What does Music, Art & Craft Beer have in common? They all involve passion....
Well passion was certainly not a missing ingredient on my Tour around Collective Arts & Science Brewery yesterday and the proof is in the pudding... I mean BEER!
As stated on their website because I couldn't explain it better myself:
"Collective Arts Brewing is a grassroots craft brewer based in
Ontario that aims to fuse the creativity of craft beer with the
inspired talents of emerging artists, musicians and filmmakers.
Matt Johnston and Bob Russell founded Collective Arts Brewing
on two beliefs: The first that creativity fosters creativity. And
the second, that creativity yields delicious pints."
Well they have hit a bullseye as far as their aim goes & something beautiful has been created here and I have a feeling this is just the beginning!
Dan, the dude helping with all the awesomeness that's happening around Collective Arts and in charge of getting the Brand out there, met us in the retail shop and kindly offered some samples before we started the tour. Oh how Dan knows the way to a Beer Loving Woman's heart...
Dan has a great background in Craft Beer and spent some time in Australia working at Forester's Hall. This place has 50 Craft Beer Taps and a 4am liquor licence... I am sure he "worked" a lot. Though there is a photo on the home page of him with a pen behind his ear so he must have taken notes at some point...
Ryan Morrow is the Brewmaster at this fine establishment and man does he do a good job and I imagine he sleeps well at night.... Cheers to you Ryan!
I truly dig "The Lineup" below and freshness is a priority at Collective Arts as beer seems to go from being brewed to packaged to on the road in a very short time.
Sometimes onto the delivery truck within 2 hours of being bottled!! They even go as far as popping the handles back in the cases of beer when moved within the warehouse to prevent any possible light seeping into the case. In case you are confused as to what that means well...light spoils beer. That is why the majority of beers are in dark brown bottles and well some of those green bottle beers taste skunky.
Back to the beer...
Stash is a great "gateway" beer for those of you just dipping your toes into Craft Beer. It is an uncomplicated straight up Ale... like a classier, tastier PBR ;)
Rhyme & reason was one of their first beers to fly off the shelves and they're also a high seller at the LCBO and the Grocery Store!! You haven't forgotten you can by beer at some of them in Ontario now have you?
Fresh citrus is used in the Saint of Circumstance and well if your ready to dive into the glorious tasting deep end of Craft Ransack the Universe is where it's at! Ransack mixes hops from both hemispheres for a lovely guzzling experience.
"The Collective Project" beers they have on tap at retail right now are;
Black IPA which I am seeing more & more of and to be honest though they frighten me at first sight I am really starting to enjoy them, this one was awesome so thanks for that!
Sour Pumpkin Saison... oh sour beers how I also hold a place in my heart for you. This one is nice and if you're into trying new things mix it with the Porter for a neat twist.
You can visit the Retail Shop at the Brewery to fill your Growlers, but a snack pack of tall boys or even a case of bottles. Or check out their product in the LCBO or participating Grocery Stores.
As each of their beers are a work of art on the inside & out they feature limited-edition works of art by artists and musicians, on the labels, that change every few months. Be sure to download the free Blippar App, as a cool added feature all labels come to life through phone app. Simply scan the label to hear the music, see the videos and view artist bios...rad.
They were all buzzing around the back like busy worker bees brewing, bottling, packaging, wrapping, moving and loading all in a days work. It was cool to walk around and see just how big the space is and wow those tanks are huge.... and shiny! I would throw out some numbers about capacity & tank size but I am terrible with numbers and don't want to share false info. (We know how sensitive men are if you underestimate the size...)
Collective Arts has some Amazing projects & events that are coming up for the summer so stay connected with them here and of course I, The Travelling Pint, will bring you all the Events & News via Blog / brewsletter (click to sign up) and Facebook.
All right so I have talked about the passion, the beer, the creativity, the Blippar app, the tour, the big shiny tanks and Dan's stint in OZ...
All that's left is for you to visit, book a tour and make sure you have tried their beer... all of it!
Until the next time,
Tiffany