Where business and brands meet digital and social at the Mill Street Brewery in Toronto’s historic Distillery District.

I will also be tweeting live (as well as I can do so one-handed — the other will be holding a beer) from @annejoyce, so feel free to follow along…

Stay tuned!

Image via Wikipedia

From the ridiculous to the sublime. Last weekend I was invited to another bar to celebrate my friend’s penultimate 40th birthday, and it was fabulous!  Unlike my  last bar party, this one was elegant and lively, and as you can see I was inspired to ”live a little” and try something new. That something new, as you can see is pilsner.

The Details 

The party was held at the Mill Street Brewery in the Distillery District. It was modern, featured a full, interesting and yummy menu. The establishment was clean, and wait staff were attentive. The food was very reasonably priced. I would certainly go back, but I would also recommend it to anyone looking for an upscale, though still low-key night out. (If such a thing is possible)

My hostess, loves to entertain, and even though the party was not happening in her home she took extra steps to ensure that her guests had a great time. She and her husband bounced between our two tables, and the various social circles, continuously chatting, adding thoughtful observations to every conversation:

“Are you looking forward to your baby shower tomorrow?”

“New York is fabulous this time of year, well really New York is fabulous any time of year, so it’s wonderful that you are going to be going to visit. But I will say that late November with all the windows decorated. Fabulous, I’m so excited for you.”

My host helped bring her guests together:

“You should speak to my friend over there, she goes to New York at least once a year, she can give you all kinds of travel tips.”

And offered helpful suggestions:

“If you think you like a lighter beer you should try a pilsner or Mill Street’s Organic [something or other]“

At the end of the night she coordinated with wait staff to ensure that the billing was handled accurately, and then she spoke to each of her guests to ensure that everyone could get home safely, and even acted as the designated driver.

The point is, that being a good host or hostess doesn’t require fancy dishes or clothes, or even strict adherence to social codes, being a great hostess comes down to 2 things:

1) If you love what you do, you will excel at what you do, and great hosts love to host gatherings, and they are in their glory, flitting from one group to the next, chatting with everyone. People who are really good at it, are able to make you feel like you have their undivided attention, even though they might spend only a few moments with you.

2) A great boss of mine once said that the devil is in the details, and this is true of hosting a function as well. No matter where you are, or how you choose to celebrate there will always be details like rides, billing, seating plans, etc, and if you are able to problem solve these obstacles efficiently you will be able to spend some quality time with your guests, instead of stressing out in the kitchen or at the waiter’s station.

For my part, I had a great time, I came out of my shell, and chatted with a whole new group of people, learned a lot about just how fabulous New York is in the fall, and at Christmas time, and in the summer, and in the spring, and even in the winter. I also tried to pick up our very capable and sweet waiter by flaunting my extensive knowledge of teas–which went over like a lead balloon, as I’m sure you can imagine. All in all, I had a great time, and I am looking forward to my next party.

But before we move on to that, let’s raise our glasses to the host and hostess for putting on such a great event.

CHEERS

 ps. next week I promise I will have some tea cups to show you, as well as some pictures from tomorrow’s Gone with the Wind party

On the morning of Friday, September 10, after more sight-seeing in Niagara Falls, we hit the road for Toronto. We all loved Niagara Falls and wished we had planned to stay longer. But a weekend in Toronto called.

It was an hour and a half drive to our hotel — the Fairmont Royal York in downtown Toronto. This famous, historic hotel is in the heart of everything there is to do in Toronto, and it didn’t take us long to settle in and then hit the town. First stop: the CN Tower (See our pics from the CN Tower below.)

In my last blog post about Toronto (from August 2009), I said, “I’ll be visiting Mill Street Brewpub again the next time I’m in Toronto.” And it didn’t take me long to make that prediction come true — we went to Mill Street for dinner our first night in town.

Mill Street Brewpub is in the refurbished Distillery District of Toronto, which is a short cab ride away from the Royal York. The place was hopping on a Friday evening, and I was ready for a sampler tray. There were about a dozen beers on the menu, but Mill Street made it easy for me – they offered set-menu sampler trays, with four beers per tray. I worked my way through two sampler trays.

