New brewery finally off the Bench

"It's here! It's here! It's finally here!" My son, David, and I had a very
eventful Canada Day, travelling from Oakville to Vineland to visit the
just-opened Bench Brewing. The long-anticipated brewery was meant
to open in Spring 2017 but sometimes, these new projects get bogged
down in the permit process or even getting the equipment into place.

I don't know what you folks did on Canada Day but mine was pretty productive. Which for me basically means not my usual routine of having some really great Ontario craft beers and falling asleep on my Lazy Boy, watching superhero DVDs.

But on this July 1st, I had my son, David, with me so it was time to get out of the house for a little quality father-son adventure. Fortunately, a long-awaited destination finally came into play.

Bench Brewing opened on June 29 to the public and for me and my boy, that would mean hitting the road and heading to the Vineland area of Beamsville, Ontario. Now David himself is a former Beamsville District High School student so I assumed this was all familiar turf for him. Well, not quite. You see, we drove well past his old alma mater and deep into the heart of Wine Country.

David stands in front of the old school's front door
which has been incorporated into the structure of the
new brewery, honouring the history of Maple Grove.

And lemme tell you this - that was one beautiful drive past orchards, vineyards and wineries the entire way. Beautiful country.

But we did land at a school... or at least a former school. The one thing we all knew about Bench Brewing is that they were setting up shop in the old Maple Grove School, which originally opened in 1833 before closing for good in 2013, an impressive 180 year history. In fact, it opened 34 years before Canada was even a country. So when we pulled up, I was pretty happy to see they have kept the facade of the former school intact. Further to that, the old school now houses the retail-customer service area of the brewery. While the insides are spiffed up for the brewery's clientele, the front and two side walls of the school are still there, part of the structure. Bench simply opened up the back wall and built their brewery facilities from that point out to the north.

In fact, back in February 2017, Bench went onto Twitter and promised they would keep as much of the school in place as they could. They were good to their word. But you might wonder why you've been seeing Bench products on the LCBO shelves for quite a while now. 

Bench Brewing founder Matt Giffin's dream of
owning a brewery in the countryside has finally
come true and man, this was one beautiful dream
as the facility itself is outstanding. So impressive!

Well, until they got this facility up and running, they've been contract-brewing. In fact, Kylie, my favourite beer technician at the now-defunct Rib Eye Jack's Ale House, first slid Beer Bro Glenn and myself a can each of their Ball's Falls Session IPA sometime back in early-2016. "But you can't write about it or put it on Twitter," she cautioned us at the time. It was all very hush-hush. Later that Summer, it became apparent who was contract-brewing it when my Nickle Brook buddy, Tony, now with Collective Arts, walked out of their retail with me and quietly handed me a box containing four of Bench's Citra Grove Dry Hopped Sour. He quickly did the "Shhh!" motion as he gave them to me. Still hush-hush. What can I tell ya? I certainly did very well drinking great craft beer from a brewery that only existed on paper in 2016.

And while it was originally slated to open in the Summer of 2017, well, we all have watched craft breweries being built and every one of them has taken longer than originally anticipated. There's always government red tape or equipment issues that dog them along the way. But brewery founder Matt Giffin's long-time dream is now a reality and man, is it impressive! He, his wife and three children have lived in that area, known locally as Twenty Valley, for years and he wanted to build something big there.

"When Man makes plans... God laughs" goes the
old saying. As you can see, Bench Brewing had
lofty ambitions to be open last Summer but, well,
as another saying goes, "Better late than never."

On their website, Giffin wrote, "I have always been fascinated with the influence climate and soil have on growing wine grapes. I'm also a huge beer lover. So I started wondering why only a few beers were focusing on the concept of 'terroir' (soil influence) in their brewing processes. That was really my inspiration for Bench. I wanted to build a unique craft brewery that produces remarkable small batch beers in the heart of Ontario's wine country."

As for his role in the brewery, Giffin made it clear that he's proud of the team he has assembled and that "my role as the 'gray beard' in the group is to assist the experts and just get out of the way!" To that end, he plans on spending a lot of time helping out in the humongous hop yards they have growing out back on their property and "working with other local farmers to source quality local ingredients for our beer."

Now my buddy, Steve, was there on Grand Opening Day, June 29, and came away as impressed as I was. Granted, Steve already had an "in" at the brewery - his nephew, James, is the Sales Territory Manager for Eastern Ontario and has been with them for a year after stints with Cameron's and Nickel Brook.

With the Humidex hitting over 40C (104F) on the drive to
the brewery, this was, no doubt, David's favourite place
there - the beer cooler. He liked the cold air. Daddy loved all
the bottles and cans waiting to be purchased. Which I did.

When I asked for his impressions, it turns out he, too, was also knocked out by the size and scope of this operation. "The location, as you saw, is beautiful. Not just some brewery sitting in an industrial area but nestled between farms, wineries and a community. The physical building is well-designed, pleasing to the eye and nothing was spared as to what was really needed to really pull this project off."

But when he continued, it became very clear that Steve got an extensive back-room brewery tour that David and I did not. (So, man, am I glad I asked him!) "The thing that impressed me the most was the French Oak Foeders (wooden vats that allow sours to age with a slower infusion of oxygen) and the room with the flat tanks that allow natural yeast to blow in from the fields that will give sours a unique flavour that I don't think (any brewery) in North America is putting out at these volumes." Again, to be clear, I knew none of this. Steve was basically educating me on a brewery I had just visited. It's good to have friends in the know.

The words painted just above the exit at their customer
service-retail area could not be more accurate. This is,
in fact, a brewery smack-dab in the middle of Ontario
Wine Country. I'm down with that, Bench Brewing!

But you know what, I'm just gonna let Steve keep going. He seems to have his shit down on this. "They are doing everything right. Everything. They have a very good team from brewing to distribution to sales. It's almost like IKEA meets... help me here, looking for a high quality traditional beer reference." Okay, this is me tagging in - it's like IKEA meets Bellwoods Brewing.

And then Steve just flat-out read my mind. "I hope someday they might consider offering an IPA that can stand up with (Nickel Brook's) Headstock but perhaps that is not their intention." (Not said: "It should be." That's me agreeing with him.)

And finally, because I totally dig where Steve's adventure at Bench was going, there's this: "Sours are a niche market, one that I am all over but would love to see them offered in cans, All in all, I see a very bright future from this brewery." Frankly, after Steve's response when I asked him for impressions, I don't know why I don't ask people that more often. They do all the heavy-lifting for me! I love that.

I have all of these Bench Brewing beers in my fridge plus two more not in
the picture. I doubt any will surpass their outstanding Citra Grove Dry
Hopped Sour but hey, you never know, do you? Truly a great trip for us!

But let's finish this off with my boy's impressions of the place. When I took him out front for a picture, he looked up at the facade and yelped, "Dad, this used to be a school! And I went to school in Beamsville!" (Yes, I am vaguely aware of that, having driven you to that school roughly 1,284 times when we weren't back in time for the bus.)

And finally, a thought from his Dad. Bench Brewing Gang, we have been waiting for this opening for a long while. Like Steve more or less said, you may not have done it as quickly as hoped... but you sure did it right. And that's what really counts. I will be back. Often. But Scooby Doo Gang, that's it, that's all and I am outta here. Until next time, I remain...