From Plant to Pint: William Street Beer Goes Local!

William Street Beer Co. has always worked very hard to focus on local ingredients whenever possible and to partner with other fabulous local business operators. In that spirit, we are very excited to announce that we have recently signed a mutually beneficial exclusivity agreement with Valley Hops with the intent of utilizing only Northumberland grown hops in our core brands by the end of 2016.

Hops are the product of a flowering vine that are used in brewing as a flavouring and stabilizing agent. Most Ontario Brewers secure their hops in a pelletized format through multinational distributors. The worlds most prolific hop growing regions are in Germany, the UK, the Czech Republic, New Zealand and the US Pacific Northwest. However, Northumberland County provides great conditions for a number of exciting hop varieties.

Some of you may have had the opportunity to try our Harvest Ale, which was brewed with Brandon Bickle of Valley Hops using only freshly harvested wet Cascade cones from the Valley Hops farm North of Port Hope. That simple ale was one of our most highly lauded successes for one reason. We used fresh ingredients from our own backyard, grown with the utmost of care by experienced farmers. Their attention to detail is astonishing.

We are looking forward to offering that same farm fresh, local flavour twelve months a year in all of our core brands and, as our operation grows in scale, offering that same fresh flavour to beer lovers all over Ontario.

There are more 2016 announcements to come, but this is one of the most exciting.

Happy New Year!

Sean

Sean and Brandon brewing with Locally Grown Cascade Hops in early September 2015

William Street Beer Company's First Anniversary Frenzy

In the early days of April, 2014 we fired our brewhouse at 412 William Street for the first time. This milestone was a euphoric culmination of over a year of planning and dedicated effort. On April 26th, 2014 we quietly lit the "Open" sign and waited with uncertainty to see what might happen.

Over twelve months later, we are excited to invite all of our valued customers, neighbours and friends to join us for a celebration of how far we have come in one year. From 10am to 5pm on Saturday, May 9th we will be welcoming all comers for live local music, BBQ and beer sampling. Please keep an eye on our Facebook Event Page for details, musician profiles and schedules.

Our excellent friends at 92 King will be joining us to man the grill and to feature a spectacular BBQ sauce featuring Cliff Top Pale Ale as a primary ingredient. Big thanks to Drew and his team!

But what of the beer?

This weekend will be a very exciting one for beer on William Street. We will be featuring three diverse ales, with wildly different traits, all intended to celebrate the occasion and the season.


North Shore Blonde Ale - 5% ABV, 21 IBU's , 4.5 SRM
The first beer brewed at 412 William Street, this North American style Blonde has been a favourite of many since it was first introduced. It has been on hiatus since the fall, but we thought it appropriate to come full circle and feature it again for the anniversary. Light in both colour and texture, it is still bursting with flavour. If you tried it last year, you will be amazed by how far we've come!







White Sail Wheat - 5% ABV, 24 IBU's, 4.2 SRM
William Street Beer's North American Hefeweizen was the beer that defined the summer of 2014 and we are ecstatic to reintroduce it for this special weekend. Canadian barley and wheat malts are blended in a classic European style to produce a refreshing beer for summer. We anticipate that our racy mermaid is going to have another big year.







Dutch Rudder - 7.6% ABV, 25 IBU's, 23.3 SRM
Our first attempt at a barrel aged beer had to be a Traditional Bock. Brewed in the depths of our very cold winter, this lager style beer has been resting comfortably in Jim Beam bourbon barrels waiting for spring. Storing beer in oak is an exciting adventure into the unknown and we are excited to welcome Spring in a way that honours such a wonderful brewing tradition.
Supply of Dutch Rudder is very limited, so please try to get out on Saturday to grab a bottle. It's worth it





Thank you all for your wonderful support in year one of our brewing operations serving Cobourg, Port Hope and surrounding communities. We've had the opportunity to make countless wonderful friends and we are honoured every day to be a part of your downtime. Thank you for allowing William Street Beer into your fridges.

William Street Product Updates!