Sampler Tray 1 – “Baron’s Picks”

• Raspberry Ale
  
• IPA
• ESB
• Pilsner

Sampler Tray 2 – “Big 4″

• Stock Ale
• Organic Lager
• Tankhouse Ale
• Coffee Porter

I think I prefer to build my own sampler, but I did like the cool printed beer menus, describing each beer, that came on the trays (see pic right).  I liked all of the beer at Mill Street Brewpub, especially the clean Organic Lager and fresh sessionable Tankhouse Ale.  The exceptional pub food combined with the friendly Canadian vibe and brick-lined streets of the Distillery District make Mill Street a must-visit.

Of course, the beer is the main reason to visit Mill Street, and they sell beer to go! We ducked in the small retail store on our way out of the restaurant so I could grab a mixed six-pack for the hotel room. The six pack featured:

• Lemon Tea Beer
• Belgian Wit
• Pilsner
• Stock Ale
• Organic Lager
• Tankhouse Ale

Between the drafts and the bottles, I tried 10 Mill Street brews, and there wasn’t a disappointing beer among them.

55 Mill Street, Toronto

www.millstreetbrewery.com

For beerfests and the like, Mill Street Brewery has the capacity for the people and the beers.

Check out their Ontario‘s first “Original Organic Lager” for a light and hoppy flavour.

I’m now more interested in their new Lemon Tea Beer and this contest they’re having.

This beer certainly won’t change anyone’s perception of what beer can be.  But it’s a crisp, smooth beer with no excessive, bitter  finish–perfect for a summer evening.  Yet, it never feels light or watered down.  It really has a full body.  In the brewery they said that this beer is what Ale would have tasted like 100 years ago. Uncomplicated, but almost creamy.  I tried maybe six beers before I found this one (and to the bartender–thanks for your patience!).

This trip was also my first time in Toronto, and Canada for that matter.  The whole experience was great– the people were hospitable and funny, the city livable but cosmopolitan.  Here are some of my favorite pictures.  Enjoy!

Tickets are $35 and include 8 beer samples, complimentary BBQ nibbles and live entertainment. You can buy additional sampling tickets on site so that you can enjoy all that the festival has to offer. See below for a list of the participating breweries.

Barley Days Brewery

Beau’s All-Natural Brewing Company

Big Rock Brewery

Black Oak Brewery

Cameron’s Brewing Company

Creemore Springs Brewery

F & M Brewery

Flying Monkeys Brewery

Grand River Brewing

Great Lakes Brewery

Heritage Brewing Company

Hockley Valley Brewing Company

Mill Street Brewery

Niagara’s Best Brewery

Nickel Brook Brewery

Steam Whistle Brewery

Wellington Brewery

With any luck it will be hot and sunny tomorrow providing for an amazing festival. But even if it does rain, the 2,000 expect visitors will easily fit the the pavilion which has a 3,000 person capacity. So I’ll see you there! See below for a list of brewers and food exhibitors:

Breweries:

• Amsterdam Brewing
• Black Oak Brewing
• Beau’s All Natural Brewing
• Cameron’s Brewing
• Duggan’s Brewery
• Flying Monkeys Craft Brewery
• F&M Brewery
• Garrison Brewing
• Great Lakes Brewery
• Lake of Bays Brewing Co.
• McAuslan Brewing
• Mill Street Brewery
• Muskoka Cottage Brewery
• Nickel Brook Beers
• Niagara’s Best Brewery
• Propeller Brewery
• Thornbury Village Cidery
• Tree Brewing
• Unibroue
• Wellington Brewing

Food

• Leslieville Cheese Market
• Rodney’s Oyster House
• The Sassy Lamb
• C’est What
• Robin’s Catering
• Duggan’s Brewery

Seeing as there aren’t thaaaat many tourist spots to see (comparative, darling, to some of my 2nd home European and American cities — No, not Gatwick and LaGuardia airports, sweetpeas), unless of course one were to favor gorgeous fine dining establishments such as The Hard Rock Cafe, MR GREENJEANS at the Toronto Eaton Centre, and of course the unfortunately named (and decorated) Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse, I had to hustle in order to fry up some creative Touristing. Alors, mes enfants, it was with a heavy heart in a sturdy brassiere that I decided to conjure up a tour of Toronto complete with sights-without-plaques, for those of my readers that decide my hometown is their next travel destination.

