DRAFT Magazine

By Chris Gigley

With the final spring training in Tucson winding down this month, Barrio Brewing Co.’s Dennis Arnold often notes a particular bar stool in his massive, 750-seat restaurant, Gentle Ben’s.

“We used to do a ton of business when the [Chicago] White Sox were here,” says Arnold, who separated the brewing operation from his restaurant in 2007. “[Former Sox star] Frank Thomas would park himself at that bar stool and hold court. Every March, it was always, ‘Which player will walk through the door next?’”

The White Sox skipped town last year, buying their way out of a lease at Tucson Electric Park (TEP) to relocated with the Los Angeles Dodgers to a gleaming new complex in Glendale, just west of Phoenix. This year, the Colorado Rockies are leaving venerable Hi Corbett Field and the Arizona Diamondbacks are bolting TEP for greener pastures in Scottsdale, putting all 14 teams in the Cactus League in greater Phoenix.

Tucson residents aren’t happy. Arnold grouses about the city’s decision to put TEP out among the industrial parks on the south side of town.

“What large stadium built anywhere in world didn’t attract one square foot of private business around it?” asks Arnold, rhetorically. “They could’ve put it downtown and revived the city center. It could’ve been fantastic if they put it in the right location.”

Nimbus Brewing Co. owner James Counts says customers at his brewpub, which is less than two miles from TEP, have told him they feel abandoned.

“We’ve heard from a lot from people,” says Counts. “Most of them tell us is that they feel baseball has turned its back on them.”

Tucson doesn’t even have a triple-A team anymore. The Pacific Coast League team that played at TEP for 10 years relocated to Reno, Nev., last year. But spring training is the one that really hurts. The Cactus League has had at least one team in Tucson since the mid-1940s, when Bill Veeck brought the Cleveland Indians to town. Veeck owned a ranch near Tucson at the time.

The Tribe played at Hi Corbett Field until 1992. The Rockies took their place in 1993, Colorado’s inaugural season, and the team has trained there ever since.

“No one wants to see spring training leave,” says Thunder Canyon Brewery owner and brewmaster Steve Tracy. “It’s a lot of fun and it’s good for business. We’ve always drawn people here who come to Tucson to follow their teams every spring.”

Counts, Tracy, and Arnold are giving travelers another good reason to come to Tucson. They’re forming the foundation for a craft brewing resurgence. As recently as the late 1990s, the city had as many as 10 craft brewers, most of whom Arnold characterizes as homebrewers who took advantage of all the investor dollars being thrown around then.

“They loved brewing beer, but they failed to recognize that they were in the bar and restaurant business,” says Arnold. No one was surprised that when the Internet bubble burst, so did Tucson’s craft brewing scene.

The remaining three are now reaping the benefits of a public that has finally gotten turned on to craft beers.

“Tucson is usually five to 10 years behind the rest of the world,” jokes Arnold. “Five years ago we couldn’t get anyone interested in an IPA, now it’s my No. 2 beer.”

Tracy is just as amazed at the newfound passion for IPAs, so much so that he now has two of his own always on tap, just in case he runs out of one.

“I remember back in 1998 when we opened, we couldn’t give our IPA away,” he says. “We brewed a batch and had it on tap and no one wanted to try it. It took us a while to do it again, but now it’s one of our flagships.”

Counts has seen the same thing happening at Nimbus, plus another trend that has just recently bubbled up.

“Everyone seems to be embracing the Belgian styles we’re coming out with,” he says.

The brewers aren’t limiting themselves to just IPAs and Belgians. All three say that the locals are always demanding something different, from Nimbus’ Old Monkey Shine, a malty English pub-style ale, to Barrio’s Moca Java Stout, which is loaded with coffee, lactose and cocoa. Tracy says he’s had tremendous success with fruit beers — Strawberry Lightning is on tap now — and he’s currently at work on an imperial porter.

Baseball may be leaving town, but Tucson’s craft brewing scene is reborn. And who knows? The beer is getting so good and so creative, big Frank Thomas may be compelled to return to his favorite bar stool for another pint.

– Chris Gigley is a freelance writer.

By Chris Gigley

When Chris Johnston leaves his office and steps out onto Woodward Avenue in Ferndale, a suburb north of downtown Detroit, signs of revitalization are apparent. He sees people everywhere.

