A biased peek under the Nickel Brook hood...

Every beer you make, every hop you flake, every
thirst you slake, I will bring you cake... Nickel
Brook owner John Romano (background) keeps
a watchful (stalking) eye on Brewmaster Ryan
on his November 4th birthday two weeks ago. 

As Beer Musketeer Glenn is fond of telling me (repeatedly when he's had a few high-test IPA wobblies), I am absolutely spoiled rotten by having an outstanding craft brewer just five minutes away from Donny's Bar and Grill. That would, of course, be Nickel Brook Brewing.

I am not alone. Beer Musketeers Cat and Stevil St Evil are in similar proximity to, respectively, Toronto's Amsterdam Brewing and Wellington, New Zealand's Garage Project (that brewery, run out of a former gas station, has some of the coolest labels I've ever seen!) Only Glenn is stranded in the Craft Brewery No-Flight Zone... but according to everything we've read, he has several coming within a year or two so fingers crossed.

But it's more than just their outstanding beer that makes Nickel Brook aces in my books. I know most of the 30 employees by their first names (they all seem to know me which is something because I'm painfully shy.. *looks around*... heheheh, they totally bought that. Suckers.) But there are tons of little things that makes this craft brewery a shiny diamond in the Burlington rough - rough being a subjective term. We're kind of a comfortable suburban enclave here. So let's take a peek under the Nickel Brook hood, shall we??? And as it is with most businesses, brewery or otherwise, it all flows down from the top.

Under the initiative of Nickel Brook's favourite son, Tony
Cox, specialty food trucks will now be at Nickel Brook
every Saturday. This past Saturday, it was Gorilla Cheese
which was sold out by 3:15 pm, according to Tony...

Owner John Romano, who created the brewery with his brother, Peter, back in 2005, is one of the friendliest, most genial dudes around. I can ask him any question about his business or the industry at large and he will always answer in the most honest way possible. He is a walking, talking No Bull Zone. When he first heard I wrote a beer blog late last year, he went into a back room and came back, holding a bottle of Old Kentucky Bastard Imperial Stout (their Bolshevik Bastard Imperial Stout aged for a year in a Kentucky bourbon barrel). Handing it to me, he said simply, "Blog this." I did - one of the best stouts I've ever had and I have had many - it blew the doors clean off Donny's Bar and Grill. Old Kentucky will be back in circulation in December (because it takes a year to age) and both Cat and Glenn are getting one. Even though they have brought me many, many fine brews over the past year, I believe they will consider this particular beer payment in full. Recently, Nickel Brook changed their logo and John, seeing me fill my growlers one day, said, "What's your shirt size?" I said I was a large and he tossed me a T-shirt, saying with a smile, "Here you go!" Believe me, I wear it often... though mostly because I have no issue wearing dirty laundry. Why did the sperm cross the road? Because I put on the wrong sock...

My main man, Tony, stands behind a skid full of cases
of Bolshevik Bastard Imperial Stout slated for the LCBO

From John, let's look at one of his faithful employees, Tony. Now, of course, as a parent, I know you're never supposed to say who your favoured child is... but Tony is absolutely my favourite Nickel Brook employee, Of course, I keep that to myself. Oh, shit... I just typed that out loud, didn't I? People who think I'm obsessed with Batman, please meet Tony. The word in the industry is that Tony once asked his girlfriend who would win in a fight - Batman or Superman? When she correctly answered Batman, he proposed and they remain happily married to this day. (I've actually met his wife - she's very sweet.) But when I showed up one day for a growler refill with my boy, Tony found out it was David's birthday and gave us the Nickel (Brook) Tour. David loved all the shiny equipment which Tony happily and patiently explained to him. Tony's family lives in Saskatoon and as a collective has decided to hold Christmas In July. Why? "Have you ever been in Saskatoon in December?" he smiled. Hint: It's cold. Like Siberia cold. When he returned last Summer, he told me about his visit to Paddock Wood Brewing, the city's best-known craft brewer who greeted him with that typical Canadian West warmth. And yes, they know Nickel Brook very well there, he noted with no small amount of pride.