First stop?

Upon picking up one’s pretty new package from YYZ (That’s Pearson International to you out-of-towners, check your luggage tag. See?), it is imperative that your first stop be at the local LCBO. Now, this is critical, as they may think perhaps they are in some foreign country like Quebec where in fact one could purchase liquor everywhere and you have to hammer the point home that this is not, in fact, so. The only amendment to this rule is if you, the host, are living in the neighborhood of good breeding, my hometown of Rosedale (you cant choose family, but you can choose your hometown), in which case the Summerhill LCBO is not, sweethearts, indicative of the norm in Toronto, so you must proceed directly to Dundas and Ossington (I know it’s out of the way, but hey, you live in Rosedale so I’m assuming you can afford the cab fare), where you will purchase vaguely imported wines at extortionate prices, and not cluck your tongue when the chilled wine fridge is broken, as “it’s been that way for months.”

After purchasing your discounted, screw-top white wine (as recommended in NOW MAGAZINE — You’ll want to pick one of those up), you will proceed directly to Trinity Bellwoods Park, where your guest has thoughtfully set up the Fortnum & Mason’s fine china picnic hamper. Watching the sun set over the dog-basin, one views a select population of (mostly) single people and their canine companions eye one another up for potential match.com conversations to be had at a later date. One exits the park, picnic basket in hand, as the sun lies low on the horizon and potential cottagers emerge to score appropriate benches and get up to who-knows-what as young neo-hippies bang bongo drums and caterwaul in the style of Dave Matthews.

Leaving Bellwoods behind with contented sighs, and dozy from cheap wine, slap some sense into yourself with a strong double RedBull, as you’ve got a big night ahead fighting both jet lag AND fighting off the babes as you venture into the gorgeous establishments of Queen West West.

If your trip is anything like my guest’s, you’ll spend about four hours watching me DJ in The Gladstone Hotel, but don’t worry, there will be a constant selection of gorgeousness parading past you to the sweet strains of Shakira’s She Wolf. Making new friends is easy! Just keep drinking! Following potential sexual assaults (Just kidding, they’re hot! You’re hot! And more importantly, you’re on vacation!) making a tipsy weave up the street you try not to touch (“They don’t call it Clean Street,” as the saying goes) you’ll find yourself at The Beaver Cafe, a wicked little local that 9 times out of 10 will be super fucking fun. Go on, have a cupcake. Yes, they are 40 Million calories, but who’s counting? You’ll burn that off making out on the patio, anyway.

A fun little game: go on, pick a bar. No, not the Drake or the Beaconsfield that you’ve read about in your handy handjob tourbook, I mean walk into a bar. We picked a charming new spot that claimed to be called “The Savoy”. Either way it will be a hilarious “Remember when we went to that shit adult-contemporary bar”, or not, right? Spill your drinks and then say you’re from out of town, be offered a DJ residency, try not to barf Jager on the bar and exit laughing in another language. Just a thought.

Fall asleep drunk, but remember to set your travel-alarm — You’ve got touristing to do tomorrow!!

Wake up! You’ve got a busy day ahead, and this one begins on the outskirts of the Village and The Ryerson Ghetto! You’ll be making a stop at the Hassle Free Clinic to top up your STI testing (nobody likes a litterbug on vacay!) followed by a free trip to the Hooker Harvey’s just down the block, as you’re en route to tourism at its finest. Chow down, Lardass! Following your fine dining experience, you’ll make your way to Allen Gardens, which is free to get in and also boasts a diverse collection of field-dwellers and the criminally insane in addition to a fairly well-manicured conservatory. When people ask you if you’re “From Hollywood”, remember that the answer is always “yes”. When they ask you for money, you claim not to have received your royalties. And yes, you are in fact, Christina Aguliera.

