Brand Introductions

One of the truly amazing things about opening a small brewery is how little these early stages have to do with beer! Over the past several weeks, I have cut trenches in 60 year old concrete (8 inches thick with wire mesh, if you must know), I have built a cold room, framed our retail area received shipment of spectacular kettles and fermentation tanks, all while continuing the licensing process. Pretty crazy.

But the beer, you ask? What of the beer?

Well, I have been working on a few core recipes over the past few years, with a big push to refine them for you over the past several months/weeks. When we open in the coming weeks, we will be leading with our two core brands. They are:

North Shore Blonde Ale - 24 IBU's 5% ABV
In the marketing copy we have described this ale as being "a sophisticated take on a Canadian Classic, at home on the dock or the dinner table". In truth, it is a high quality take on a very simple concept. It is light in colour, subtly impacted with Canadian Cascade hops and cold crashed to ensure a crisp and clear finish. If you are a casual beer drinker who chooses something simple, light in colour and crisp in texture, this beer is for you.

Cliff Top Pale Ale - 35 IBU's 6% ABV
Not a word of a lie, I am drinking one of these while I write this. We evolved Cliff Top in the proud heritage of West Coast American Pale Ales. It has a great golden colour and boasts a strong but not overwhelming hop forward finish. If you are a craft beer lover who wants quality in every sip, this is your choice.

As we head into the spring, we will also be introducing our first round of seasonals...and I am so glad that our first season is Spring. Watch for:

Red Sky Ale - 35 IBU's 5.5% ABV
An American Amber Ale which boasts a really cool balance of caramel and raisin with crisp citrus notes, we utilize a home made confectioners syrup and Chinook hops. This is a great one for spring afternoons outside.

Spring Saison - 27 IBU's 7% ABV
The William Street crew loves Belgian beers, especially Saisons. This will be our first opportunity to share this passion with you and we can't wait. Made with a complex blend of Canadian malts, hops and local Northumberland honey, this is a fantastic opening fanfare to patio weather!

White Sail Wheat - 30 IBU's 5% ABV
Our take on an American Hefeweizen, White Sail has the cloudy bitterness that makes a wheat beer so refreshing. We use Canadian Wheat Malt, Hallertau hops and we add a healthy dose of fresh orange zest to add an element of cirtrusy sweetness. Now that's a beer for early summer!

So...who's thirsty?

The William Street Beer Co. - Update

I always roll my eyes a little bit when a blog entry starts with; "I know it's been a while since my last post, but I've been CRAZY BUSY!" However, here we are...I think that everyone has been patient long enough and deserve a bit of info. So, what's new on William Street? Well, where should I begin?

I guess we'll start with our work on the old service station at 412 William Street. The plumbers finished up their efforts this past week having installed the sinks and floor drain. We have started to assemble the cold room (home to our new Brite Tanks) and from there it's all about paint, trim and finishes. I am hopeful that the retail area can be suitable for guests within the next two weeks or so.

Our licensing process is proceeding as expected as well. Our next step is the CRA site visit, which has been scheduled for the near future. The AGCO has all of the required elements, everything looks great and I am holding high hopes that we can hold to our March 1st opening date.

Perhaps most exciting is the arrival of our brewhouse equipment on Friday. We purchased our 3bbl brewing system from Stout Tanks and Kettles of Portland Oregon and they were kind enough to crate it up beautifully and toss it on a truck bound for the East. Unfortunately, the weather necessitated a hasty retreat and I didn't get a chance to fully open a single crate. All I managed was to pop the top and get a peak at our new Brew Kettle...pretty sweet.

So what's next? The good news is that I can stop thinking so much about the building and I can start focusing on the more important things...put first things first, if you will. I have been putting the final tweaks onto our core brands and I could NOT be more excited to share them with you all. Maybe I will go into more detail on that later. In the mean time, I have some brewing to attend to.

Who's thirsty?

2013 - A Brewery is Born

In 2013, I founded a brewing company. Wow.

As is customary in the waning days of the year, we have been taking some time to reflect on the progress which has been made in the development of The William Street Beer Co.

The decision was made to move forward with the brewery project in the early part of the year. As I continued to slog away in my day job, selling commercial fitness equipment, I went into the project full steam ahead scouting potential locations and crafting a business plan.

In the summer, we stumbled upon our little service station at 412 William Street. It's certainly not spacious nor is it overly gracious. However, it is a central, high traffic location in a fabulous community. Through a series of hurdles and struggles, we managed to come to an agreement with the property owner and, as of December 1st, we gained possession of the site.

The process of becoming a licensed brewery is a bit of a long one. However, we have been blessed thus far to have great support from all levels of government in it looks like we are on track.

In October, I retired from selling treadmills in order to apply myself to William Street Beer full time. During this period I have also been continuing to refine the recipes for our core brands. Cliff Top Pale Ale seems to be the fan favourite at this point, with North Shore Blonde and Red Sky Ale also getting good reviews. This holiday season I have also been focusing on our Robust Vanilla Porter and Cranberry Saison.