Give a man a tractor, he'll either plow the fields or use it
to snow-plow their own lot. Yes, Nickel Brook Brewing,
miles from farm country, has a snow-plowing tractor...
Here, Dale fires up that bad boy, waiting for the snow.

But one of Tony's strengths is that he goes that extra step. When someone gifted him a couple of tiny, spindly-looking hop plants, he planted them both - they were like little Baby Groots - and guy-wired them to the brewery roof. Each week when I came for growler refills (once, twice... three times... don't judge!), I checked them out. Each week, they grew another foot. By the end, the hops were huge and the vines had reached the roof. It was a fun Botany project for Tony, little more, but I checked them religiously every week (or yeah, smaller time increments - shut up!) Tony has since stepped it up, deciding (with John's blessing) that specialty food trucks - a staple at every craft beer festival I've attended - that should grace Nickel Brook's parking lot now that it's off-season. So every Saturday, one finds its way to the Nickel Brook parking lot. First up on November 1 was Jonny Blonde with its fire-grilled meats and specialty sauces. I promised I would be there but on Halloween night, well, I partied until 5:30 a.m. and missed it. How did it go? The truck was there from 11 am to 4 pm but, well, he ran out of food before 3 pm. The owner, Jonny Blonde himself, told Tony, "Thank you so much. You just paid my rent!" I was there on Saturday for Gorilla Cheese, which makes anything but ordinary grilled cheese sandwiches (sold out by 3:15 pm) and this Saturday (November 22) will be Frankie Fettuccine, the Oakville-based Italian food specialty truck. This is all Tony. It's off-season for food trucks. Tony decided there was no off-season and man, these trucks at Nickel Brook are bringing them in like it's a Pearl Jam concert. He's a clever one, that Tony... though well, I mentioned the Batman thing, right?

Within a couple of weeks, I will be able to
buy more Old Kentucky Bastard Imperial
Stout after its annual bottling is complete. 

That brings me to wise-cracking dude, Dale. Now, I'm not sure what Dale's position is there. He's a little older than the young employees running amuck in the place like it's an Adult Day Care so if I had to guess, I'd say he's probably a de facto manager in John's absence. But he's also a funny mofo. I took my two Nickel Brook and one Cameron's Brewing growlers in for a Headstock IPA fix one day. Holding my Cameron's growler high above his head, he joked, "What? Traitor! I can't fill this!!!" John, tucked off to the side, quipped, "It's our product. If he brings in an old boot, we'll take his cash!" But Dale remained undeterred, insisting the 'slight' be addressed. Finding a blank spot between the writing on both sides of the Cameron's growler, he carefully placed a round Nickel Brook sticker there and proclaimed, "Okay, now I can fill it! We have ownership of it now." But he's also super-knowledgeable about their beers. When he sold me a couple of Old Kentucky Bastard Imperial Stouts last year, he suggested, "Buy some extras and keep them in the basement. They get better with age." When I told him I lived in a two-storey apartment and thus had no basement, he looked at me quizzically and said, "Where do you keep the dead bodies, then? In some cheesy storage space? That's just wrong, man!"

Nickel Brook's funky new logo adorns my funky new T-Shirt...

When Nickel Brook recently brought in their own tractor to plow their own snow in their parking lot this Winter, I helped Dale chain the blade a foot off the ground. Looking on from the sidelines (as he does - dude's a freakin' ninja), owner John cracked, "I bet Beau's (All-Natural Brewing) doesn't even have their own tractor!" Beau's, of course, operates out of the tiny Northern Ontario farming community of Vankleek Hill and their best-seller, Lug-Tread Lagered Ale is actually named after the indentations left behind in the mud by a tractor's wheels. And for the sake of research, I'll Twitter them to ask but yeah, I bet they don't own a tractor. I know I don't.

So long story short... Glenn is right. I am totally spoiled. Not only does my craft brewer make excellent beers, its employees actually make you feel like, well, part of the family - its crazy, dysfunctional, insane but well-meaning family. Back to beer in a few days. But guys and dolls, that's it, that's all and I am outta here!!! Until next time, I remain...