When All or Nothing bought Trafalgar

You just never who you could run into in the parking lot of Oakville's
Hopedale Mall. In my case, it was Eric and Jeff Dornan, the siblings
who own Oshawa's All or Nothing Brewhouse. The pair had just exited
the mall after signing the legal paperwork making them the new owners
of Trafalgar Ales and Meads last Tuesday. The deal was a real shocker.

Eric and Jeff pose with Mike and Nancy Arnold, the
now former owners of Trafalgar Ale and Meads. Mike
is basically a legend in the Canadian craft brewing
game, having started his brewery in August 1993 with
his wife and partner George Hengstman. Since that
time, Trafalgar has won countless awards, including
seven(!) alone at the 2015 Ontario Brewing Awards.

As chance meetings go, they don't come any flukier than this. Last Tuesday, I was on my break from the Beer Store located in Oakville's Hopedale Mall. (Well, actually, it is now technically called South Oakville Mall because a few years ago, Target moved and insisted the whole mall basically be refurbished to suit their needs. For the record, Target lasted a little more than a year. And to this day, no one calls the mall anything but Hopedale. Bite our collective arses, Target.)

But back to the story... I had forgotten my wallet on my desk at home so I had no cash, no debit card, nada.

I also had no driver's licence so thank gawd, I wasn't pulled over. I suppose I could have borrowed a few bucks until the next day but I am not a fan of borrowing money, even $5. Truth to tell, I wasn't even hungry. But I remembered I had some unchecked lottery tickets in my car so I figured, "Hey, maybe one is a $10 winner. You never know." (Yes, you do. No, it's not.) So off I went to the mall. No winners so I started wandering back to the store.

♫ The first time... ever I saw your face... ♫ Okay, that's a little
bit too sing-songy. But folks, this is Eric and Jeff Dornan at their
FIRST EVER beer festival - the inaugural 2014 Burlington
Summer Beer Festival. It was a very soggy Saturday when I met
the guys and enjoyed their All or Nothing Hopfenweisse wheat.

Suddenly I spotted a bright yellow Mini-Cooper adorned with the All or Nothing Brewhouse logo and their familiar cartoon boxer mascot, Cornelius, in his "Put up yer dukes" stance. So I stopped to get a picture of it on my phone. Suddenly, I heard a voice. "Don? Is that you?" It was Eric Dornan, walking towards the car with his brother Jeff. You see, I had met the brothers in July 2014 at the inaugural Burlington Summer Beer Festival down in Spencer Smith Park. They had just opened their Underdog's Brewhouse a week prior.
This was their first ever Beer Festival and the first exposure of their top-flight All or Nothing Hopfenweisse wheat ale to the beer drinking public. Using three malts and four hops, they had created a great German-style wheat with some west coast pale ale flare. Tasty brew.

Turns out I had stumbled upon the pair as they were leaving an office where they put their signatures on the papers that handed them full ownership of Oakville's Trafalgar Ales and Meads. The purchase was officially announced on June 20 and frankly, surprised the hell out of everybody. While Eric recognized me instantly, I could see it was taking Jeff a little longer to figure out where he knew me from. About 15 seconds later, it clicked. "Hey," he grinned, "Where's your Tilley?" He was referring to my Australian Outback Drinking Hat that I wear to every single beer festivals I attend because it's easier than, you know, actually taking the effort to comb my hair before I go out in public. I must be one helluva fun date. No wonder my phone is, like, never buzzing with offers.

Remember when these guys were called UnderDog's
Brewhouse? Yeah, these days they just go by All Or
Nothing Brewhouse and there's a legal reason for that. 

Also for the record, I'd like to point out my Outback Drinking Hat was purchased at a gift shop in a swanky five-star resort on Mexico's Mayan Riviera. That's about as far removed from true Australian culture as anything could be. The closest I came to seeing an alligator was probably some rich lady's purse. So it's something of an ironic drinking hat.

So onto the big purchase. I asked the guys how a pair of Oshawa brothers who contract-brew a solitary wheat ale ended up buying an established Oakville brewery. "Well, we knew (Trafalgar owner) Mike (Arnold) from any number of beer events," said Eric. "At some point, I guess he found out that we wanted to build a brewery, I don't think he had a retirement plan figured out yet so one day, he approached us and asked us if we'd be interested in Trafalgar."

The lure of setting up shop in an established, award-winning brewery was strong enough that the brothers worked quickly to get their financial ducks in a row and happily jumped on the offer. It may be the only time in provincial history that a contract brewer has bought out a brewery.

Some day, the brothers would love to relocate the entire brewery
to Oshawa's Colonel R.S. McLaughlin Armoury, a 102-year-old
military building that served as a training facility for years
through several wars. These days, it acts as a community centre
but as it's a federal heritage building, it could be a tough sell
for the guys to set up shop here. That said, a month ago, the pair
were contract brewers. Now they own a brewery. So who knows?
Also it would be pretty cool to be the only brewery with a damn
Sherman Tank out front. Even Molson's doesn't have a tank...

(Quick aside: Does it seem a little weird to anyone else that at some point, some dude must have lined up a whole bunch of ducks in a row, took a step back, looked at them and declared, "Okay, now I'm ready to proceed...")