Since we last posted here, there have been a great many fabulous events around The William Street Beer Company and it is about time that we got everyone up to speed. Over the last week, we have released two new beers to great response and we are excited to give you some more details.



Willy's Best Bitter - 4% ABV     32.5 IBU's     7.1 SRM

Hop Varieties: Fuggles, East Kent Goldings
Malt Varieties: William Street 2-Row Pale Blend, Caramel 60
Yeast: Top Fermenting Ale

As a response to popular request, we created a Mild English Pale Ale to please the casual beer drinker. Although mild, it balances a wonderful malty sweetness with the distinctive UK Hop Varietals. With it's bright golden colour and light texture, it is bound to be a hit with beer drinkers from both sides of the pond.




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Chocolate Cherry Stout - 6.5% ABV   16 IBU's     49.5 SRM

Hop Varieties: Cascade
Malt Varieties: William Street 2-Row Pale Blend, Wheat Malt, Roasted Barley, Chocolate Malt, Flaked Wheat
Yeast: Top Fermenting Ale
Special Ingredients: Dark Chocolate, Black Sweet Cherries


Fact: Brewing beer with real bakers chocolate is a messy ordeal with a multitude of inherent risks.
Fact: Great risks provide great rewards.

As Cobourg, Port Hope and the surrounding areas dig out of a huge snow accumulation amidst stifling cold, we wanted to create something festive and warming. Valentine's Day proved to be a great excuse and an even better inspiration. Our Chocolate Cherry Stout combines all of the indulgence of hand crafted confections with the proud winter tradition of a robust stout ale. It pours black with a rich and inviting chocolaty brown head. The nose references both cherry and cocoa and the bitterness of dark chocolate combines beautifully with subtle hop character.

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We absolutely love imagining, developing and presenting these ales for you and your smiles are our greatest reward. Both of these beers will be available for sampling and purchase this week at 412 William Street, amongst the return of our core brands.

In addition, we are excited to be preparing an announcement regarding our packaging format going forward into Spring. Details will follow soon!

Cheers!

Sean

Saturday Advent Series Week #3 - William Street Cranberry Saison

At the William Street Beer Co., we LOVE Belgian beers...particularly Saisons. We could not be more excited to introduce you to our first seasonal Saison, and it's a great one.

Traditionally, Saisons were brewed by farmers in cooler months and cellared for the upcoming season of fieldwork. In fact, farm workers were entitled by law to receive up to 5 quarts of saison per day to help them beat the late summer heat. The style has a very broad definition, but all boast an exciting bouquet of floral and spicy esters from the unique yeast strain.

The William Street Cranberry Saison weighs in a 8% Alc/Vol and is inspired by the holiday season in which it's released. It is built on a foundation of Canadian Pilsner Malt and Wheat Malt, with the addition of Canadian Amber Honey, it is beautifully fermentable. In the latter stages of the boil, we introduce a host of festive spices.

Once the bulk of Primary Fermentation has completed, we introduce Granny Smith Apple and Ontario Cranberries to summon the experience of a holiday feast in a glass.

William Street Cranberry Saison is available at our brewery store at 412 William Street in Cobourg, in 650ml bottles, while supplies last.

Saturday Advent Series Week 2 - William Street Winter Warmer

It is beginning to look a lot like Christmas on William Street! Our tree is lit and trimmed, we have been busying ourselves with gift baskets and custom orders, and bottling our hearts out. Response to the Robust Vanilla Porter has been great and we are pleased to add our next Saturday Advent beer - William Street Winter Warmer.

Our Winter Warmer (6% Alc/Vol) is a Spiced English Ale, perfect for a cool evening by the fire. It presents black in the glass with a tight tan head and posts a warming spicy nose that instantly conjures gingerbread. The malty sweetness is balanced by a very gentle hop presence and a distinct presence of cinnamon, nutmeg and all-spice.


Like the Robust Vanilla Porter, the Winter Warmer is best served at Cool Cellar Temperature (10-13C/ 50-55F) in a tulip style glass. However, a traditional shaker pint is also suitable.