If Johnston hadn’t opened Woodward Avenue Brewers in 1997, Ferndale would probably still be a ghost town. But amid layoffs, real estate foreclosures, and generally bad news that has hung over the city like a dark cloud for the last four years, Ferndale is a growing and thriving beacon. And Johnston’s brewpub, known among the locals as “the WAB,” is the undisputed “third place” in the neighborhood. Customers think of it as more than just a place to have a beer.

“People have watched us grow and evolve over time, and they feel like they’ve been a part of our growth and the growth of the neighborhood,” says Johnston. “We’ve been a constantly changing, and they like that. They like remembering when we didn’t have booze or when we didn’t have a patio. It shows them how far we’ve come.”

What customers don’t like remembering is the neighborhood before the WAB. Really, it was no neighborhood at all.

“It seemed very desolate,” recalls Johnston, who spent two years renovating the building before it opened. “We did a lot of the renovation work ourselves and spent most of our time inside. When we’d come out for breaks you couldn’t tell whether it was 9 a.m., noon or 6 p.m. There were never any people around. It took years for that to change.”

It took some pretty good beer, too. In the beginning, Johnston’s brother, Grant, served as brewmaster and he created six flagship beers that remain on the menu to this day. The Custom Blonde ale, says Johnston, is the best seller.

“When people say they want another kind of beer we don’t have, we steer them to the Blonde,” he says. “It’s the most versatile beer we have.”

Custom Blonde is a light-bodied ale brewed with wheat, aromatic malts, and mild hops that give it a clean finish. But there’s much more diversity to the lineup than that. Johnston says the WAB’s current brewmaster, Greg Burke, has taken the brewery to another level since he came on board in 2005.

“I think I just more or less refined each particular beer and made each one more stylistically accurate while distinguishing the beers from one another,” says Burke, who has been brewing professionally for 15 years. Prior to taking the job at the WAB, the American Brewer’s Guild grad worked at Grizzly Peak Brewing Company in Ann Arbor, Motor City Brewing Works in downtown Detroit, and Redwood Lodge in Flint.

Another thing Burke has done at the WAB is put interesting spins on the flagship beers. The Vanilla Porter, for instance, is based on the WAB’s signature beer, the Custom Porter. The addition of pure vanilla creates a flavor with more balance between sweetness and bitterness. Burke intends to keep experimenting on new beers and on his customers.

“We have two guest taps in the brewpub I use to push the envelope and expose people to new stuff,” says Burke. “Brewing is like any individual sport. You’re competing against yourself. You always have to strive to be better and it’s good to have other examples to measure yourself against.”

If there’s a positive outcome of Detroit’s economic malaise, both Burke and Johnston says it’s a paradigm shift among residents about the beer they drink. More people than ever are moving to craft beers.

“When my idea for the brewery came about 15 years ago, it was because I saw microbreweries getting popular out West,” says Johnston. “Eventually, the national fad wore off and we watched the trend go down. I think because of the economy, it’s come back because certainly there’s a focus on supporting what’s here. Actually, I think there’s a passion for local products in general.”

Johnston says the strong buy-local sentiment has bolstered the craft brewing industry statewide, making him feel more optimistic about the future of his business, his neighborhood, and his city. Already, more happy faces are showing up at the WAB every night. And Burke says craft brewers across Michigan have pulled together to support one another and positioning themselves for collective prosperity down the road.

The general mood around Detroit, at least, seems to be changing for the better. If anyone can sense it, it’s the guy who almost single-handedly revitalized a neighborhood in the nation’s most downtrodden city.

“I think when the economic downturn started, people were in a state of denial, then a state of shock,” says Johnston. “Now I think it’s time for people who are capable of doing things to lead the way and promote business around here and show people we can survive. I’m certain we will.”

– Chris Gigley doesn’t smoke, but he almost had to have a cigarette after pairing the WAB’s Vanilla Porter with the bacon-swiss loose burger. It was that good.

By Chris Gigley

Toronto is ruled by giants. Just ask any brewing company not named Molson, Labatt, or Sleeman. Or, better yet, ask any hockey team not named the Toronto Maple Leafs. The little guys have an uphill battle convincing the people of greater Toronto that there’s more to both beer and hockey.

