From Oshawa to Oakville... and back

My boy, David, and Eric Dornan, co-owner of All Or Nothing
Brewhouse, as well as Trafalgar Ale and Meads and Trafalgar
Distillery, strike the common All Or Nothing stance. That of
their boxer cartoon mascot, Cornelius. While the guys set up shop
in Oakville back in 2016, they will soon be headed back to Oshawa.

The first time I met brothers, Eric and Jeff Dornan, co-owners of All Or Nothing Brewhouse was the Summer of 2014 when they attended the Burlington Beer Festival down in Spencer Smith Park on the lake.

Having just created the brewery a few months prior, it was their first public outing and their first ever Beer Festival. Except for a small handful of Oshawa residents, their city of origin, I was among the first to sample what was then called Underdog Hopfenwiesse, their only beer.

Eventually, the "Underdog" had to be dropped as another Ontario brewery was using the name for their pale ale. Rather than fight the cease-and-desist, they took the fiscally-prudent approach and simply used their brewery name as the beer name. I mean, it was their only beer and coming as it does in a bright yellow can, it's not like it's going to get confused with another. But the beer itself, using three malts and four hops, has long been a favourite - a German wheat with some west coast zing.

This would be Eric and Jeff Dornan's rookie card,
their first ever Beer Festival in Burlington on a very
soggy Saturday in Spencer Smith Park back in 2014.

I met the guys again that Autumn on the Toronto Craft Brews Cruise on Lake Ontario - every time I saw these two, water was near - but then it would be two years again before our paths crossed.

That would have a 2016 happenstance meeting in the parking lot of Hopedale Mall in Oakville, the same place my Beer Store was the time. I was on a break and as I wandered across the parking lot, I spotted their All Or Nothing Austin Mini. I stopped to take a few shots with my phone and the next thing I heard was, "Don, is that you?" It was Eric calling out as the pair approached their car. It is turned out they were at a lawyer's office in the mall, signing up the paperwork to take possession of Trafalgar Ales and Meads and Trafalgar Distillery.

The brothers had their work cut out for them, taking over the Oakville establishment. For starters, they had to bring in a canning line as all of Trafalgar's product was bottled. As for the existing equipment, well, let's just say that Trafalgar Ale and Meads was established in 1993 and a healthy portion of the existing vats looked like the original parts some 23 years later.

That chance meeting with Eric and Jeff Dornan back in June 2016, just
after they left the lawyer's office and took possession of Trafalgar Ales
and Mead. Now after two years, the guys are shifting their equipment
back to Oshawa, re-opening their brewery in a discarded Beer Store.

So yeah, work was needed. Lots of work. And the pair did exactly that. Salvaged would they could and pitched the rest. A tour these days shows the fruits of their labour over the past two years. Stainless steel here, there and everywhere. And so much cleaner.

You see, I know this first-hand as my son, David, and I popped in last week to talk to Eric. Just a friendly hello? Well, yes, of course but also a fact-finding mission.

You see, early last week, the brewery announced it would be shifting its operation back to Oshawa in the old Beer Store, located at 439 Ribson Road South.

One of the things that impressed my son the most when
we popped into All Or Nothing was that all the vats had
names. When Eric pointed out the ones named after his
father and grandfather, David's eyes just lit up. He digs
family connections. Plus they're all big, silver and shiny.

So when I tagged my Oshawa friends, notably Beer Bro Glenn and Durham Carpenter of the Year Josh Beaven (it was a one-person competition and I was the sole judge) on the Facebook announcement, response was, of course, resoundingly positive.

After the emergence of four stellar breweries in nearby Whitby - Brock St, 5 Paddles, Little Beasts and Town Brewing - Glenn was thrilled Oshawa was gaining an established brewery in his town. And he was a fan of the new location.

"They closed that (Beer Store) a couple of years ago after building a fancier one in the Costco Plaza, near where I live," Glenn noted. "But every time I passed the old Beer Store, practically daily, I would think, 'There's a cool spot for a brewery.' No lie."

 Josh, on the other hand, said, "I've known about this for a while! Glad it's finally official and announced." The thing is we all kinda knew. It was the "where" and "when" that were the questions. You see, even when they left a small industrial plaza in Oshawa to come to Oakville, the brothers always made one thing perfectly clear. That their loyalty lay in Oshawa.