Next stop? TTC! Finding yourself in Moss Park, you will be alternately amused and terrified at its goings-on, and react accordingly. As you are not driving, there will be no power-lock pushing as crackheads approach you, so do remember some advice I once received in Parkdale, “Crackheads are like pigeons, if you walk through them with a handful of breadcrumbs (ie money and drugs) in your hand they’ll swarm, but otherwise they’ll just wander aimlessly, pecking at the air.” There, you’ll catch the bus to the Distillery District, mere moments away, and have all memories of hookery whisked away in old tymey fashion by old tymey buildings and Mill Street Organic beer.

As one does, the key to closure on any day in a new city is finding the place to take your “it’s so romantic” pictures in a hazy sunset, so back on the TTC to The Beaches you’ll go, narrowly avoiding being hit by SUV baby buggies, large terriers, and the latte-owners who possess them. Kick the babies off the swingsets and tell them to fuck off over to the jungle gym while you drink coffee South of Woodbine and Queen. You’re not leaving dirty needles behind, so Stay-At-Home-Dad can keep the dirty looks to himself! By this point, a romantical sunset walk is well in order, and you make people barf on the Boardwalk while you’re all “baby I love you” or having a domestic, as the case may be.

Either way, you still look better than that douchebag with the white-people-dreads offering impromptu juggling lessons.

Part Two Coming Soon….

I took my two lovely friends who were visiting me from Wales. I enjoyed a Chicken and Leek Pie with salad and nibbled on one of their whole grain sandwiches with roast chicken, brie and bacon with crispy frites! Tres Bon!

Toronto skyline

I had two goals in mind while attending the 2009 ASAE Annual Meeting in Toronto from August 15-18:

1. learn from and connect with my fellow association professionals
2. explore the beer scene in Toronto!

After checking into the Fairmont Royal York on Saturday, August 15, I walked over to a meeting at the convention center.  On the way, I grabbed a quick lunch at The Loose Moose Tap and Grill where I tried my first Canadian beer of the trip:  Alexander Keith’s IPA (Halifax, Nova Scotia).

Later that evening at the opening reception of the Meeting, I was pleased to find Canadian micros well represented.  I started with a Steam Whistle Pilsner (Toronto, Ontario) and also enjoyed two bottles from Mill Street Brewery (Toronto, Ontario): Original Organic (pilsner) and Tankhouse Ale (pale ale).

My primary destination on this trip was a brewpub I had visited on my last two trips to Toronto in 1998 and 2000, C’est What? I made this cozy basement brewpub my last stop of the night on Saturday.  C’est What? is one of my favorite brewpubs because not only do they have an excellent selection of high quality house beers, but they also have a wide selection of guest microbrews.  Unfortunately, they don’t offer a sampler rack, but they do serve half-pints and I had three:

• Al’s Cask Ale, a west-coast style pale ale from C’est What?
• Hazelnut Chocolate Ale, a delicious dark ale from C’est What?
• Hop Head, an IPA from Durham Brewery in Pickering, Ontario

I wish I had more time to spend at C’est What? because the beer selection is sooo good.  Check the menu to see for yourself.  I still regret not finding time for a return visit to C’est What? on this trip.

Mill St Tent at Food and Wine Classic

On Sunday, August 16, I attended a reception and dinner at the Mill Street Brewpub in the historic Distillery District of Toronto.  I liked the bottles of Mill Street brew that I had at the reception the night before, and I enjoyed the brewery’s draft beers even better.  I sampled:

• Belgian Wit
• IPA
• Lemon Tea Ale
• Belgian Peche (Belgian style peach wheat )

The Lemon Tea Ale was one of the most interesting beers that I’ve ever had.  It tastes just as the name implies, like lemon tea.  And it was awesome!  I could have easily downed several of these — very smooth and drinkable.  I’ll be visiting Mill Street Brewpub again the next time I’m in Toronto.