William Street Winter Warmer is available as of 10am on Saturday, December 13th at our retail store at 412 William St. in Cobourg, in both 650ml bottles and 1.89L growlers.

William Street Beer's Advent Saturday Series is Underway!

The production pipeline has been focused on the festive season for well over a month now and we are counting down to Christmas with a new festive release every weekend! The focus with this series is on very traditional ale styles...each with a holiday twist that adds some local flair to your holiday events.

The first of the series is the Robust Vanilla Porter (6.5% Alc/Vol). The traditional English Style Porter was actually a precurser of the beer that we now call stout. Porters which were marketed in London during the Victorian era were typically billed as "Extra Porter", Double Porter" or "Stout Porter" to identify the intensity and volume of roasted barley malts in the recipe. Therefore, the Porter really is a parent of the Stout in the UK beer family tree.

The William Street Beer Company is ecstatic to announce, after a great many requests, our first dark offering in our Robust Vanilla Porter. It is a sweet and creamy sum of six different malts, English hops and a traditional London Ale yeast. In the latter stages, we add a cluster of full vanilla beans which have been steeped in Premium Kentucky Bourbon Whisky. Yum.

We hope that you enjoy the first in our Christmas Seasonal Ales. The Robust Vanilla Porter is best served at Cool Cellar Temperature (10-13C / 50-55F) in a tulip style glass.

Robust Vanilla Porter is available now at our brewery retail store at 412 William Street in Cobourg while supplies last.

Growler 101 - Your reusable beer conveyance technology explained!

The William Street Beer Co. is ecstatic to announce that our high quality, small batch brewed craft beer is now available in reusable 1.89L glass containers...or growlers. These amber glass jugs allow us to provide you with fresh product at the best possible price. You are only required to pay a one time deposit and, after that, you are only paying for the contents; fresh craft beer. However, there are a few things that you should probably know about growlers and their care.

History
In a pre-prohibition era, when most towns and communities had a brewery or two, and modern packaging was not yet in place, people would travel to the local brewer armed with a container of their choice, often a milk bucket, to purchase a volume of fresh beer. They would take them home for consumption over the following days and would certainly open themselves up to spoilage and contamination. In response, brewers who cared aggressively about customer experience created air tight vessels that would allow for enjoyment over a reasonable time period.

Our Growler
The William Street Beer Co. has selected a 1.89L amber glass jug for our growler program. This is a proven format which ensures product stability. In addition, we "counter fill" our growlers in the same way as our 650ml bottles. This means that each container is purged of air with CO2, to ensure that the beer never comes in contact with harmful environmental factors...namely oxygen.

The contents of a 1.89L Growler is roughly equal to three of our 650ml bottles, or about a standard 6-pack. You will find that this is a very economic way of purchasing craft beer, especially for those who are local and likely to visit with some frequency.

Growler Care
The first thing that you should know, is that a growler is filled with carbonated liquid and contents are under reasonable pressure. Under normal conditions, this is a great thing that ensures correct draught style carbonation in your glass. However, care should be taken to avoid dramatic temperature changes (ie. being left in a hot car under direct sunlight) as this can result in increased internal pressure.

The most frequent question we get about growlers is regarding shelf life. As a rule, they should be opened within 72 hours to ensure product freshness. Once opened, be sure to reseal immediately after pouring. If you do this, contents should remain fresh, delicious and carbonated for over 48hrs.

Once every delicious drop has been consumed, it's time to clean your growler. Please avoid all household detergents, especially dishwashing liquids. Do not put the growler in the dishwasher. All that we would ask you to do is rinse twice with hot water, drain in your drying rack and then store with the lid off until returned. We will ensure that the vessel is "beer clean" before it gets refilled.

How Does the Program Work?
There are two separate items involved when you purchase a growler from the William Street Beer Co. Firstly, there is a deposit on the vessel. This is paid only once and it can be returned for value at any time. Secondly, there is a fill value for the beer. This will vary based on beer style. Once you have paid your deposit, you will find that the subsequent fills are an amazing value.

If you have any questions, please let us know.

Cheers!