It doesn't look like much here but... The abandoned Beer Store at 439
Ritson Road South in Oshawa, build back in the 1950s, is actually two
floors, covering over 20,000 square feet. To the right in this picture, if it
wasn't cropped, you would see a driveway down to the lower level. This
is obviously just the front facade. But it's gonna look sweet very shortly.

When I talked to the guys during their 2016 transition into Oakville, they made it clear that their roots were in Oshawa, maintaining an administrative office there. Let's face it - with good reason. For starters, you have two brewery owners making the commute from Oshawa to Oakville, more than a few times a week. That blows chunks. That's 200 km (125 miles) round-trip through some of the worst traffic Canada has to offer.

So even as an Oakville resident myself, I'm happy the guys are making the big move back. Eric told me while the keys to the new place would be in their hands on December 1st, we all know it'll be months before the all-new All Or Nothing is up and running - setting up the vats, proper drainage, electrical work - the list goes on and on. The boys are hoping for a Spring opening. But that's a "without hiccups" scenario.

The present facade of All Or Nothing/Trafalgar on
Speers Road in Oakville. Look a good look, folks,
because it's not going to be here much longer.

In their media release, Eric was enthusiastic about the return to Oshawa, saying, "We look forward to coming back to where our company started and to help further revitalize Oshawa through job creation and large strategic capital investments in the community."

But I was, of course, curious. How much of the old Trafalgar brews would be returning to Oshawa with them? One thing the old Trafalgar Ales and Meads specialized in was... meads (as the name possibly suggests.) A big favourite of the Vikings back in the day, to be certain, but a beverage that never really caught the attention of modern-day society.

Jeff said a couple of the meads would still be created in Oshawa, simply because they do have their fans. And what of the distillery portion of the business, something created by former-Trafalgar owner Mike Arnold several years back?

Oh yes, Eric said, that was most definitely continuing in Oshawa. "A brewery you do for yourself," he told me. "A distillery you do for your grandchildren." (Meaning simply it takes years to established a proper distillery, based on the lengthy production time booze takes to become... well, booze.)

When we first met the brothers, they were adamant they were going the
Steam Whistle route and brewing just one beer - their Hopfenweiss. But
since landing in Oakville, they've added a couple to their repertoire. So
I grabbed a Persistence Czech Pilsner and an America Amber (in a
funny little 296-ml can), as well as a glass while the guys were still here.

And while I believe the brothers' purchase of Trafalgar saw a vast improvement in the quality of the core line-up, the fact is I'm an Oakville boy. So what I believe might seem suspect... that I'm perhaps a homer. If only I could find a couple of expert voices from, say, Toronto that agreed with me. Oh wait, I did.

In The Ontario Craft Beer Guide, a book co-authored by respected beerologists (Spellcheck is telling me that's not a word - leaving it anyway) Robin LeBlanc and Jordan St John looked at the Black Creek Historic Brewery on their Most Improved list.

Hey, look, cartoon mascot Cornelius gets a quote
on the wall at the entrance of the grain silo area.
Also it turns out he has a last name, Das Weisse.
Hold on! That's German for "the white" meaning,
of course, a wheat beer. These guys are so sneaky,

After first looking at the Black Creek brewery, the pair shifts their attention Oakville's way.

"Outside the village, however, the beers are brewed through a partnership with Trafalgar Ales and Meads in Oakville, where the modern equipment yields a more consistent product that can be regularly produced for bars and the LCBO."

But here's the part where the Dornan brothers make an entrance. "With All Or Nothing's purchase of Trafalgar in June of 2016... the beers brewed in Oakville have since undergone a dramatic improvement in quality and consistency as equipment has been updated and methods made more refined. This is excellent news for drinkers of Black Creek Historic Brewery who, for whatever reasons, can't visit the historic brewery and have grown fond of such beers as the Rifleman's Ration, the Pumpkin Ale and their famous Porter."

There you go. If you don't want to take it from me, take it from a couple of pros. We'll keep you updated on their progress as All Or Nothing makes its shift back to Oshawa. But Scooby Doo Gang, that's it, that's all and I am outta here! Back soon with a Nickel Brook update on their new Tap Room. But until then, later, skaters...