The 2009 ASAE Annual Meeting’s Food and Wine Classic was on Monday night, August 18.  This is a really fun event with great food, drink, and music.  Don’t let the name fool you – they served excellent beer in addition to the wine.  The event was essentially a street party that spanned the entire Distillery District.  Of course I found my way to the Mill Street Brewpub where I drank one of their beers I hadn’t tried yet, Balzac’s Coffee Porter.  I mostly enjoyed the Mill Street Wit and hoppy Tankhouse Ale on this fine evening.

Despite visiting two brewpubs and sampling about a dozen beers, I left Toronto feeling like I didn’t maximize my opportunity, as there were two other brewpubs on my list that I didn’t get to.  The upside: I already have a return trip planned for September 2010.

I’ll end this post with a shout out to all of my ASAE friends who I raised a pint glass with on this trip — Todd, Kerri, Karen, Tina, Leonard, Frank, Eric, Luke, and Scott.  See you in LA in August 2010!

It’s an exciting trip for me – a conference that I am thrilled about attending in addition to receiving a wonderful honour (thanks to my team at work for that one!) and I am having a tour and dinner at Stone Brewery tonight!  Stone are the people behind I am a Craft Brewer (I maintain it’s the most inspirational 4 minutes on the Internet for beer fiends and some foodies), Vertical Epic (the beer you collect for 11 years before drinking in a single night) and Stone World Bistro & Gardens.  They are consistently named as one of the best (if not the best) brewers in the world and certainly in North America.

In short, these guys are the superheroes of beer.

I offered to take a few samples of Canadian craft brews to them without thinking.  Once I realized that opening my mouth to offer a taste of our local product to some of the best in the world I realized the enormity of the task.  I also struggled with the 100ml limit of liquids in your baggage.  A few phone calls confirmed it was worth a shot and I packed with a lot of garbage bags – Im thrilled that all 8 made it in tact!

Here is what I brought – picked on interest as much as anything else:

 Neustadt Springs 10W30 Malty Grain Premium Dark Ale 473 ml can.  5.5%
Possibly the ugliest website in the world (even “better” with sound): http://www.neustadtsprings.com/
Claim to be the oldest brewery “building” in Canada.  This beer is based on engine oil.  The draft handle (which was rarely in pubs/bars) was shaped like an oil can for a long time.  Big flavour and dark as sin.

 Great Lakes Brewery Devil’s Pale Ale – 666 – 473 ml can.  6%
www.greatlakesbrewing.com
They seemed to put every 6 they could in this one.  6 malts. 666 kilograms of malt.  6.66 kilos of hops.  66.6 minutes of boiling.  You get the idea.  They also claim they came up with the idea on June 6, 2006.  So it’s my shoutout to the Vertical Epic…

 St Ambroise Vintage Ale 2009 – 20^th Anniversary Edition – 341 ml bottle.  9.8%
http://www.mcauslan.com/
From Quebec (the French region of Canada) this is a special batch of their Vintageline which they package once per year.  This can be cellared or drank immediately.  Should age well.

 The rest come from a single brewery – Mill Street Brewery out of Toronto. 
I think you’d get along with these guys – the brew master knows I was bringing these to you and I’ll pass on his contact if you’d like.  They have a public brewery in a fantastic area of Toronto and a decent pub to match with it.  Canadian Brewer of the year in 2007 and 2008 and multiple winners for their beers…  Mill Street is in the heart of Toronto in 150+ year old brownstone district of Toronto.
www.millstreetbrewery.com

Tankhouse Ale – 341 ml bottle.  5.2%
Peoples Choice Winner 2009 Ontario Brewing Awards
Gold Canadian Brewery Awards – North America Style Pale Ale or Bitter 

Belgian Wit – 341 ml bottle (2 of them).  5%
Gold Medal 2009 Ontario Brewing Awards.