Noting they'd come a long way in a short time from contract brewing at Railway City in St. Thomas to being Oakville brewery owners, Jeff offered up a quick correction. "You're right," he noted, "we did start at Railway City. That's where we were when we first met but for the last while, we've been brewed out of (Etobicoke's) Cool Brewing."

Their first order of business, it would seem, is setting up a state-of-the-art canning line at Trafalgar, whose entire line has always been bottled. In its two-year existence, All or Nothing has been sold exactly two ways - in cans and kegs. If you've followed the guys on Facebook or Twitter from the beginning like I have, it seemed like every week, another pub or restaurant was adding their wheat ale to their taps. Beyond the new canning line, they have plans of adding additional fermentation tanks to meet the brewery's now-growing needs.

Cornelius, as well as the Dornan brothers, was an
active presence at this past Summer's Toronto
Craft Beer Cruise. These guys are everywhere...

For starters, the brewery just added a new nicely-hopped German-style wheat to their portfolio. But the thing is, a couple of years back, Trafalgar also became an artisanal distillery. Beyond beer and meads, they added cider and liquor to the mix. So in essence, All or Nothing went from making a single wheat ale to making... well, everything.

On top of that, Trafalgar also brews all the beers shipped to the LCBO for sister company, Black Creek Historic Brewery. So the Dornans now own a little piece of Toronto heritage, none of it connected to the late Rob Ford. (You never want that as part of the deal.)

But something else occurred to me afterwards. Yes, these two guys just bought Trafalgar - that much should be pretty clear unless you skipped every sentence before this one. But back in the Spring, Mike Arnold was the owner of one of 20 craft breweries across Ontario that bought their way onto the Beer Store's Board of Directors. Now Jeff and Eric own Trafalgar and that means... holy crap, these guys are now my bosses!!! And now it dawns on me that had I actually been hungry, I could have asked these guys for an advance on my cheque. It's important that bosses are responsive to employees' needs. Especially mine.

The All or Nothing fighting pose is now
becoming as iconic as the Don Cherry-
Ron McLean thumbs up. Here, Eric and
customer Barry Naymark put up their
dukes on the Toronto Craft Beer Cruise.

So with the addition work space of Trafalgar, what's next for the brothers? Expanding their line of wheats primarily. From the start - and I mean back in July 2014 - the brothers emphasized to me that they wanted to be Ontario's best source of wheat beers year-round. With over 400 restaurants, bars, LCBOs and Beer Stores carrying All or Nothing, they're off to a strong start, especially for a style that is considered a Summer beer.

But when I noticed their licence plate, UNDRDOG9, I had to ask why they gave up the Underdog name back in December. Well, it turns our that another small Ontario craft brewer had used the name Underdog on a pale ale. "It's wasn't under trademark or anything," noted Eric. "I mean, we researched the name long before naming our brewery." But suddenly, they found themselves holding a cease-and-desist order from that other brewery. "I don't even think their beer (which they hadn't heard of until the lawsuit) had sold 5,000 units so it was pretty surprising." Rather than hand lawyers filthy-large piles of cash in a fight over who was the true "underdog", the brothers just renamed the brewery after their flagship beer.

And now that they own a brewery in Oakville in which they are about to make a significant investment, do they stay in Oakville or move the whole shooting match back to Oshawa? That's a prospect that has Beer Bro Glenn salivating. Well, that's still up in the air.

An impressive combined line-up of All or Nothing and
Trafalgar Ale and Meads products. One prediction for this
business venture? More wheats being brewed in Oakville.

Jeff told Oshawa website SlowCity.ca last month that they "just resigned our lease for another two years so we are not planning to uproot and move operations any time soon. The Durham region has been very good to us over the last couple years and we want to continue to work and live in the community." So the administrative end of All or Nothing is clearly staying put although in the same interview, Jeff made it clear they planned on making good use of Trafalgar's retail shop.

A separate story in the Oshawa Express saw the brothers still eager to set up a brewery in Oshawa, ideally in the Colonel R.S. McLaughlin Armoury, a much-beloved 102-year-old former military structure on Simcoe Street that now mostly serves as a community centre.

A Doge review of All or Nothing Hopfenweisse wheat ale.

However, the fact that it is designated as a federal heritage building means I might have an easier time opening Playboy Mansion as a craft beer bar. Let's not forget that even if they find a suitable Oshawa location, it doesn't preclude the brothers simply owning one brewery in Oakville and another in Oshawa. That's what John Romano has set up these days, owning Nickel Brook in Burlington and having half-ownership of the Arts and Sciences Brewery in Hamilton, shared with Collective Arts Brewing. Hey, time will tell. A month ago, Jeff and Eric were contract brewers. Now look at these beer studs. So when Eric's parting words were, "You gotta come up to Trafalgar and visit us," you can bet your ass, I agreed. I mean, yeah, I'm surrounded by beer all day but why not do that off the clock, as well? Life's all about finding safe, comfortable things in new environments, right? But guys and dolls, that's it, that's all and I am outta here!! Until next time, I remain...