New Year's news from GLB and Nickel Brook

While the Arts and Science Brewery in Hamilton
makes beer for both Collective Arts and Nickel Brook,
we tend to think of it just as Collective Arts' building.
Why? Because it's their retail component. To buy
some Nickel Brook beer, it's a drive to Burlington...

This was supposed to be my loving look back at last year's best labels and while that is coming next, I have a tendency in this little column to get very easily side-tracked. I don't want to say I get side-tracked every moment of every day, mind you. I actually do. I'd just prefer not to say that.

Okay, what the hell was I talking about before that squirrel just ran across my patio? Oh right, hadn't really started.

This story starts back in 2016. All the way back to December 31st. I remember it like it was last week. At the suggestion of my new Beer Store manager, Jeff, I had taken the work days between Christmas and New Years off "to be with your little guy!" I thought that idea was a great one since I got my boy on December 26th so hell yeah, I'll take that week off. (We had a blast that week but that does not pertain to this news alert in any way.)

So, un-side-tracking my way back to New Year's Eve, I figured I better get some beers in my fridge for both that night and January 1st due to some Pagan ritual that sees Canada shut down entirely on the first day of the year. That is except for gas stations, McDonald's and Donny's Bar and Grill (because the owner is a Buddhist and cannot read a calendar.)

As you can see, young Kylie is right (as usual). The Beer
Garden at the Arts and Sciences Brewery has both Nickel
Brook and Collective Arts beers available for your happy
Summer imbibing. That's a whole lotta tasty in one place.

So off to Nickel Brook I drove. After all, if I'm bringing in a New Year, I'm doing it with my homeboys' beer. After an arduous 300-second drive to the brewery (they are that close), I was happily chatting with long-time brewery stalwart Robbie and happy newbie Charles. They told me that some Nickel Brook (administrative) staff had been moving from Burlington to Hamilton into the Arts and Sciences Brewery which houses both Nickel Brook and Collective Arts. Not surprising as the space at the Drury Lane facility is limited but he added a new wrinkle. "We're also setting up a new retail (outlet) there," noted Robbie. Instantly, I panicked and asked if the Burlington brewery was shutting down.

 Not going anywhere and thank God for
that! The Drury Lane Brewery is staying
put and will continue to be a retail outlet
for both Nickel Brook beers and the new
variants coming out of their Funk Lab.

"No, no," Robbie assured me. "This place is staying. We'll just be for sale in two places." That sparked my curiosity since as I understood it, by law, craft breweries are only allowed one retail outlet. "We brew in both places," offered up Charles. "Maybe they have to let us?"

Still uncertain of the legalities, I texted long-time Nickel Brook buddy, Tony Cox, early on New Years Day and asked him simply, "Are you the first craft brewer in Ontario with two retail outlets?" Out of respect for my homeys, I also asked if the news was hush-hush, never to be spoken of... you know, like that nasty-ass Lord Voldemort. (Shout-out to Harry Potter fans there. Go, Gryffindor!)

Tony got back to me within the hour and asked: "What in the blue hell are you doing up so early on New Year's Day? Shouldn't you be hungover?" I saw the New Year in on live-stream from New York City's Times Square with my lad so yeah, I kept it quasi-respectable. But I'm glad true friends care about my often-addled state.

As to the question at hand, Tony noted that Mill Street Brewing has long had a retail outlet in Toronto, as well as another at their brewpub in Ottawa. Of the new Nickel Brook outlet in Hamilton, he offered, "It's in the works." That likely translates into "hog-tied at this exact moment with bureaucratic red tape" but hey, nothing good comes quickly or easily. The Ontario government makes sure of that. (Also, it's been pointed out to me since publishing this that Amsterdam and Bellwoods both have two bottle shops.)

Nickel Brook Brewer Patrick Howell is now in
charge of the newly-created Funk Labs, which
cranks out all manner of wild and crazy beers.

The new retail outlet does make sense, mostly for the reason that young Charles pointed out - Nickel Brook does, in fact, brew both in Burlington and Hamilton. Their regular line-up, including my much-beloved Headstock IPA and Naughty Neighbour American Pale Ale, are now brewed in the much larger vats in Hamilton. That leaves Nickel Brook's Burlington brewery open to create far more esoteric beers (which I'll get to in a second.)

But the thing is, even though I have watched the creation of the jointly-owned Arts and Sciences Brewery over the past three years - from crazy thought to actual reality - I, like many others, only think of Collective Arts when I venture to the plant on Burlington Street in Hamilton. And that's simply because they are the sole retail component. I get my Nickel Brook beer in Burlington, the city, not on Burlington, the street.

When I was at Rib Eye Jack's Ale House recently, I bounced the notion off my favourite beer technician Kylie, as she knows a number of employees at both breweries. She said she had heard "whispers of it" but pointed out that ultimately it makes sense.

As rock group Extreme themselves sang in 2004.
♫ If you don't like... what we're brewing... get the
funk out..." That's some solid advice right there.

"Well, they do sell both Nickel Brook and Collective Arts (beers) at their Beer Garden," she said of the venue first set up at the Hamilton brewery last Summer. "So I can see it."