As we celebrate the New Year this week, we are tremendously thankful for the progress which we have made thus far and we are completely stoked about the next stages. January will be a huge month for William Street. Our brewing equipment is being delivered mid month and it will be a crazy two weeks getting the brewery ready for that. Mark my words, by the end of January 2014 we will have a brewery taking shape at William Street in Cobourg.

Thank you all again for your interest and your support. The William Street Beer Company is excited to serve you delicious craft beer in 2014.

Happy New Year!

Sean, Karen and the entire William Street Beer Co. family

Stainless Steel Fantasies Realized

Alright, it's probably not quite as weird as you might think...or maybe it is. I can't really tell anymore.

Regardless, I could not be more excited for the opportunity to make beer on a larger scale in Cobourg's new craft brewery. In order to facilitate that process I have enlisted the help of Stout Tanks and Kettles of Portland, Oregon. Stout is doing more to make professional brewing equipment available to small scale brewers than anyone else in North America. Thank you to John and his team out on the west coast.

So...that brings me to the brewing operation at 412 William Street. We have selected a 3 bbl brewhouse which will net us approximately 90 gallons of beer from each production cycle. In addition to the three brewing vessels, we are also receiving two conical fermentors and two beer brite tanks. The latter of these will be roomed in our onsite cold room for secondary fermentation, conditioning and carbonation.

Deposits have been submitted and we are awaiting confirmation of delivery. The projected timeline has the truck landing mid January, which suits our purposes beautifully. That gives us 5 weeks to get the building prepped and ready without having to work around the vessels.

I will keep you all posted as we progress.

To build it...

Brewhouse...Before

Well, December 1st has come and gone and we now are officially into our brewery location at 412 William Street (at University) in beautiful Cobourg. In fact, we had our first semi-casual investors meeting on site this past Sunday afternoon and there was one completely overwhelming shared sense...Wow. There is a shit load of work to do.

The good news, however, is that we are full of positive enthusiasm and we are completely stoked to make this dream a reality. Unfortunately, before we can start producing Cobourg's own delicious small batch brewed craft beer, there are some minor tasks which need to be completed around the brewery. These include (but are not limited to):

• evaluating the state of current drains and upgrading
• installing electrical for brewhouse controls
• framing and finishing retail area
• building the retail bar/counter and draft system
• pickup and install walk in/ reach in cooler
• improve bathroom
• line parking lot
• design/order signage
• receive and install brewhouse and fermentation equipment
• assemble and install brewhouse controls
• Order and organize ingredients and packaging materials
• Engineer an electric barley mill

This is what's on the top of my head right now. All of this whilst doing everything that I can to facilitate the licensing processes. Wow, it's a lot.

Thank you again for all of your support and I look forward to you visiting The William Street Beer Company. If you haven't already, like our Facebook page HERE for more frequent updates.

Cheers!

Home Sweet Home - Update!

As you know, we have come to an agreement for the location of our brewery. We are proud to be brewing and bottling (and kegging) high quality, small batch craft beer at 412 William Street, right at the NE corner of University. This detail being finalized has put us into motion in a crazy way. This week I have been finalizing insurance policies, updating government licensing applications and trying to figure out how to pay for all of this. But seriously, check out the building. We're gong to make beer in an old service station. How cool is that? So, where are we at?

Well, now that we have an address, (and BTW - a big thank you to the team at the Cobourg Postal Station for securing our bond!) we are able to move some things forward from a Federal, Provincial and Municipal Licensing perspective. No matter how you slice it, that will be the final detail. Cross your fingers and pray that the CRA is on our side!

The order is in for our stainless steel brewing equipment and we are hoping that it will land before the year is out. Big thanks to John at Stout Kettles for his help and patience!

We will be in and working on the space in the days to come. There are drains to be cut, wiring to be moved and a bathroom that needs some big help, but I'm confident that the build will go very quickly. Once the kettles arrive, we will be ready for inspections in a matter of weeks.

If you're in the area, you will see my truck in the lot in the days to come as I start throwing myself into the renovation. Beer will be a couple of months away, but I would be happy to say hello if you're so inclined.

Oh, We also felt it crucial that we get a little festive element onto the building, even if we don't have the keys yet.

Have a great Sunday, Go Ti-Cats!!!

Welcome to The William Street Beer Company!

It is with great pleasure that I announce that The William Street Beer Company will be brewing high quality Craft Beer in the Town of Cobourg at our new brewing facility at 412 William Street.

As many of you may know, this announcement represents a full circle resolution to a lengthy process. This was in fact our first choice, so we are well prepared to hit the ground running on the renovation and equipping of this great building.

I have a load of other news, and I will sit down to share it all with you shortly.

Cheers!