Coffee Porter – 341 ml bottle (2 of them).  5.5%
Gold Canadian Brewery Awards – Porter.
Proof that beer is a breakfast food again.

Jane once again refrained from participating in the review. My new theory is that there were too many boys in the house for her to concentrate.

What they say:

Mill St Belgian style Wit is a refreshing beer made with a unique blend of ingredients. The soft texture and pale colour comes from the use of wheat. Coriander, orange peel and our special yeast produce the complexity and depth of fruity flavours contained within the glass. This beer is unfiltered. The resulting cloudiness gave rise to the term Wit, or White beer.

Insert WITty caption here. Get it? Wit... so punny.

To me the best thing about this beer is they are taking a style of beer you are familiar with and making their own unique version. Most of the Canadian white beers that I have tried are trying pretty hard to taste like Hoegaarden.  Take that Alexander Keiths and your mediocre white beer. Love the bottle as well.

Our Take:

SW – Stronger flavour than white beers usually have. More corriander maybe?

KT – I like white beer more than ales. *BURP*

SW – Oh jeez… here we go again

KT – It definitely has it’s own taste as far as Canadian micro beers go.

Nelu – It has a fruity tone. I would pair it with Morocan food.  It’s got a sharp taste though.

SW – First taste is a big surprise. You are expecting it to be lighter in flavour. Not expecting this much aftertaste.

Nelu – It’s like a sucker glove slap.

SW – A glove slap in a little old face will get you sa-tis-fact-ion. Glove Slap! Ba-a-beee, Glove Slap! (Simpsons song to the tune of Love Shack)

KT – By a good looking woman that you want to be slapped by.

SW – Why would you want that?

Nelu – Why is it called Wit? Does it sharpen your wits?

SW – You get used to the flavour as you drink more. It’s very unique but it keeps getting better.

Our Scores:

KT – A-     SW – A-     Nelu – Starts as a B+ ends as an A

Drink Again?

Absolutely.

Update: It was brought to my attention  about 100 times last night over wings and Labatt 50 that Nelu feels she sang the glove slap song and that my version of the commentary somehow didn’t capture her real life hilarity. I will give credit to her singing the song earlier in the day while I was glove slapping her with ninja like stealth and accuracy. “I demand satisfaction!”

As with most of our adventures… the ‘sober’ truth may never be revealed. Thank you beer.

Mill Street brewer Adam Rader looks into a kettle as it drains.

By Matthew Mitchell

I walk into the distillery district in downtown Toronto, looking for one worn looking brick building among many. I take the first left past the area’s Mill Street entrance, down an alley a sign calls Tank House Lane, looking for the place named after Mill Street. It’s not far down. The Mill Street brew pub has a bright red sign out front. I walk in the entrance and the man I’m there to meet—Joel Manning, Mill Street’s brewmaster—is standing there, shaking hands with someone else. He sees me and we walk in to have a drink.

The brew pub looks like you would expect of a distillery district building. The exterior is like every other building in the district—worn red bricks. The interior takes that old industrial feel and makes it trendy. Frosted glass backboards on the booths advertise Mill Street’s beers. The rafters look ancient and sturdy, though just this side of splintering. A Roman numeral clock with the words “Union Station” on it hangs above the bar. Steam rises from behind Manning as we take our table. Behind him, walled in with glass, are huge metal tanks, in a room where the beer is made. It’s that little room I’m here to see.

After sampling some of Mill Street`s liquid wares, he took me into the brewery, a big room that feels tiny. The metal tanks take up most of it.

Manning introduces me to Adam Rader, one of Mill Street’s brewers. I ask him to show me around.

“There’s not much to show around,” he said. “What you see is what you get.”

He points out the one big copper vat to my left, called a lauter, and tells me it is for separating the ingredients from the liquid in the wort—the beer-before-it-has-become-beer. The big steaming silver coloured tank next to it had a much less exotic name. It is a kettle. Rader has to break off the interview at one point to go check the kettle as it drains, sending the beer into a fermenter—another metal tank, the shape of which reminds me vaguely of an atomic bomb. They hold 1700 litres of beer a piece, and there are several of them.

