Brew Tours, a Toronto-based company, takes beer connoisseurs on a tour of local craft breweries and to farms where the hops are grown.
Patrick Kelly and Piers Simpkin are co-founders of Brew Tours. Kelly believes that despite being a very new company, Brew Tours is on the right path to be able to successfully expand into Barrie.
“We started the program up in Muskoka earlier this year and it’s been a hit,” said Kelly. “I think it’s a mixture of the craft beer revolution and just the fact that people are enjoying being social with each other. We have heard feedback as well that folks enjoy learning about the local facts of the area.”
Having worked at the CN Tower many years ago, Kelly and Simpkin would often head over to Steam Whistle Brewery after work, which was right across the street. Kelly fell in love with craft beer and saw the rising popularity of the business. The 30-year old knew he had to be a part of the "new way" of a classic Canadian pastime.
“For years we’ve been forced to drink beer that really wasn’t all that good,” said Kelly. “Mass advertising and familiarity caused us as consumers to settle for what was put in front of us. With craft beer, you get a wide selection of different tastes and smells. It’s great for the senses and for the wallet as most craft beer is cheaper than mainstream brew.”
With the success of the Muskoka tours, Brew Tours wants to make Barrie tours a must for local beer lovers. Launching on July 30, the tour is scheduled to start at Redline Brewery at 11 a.m. with a pint and some appetizers before the bus would transport everyone to Barnstormers, then off to the hop farm in Shanty Bay to learn the whole beer making process. The final stop on the tour is the downtown Flying Monkeys Brewery and then everyone gets dropped back off to Redline where it’s advised that tour-goers should arrange for someone to pick them up.
“We make sure that every stop has a little something different and it’s not just a tour of brewery equipment,” said Kelly. “Each stop has a history and each beer is different. The fun part is learning about how the locations came to be and the friendly socializing that occurs during the sampling and on the bus. It’s much like the popular wine tours of California and our beer fans are no different. I would even say that crafties are more knowledgeable than their wine counterparts in that there are so many brews to taste from.”
The one very unique stop on the tour is the Heritage Hill Hop Yard and Nursery on Line 2 in Shanty Bay.
Hugh Brown has been running the farm for the last 16 years and sees the progression and popularity for the craft beer movement.
“We hooked up with Flying Monkeys a while back, as the importance of local businesses became a focus for craft brewers,” said Brown, the current president Ontario Hop Growers’ Association. “We have about an acre and quarter right now and don’t do any daily tours but have had people pop in and want to look around. We had about 20-30 artists come up last year for a tour and then they went back to the MacLaren Art Centre to design labels for beer bottles and cans. It was a fun idea for sure.”
It’s getting close to the time of year that Brown and his family are the busiest. The harvesting the crops usually happens around late August to early September and can be a daunting task. The process can be understood best through the Brew Tours outing.
“If you take good care of your crops, they can last 25 to 30 years,” said Brown. “They pop up just after the snow melts, sometimes sooner and can grow to about 20 feet in a season.”
Find more information on Brew Tours and how to book your spot on a tour here.