So with all the first-line Nickel Brook beers being brewed in Hamilton now, what's going on with the Drury Lane brewery these days? Well, back in October, they announced that they had reinvented themselves as The Funk Lab. And that means what exactly? According to the gang of mad scientists and mutant misfits in Burlington, it means they are "dedicated to brewing small-batch funk and sour beers using rare and wild yeast strains." One of them, their Uber Raspberry Berliner, a sour German wheat aged with Canadian raspberries, already copped a gold at the 2016 Canadian Brewing Awards. And they have already made dozen more, many reviewed in this very spot, including the Ceres Cucumber-Lime Gose, the Dreamsicle Orange Vanilla Pale Ale and their biggest bomb-blast to date, the Cafe Del Bastardo Imperial Stout which blended stout and Colombian coffee beans into a bourbon barrel. So explosively tasty, it damn near killed me.

Great Lakes Brewing's Head Brewer Mike Lackey stands in
front of the famous GLB Tank 10. There's some big changes
coming to the tank this year. But so far, the brewery is only
tossing a tease our way. Official announcement is next month.

Several days after they made the Funk Lab announcement, I got a panicked message from Beer Bro Stevil St Evil, all the way down there in Wellington, New Zealand. "Where are you gonna get your growlers of Headstock IPA now? Do you have to drive to Hamilton?" Please understand that when Stevil stayed here for a week in June 2015, he loved all the Canadian craft beers I plunked down on the table but one of his personal favourites was Headstock IPA, fresh from the growler. So I assured him that no, all Nickel Brook products were still available down the street and around the corner from me. Despite the fact that he is 14,000 kilometres (8,750 miles) away, he seemed oddly relieved.

So leaving the "in the works" and "makes sense" speculation surrounding Nickel Brook's possible second retail outlet, let's drive happily east on the QEW (it's a highway named after the Queen of England) until we land in front of 30 Queen Elizabeth Boulevard (apparently a highway wasn't enough for that royal bit... never mind) in Etobicoke, home of Great Lakes Brewing.

My next column is about labels I loved in 2016
but I'm giving GLB a head-start on the others
with this beauty from artist Garnett Gerry and
graphic designer Fabian Skidmore. This label
allowed them last February to put on their sign
out front: "Fresh GLB. Get your Pompous Ass
in here!" Too bad these guys don't have any fun.

On December 30th, just one day before I was picking up my New Year's Eve stash, GLB was making a splash of their own with a video announcement of changes to their Tank Ten series in 2017. (I'll include a link to the announcement at the bottom.) So what's Tank Ten? Well, to Ontario craft beer drinkers, it's the most popular and likely most profitable beer tank in the Province in which we actually know its number. Oh sure, GLB has other tanks of different numerical significance but we couldn't identity any of them, even under police interrogation.
Good Cop: What tank do they use to brew Canuck Pale Ale?
Me: I dunno. I swear. Tank Seven? Tank Four?
Bad Cop: I will kill your goddamn dog!!

As you'll hear in the humourous announcement, some of the previous occupants of Tank 10 will be vacating in 2017. Which ones? Well, they didn't say. So let's go onto their website and check out the previous tenants. There's some beauties in here - Octopus Wants To Fight IPA, Thrust! An IPA, Lake Effects IPA, Miami Weiss Wheat Ale, Miami Weiss White Pale Ale, Karma Citra IPA, Robohop Imperial IPA, Harry Potter and the Bourbon Soaked Vanilla Bean, Audrey Hopburn Belgian IPA, My Bitter Wife IPA, Chill Winston Grisette, Limp Puppet Session IPA, Johnny Simcoe Pale Ale, No Chance With Miranda Saison, Saison Dupump, Citraddiction XPA, Hissyfit Grisette, Long Dong Pilsner, Etobichoker Belgian Double IPA, Apocalypse Later Imperial Black IPA, Harry Porter, Maniacal Hopshop IPA, Life Sentence Triple IPA and Body Dubbel Belgian Ale.

My first beer of 2017? GLB's Bourbon Barrel-Aged
Solstice Imperial Stout. While I had previously said I
would enjoy this beer of the day of Winter Solstice,
December 21st, the shortest day of the year, I got
sidetracked (there it is again) by the Christmas Beer
Store traffic. So I drank it on the shortest day of 2017
(so far), January 1st. That's a New Year's Resolution!

Got all that? Aside from a couple I've never heard of (and would really like to try), I think there's a few more missing from the list. So who's going and who's staying? Well, we don't know. Those marketing teasers and tossers never said. But we'll know in a month or so. Best bet? Every IPA stays put. But that too, like Nickel Brook's second outlet, is purely speculative at this point. We'll have to wait for a few celebrities to die first before they tell us. (Too soon?)

This brings me to my first beer of 2017. Rather than a Headstock IPA, I went off-script and started the New Year with Great Lake's Bourbon Barrel-Aged Solstice Imperial Stout. According to the label, it was brewed on the Vernal Equinox (March 20 - first day of Spring) and then shifted into bourbon barrels on the Summer Solstice (June 20 - longest day of the year). From there, it rested until they tapped into those barrels in December. To that end, I was supposed to drink this Christmas gift from Beer Bro Glenn on the Winter Solstice (December 21st - the shortest day of the year) but Christmas happened, it got forgotten and thus became my first beer of 2017. Whoa, quite a way to start a year. The 11.9% coal-black stout had big blasts of coffee, vanilla and booze on the nose, followed by more coffee, bitterness, bourbon and woodiness on the tongue. A terrific start to the year! "Otay!" as Buckwheat would say, back in a few with those labels I loved. And here's GLB's video announcement here: GLB's Tank Ten Tease! But guys and dolls, that's it, that's all and I am outta here. Until next time, I remain...