The floor of the brewery itself is covered in water. I amaze myself at not slipping after drinking beer, but keep my amazement to myself. Rader says they use around eight bottles of water for every bottle of beer they make, and the liquid seeping across the floor speaks to that.

The brewery at the pub isn’t grand, but it has a certain charm, especially as it is plunk in the middle of a pleasantly faux-industrial restaurant.

If you want grand, you need to go to Mill Street’s Scarborough plant.

The heavily industrial east Toronto brewery loses much of the charm, but it can. It isn’t normally open to the public, but Manning was kind enough to give me a tour.
The big metal vat and big silver kettles are there, too, but they dwarf me. The ones at the brewpub had a couple of metal steps up to them—the ones in Scarborough have scaffolding. Climbing it means you are at least a story up.

Mill Street brewmaster Joel Manning at the Scarborough brewery.

Even bigger are the fermenters. Manning tells me each of them holds 12, 000 litres of beer.

“There’s almost 300, 000 litres of beer in this room,” he says casually.

I worked it out later. A potential 879, 000 bottles of beer were sitting in those massive tanks.

Not that fermenting beer is quite ready to drink. The beer has to keep sitting in a tank until it is ready to be filtered, and, of course, bottled. Manning led me over to the bottling area, which would be an inquisitive five-year-old’s dreamland.

The sheer mechanization of the place, the movement of bottles, the big machine that automatically put cases in a pile which Manning calls it his favourite in the plant, the need to duck under the bottling line to make your way through the room—all of it puts me in touch with my inner child, the one that constantly blurts out the word “Neat!”

The part of me that hangs my head and goes “Aw, nuts,” came out towards one end of the room, near the pasteurizing machine. Two workers were pouring beer down the drain. Manning explained that any bottle that is under filled—even by just a few millilitres—cannot be sold, and has to be poured out.

“This is the part that students don’t like,” Manning said.

After that, Manning shows me the lab—yes, they have a lab. It’s small, but the brewery has a full fledged quality control laboratory nestled away near the lauter and kettle. And, after that, Manning and I go to the front part, just an office, to talk, and then, after thanking Mill Street’s kind brewmaster, I’m out the door.

Want to take a tour of Mill Street yourself? The brewpub is in Toronto’s distillery district near King Street East and Parliament Street. According to Mill Street Retail Store manager Jack Krasowski, there’s a tour of the little brewery everyday at 3 p.m., led by either Rader, the brewer, or Krasowski himself. If you like what you see, you can buy a jug of some of Mill Street’s less widely available beer in a two-litre glass growler. The jug says growler beer, but don’t be fooled.

“Growlers are a way of taking draft home,” Krasowski said. “A long, long time ago, people would carry buckets of beer home from their favourite pub, and with the gas escaping, they would growl through the lid.”

That shot you see up there is of a weird fog bank rolling (very slowly) off of Lake Ontario, in the middle of a bright, warm, sunny day. You can see that it’s virtually covered the Toronto Islands. It stretches to the east up to the Scarborough bluffs; not sure how far westward down the lake it goes. Weird.

Anyway, it’s been another sweet day. I got a lot done this morning while Nellie slept. Hunger finally got the best of us and we tried a new neighbourhood place for the lunch: That Corner Spot at Front & Jarvis. It’s the fourth or fifth tenant in that location since we moved in, but we really hope it sticks. They have good beer (Amsterdam, Mill Street, KLB and others), good food (my veggie burger was excellent, Nellie’s breakfast was good and and they even got her eggs right…that never happens), good ingredients (everything’s purchased from St. Lawrence Market across the street) and good music (I heard Mogwai, The New Pornographers and Death Cab For Cutie among others). Oh, and a large sunny patio ideal for either people-watching or people-ignoring.

[UPDATE: we just heard a foghorn. That doesn't happen on many days when there's a blue sky.]