But they’re trying. The city’s craft brewing community is a small and determined band of beer enthusiasts, each putting their own unique spin on beer to attract fans. The one making the most noise is Steam Whistle Brewing Co., based in a historic roundhouse in the shadow of CN Tower. Thanks to its location near Rogers Center and the home of the Leafs, Air Canada Center, its bar and brewery tours have become pre-game staples for the locals. The beer has become a draw, too.

“Our thing from the beginning has been to do one thing really well,” says Sybil Taylor, marketing communications manager for Steam Whistle.

That one thing is Czech-style pilsners. Steam Whistle doesn’t produce anything else. It has a new custom-built Czech brewhouse and a Czech brewmaster, Marek Mikunda, who honed his skills at the Pilsner Urquell Brewery in the Czech Republic. The result is a bright, smooth, and thirst-quenching beer that rivals the pilsners from the old country.

Steam Whistle is the only craft beer hockey fans can buy at a hockey game — any hockey game — in the area. The brewery supplies the Toronto Marlies, the Leafs’ top minor league affiliate. The Marlies play five minutes down the road in Ricoh Coliseum, an imposing concrete building reminiscent of the grand-old NHL hockey arenas. That includes Maple Leaf Gardens, which still stands dormant north of the city center.

“There really isn’t a bad seat in [Ricoh Coliseum],” says Chris Goddard, Steam Whistle’s marketing director and resident hockey afficionado. “But the Marlies just haven’t been able to draw. If people don’t have Leafs tickets, they’d just rather watch them on television than go out for a Marlies game.”

What they miss is great hockey in a great, old arena for a fraction of what it costs to see a Leafs game. Great Lakes Brewery’s John Bowden is just as perplexed as Goddard by Toronto hockey fans’ fixation on the Maple Leafs. He should know. He is one. Bowden has never been to a Marlies game, and he offers no explanation for it.

Launched in 1987, Great Lakes is the first craft brewer in Toronto. Today, the brewery has a storefront and brewhouse just west of downtown that’s visible from the Gardiner Expressway, the main artery leading to and from Toronto. Bowden often leads tours of the brew house, which is more typical of Ontario craft brewers — small. While Steam Whistle produces more than 12,000 gallons of beer each day, Great Lakes’ daily output is about 1,320.

Great Lakes produces seven beers, three of them seasonals. Soon, says Bowden, there will be more. Seasonal beers are Great Lakes’ strongest performers, and beer lovers who visit the city right now are in luck. Its winter ale, which features generous amounts of cinnamon, honey, ginger, and orange peel, is easily the brewery’s most popular seasonal brew.

“I think there’s been a huge shift toward more flavorful beers in Toronto,” says Bowden. “But it’s sort of a chicken-and-egg thing. Until people find beers like ours and try them, they won’t start asking for them at bars. But the ball has started rolling for sure.”

A sign of that are two other small breweries that have opened in the neighborhood. Cool Brewing Co., with a three-beer lineup that includes a unique hemp-based red lager, is about four miles north. Black Oak Brewing Co., which brews an award-winning nut brown ale, is less than two miles to the east.

The local hockey team for Great Lakes Brewing is the Mississauga St. Michael’s Majors, part of the Ontario Hockey League. The OHL, one of three major junior hockey leagues in Canada and the U.S., is similar to NCAA basketball. Most of the good pros have come through the league, including the legendary Bobby Orr, Wayne Gretzky and last year’s overall first-round pick, John Tavares. Even though the Majors play in Hershey Center, a gorgeous new hockey arena with even better sightlines than Ricoh Coliseum, the building is rarely full.

The gravitational pull of the Leafs doesn’t ease until visitors get about an hour away from the city, where OHL towns are staunch supporters of their own teams, even when the Leafs are on television. The best example is in Kitchener, where the Rangers play in one of the oldest arenas left in the league, Kitchener Auditorium, which opened in 1951. Attendance is always at or near capacity, the fans are loud and knowledgeable, and the cozy confines of the building produce a hockey atmosphere that is about as authentic as it gets.

The Sleeman Center in nearby Guelph is another great OHL rink. The home of the Storm is set downtown and adjoins a quaint indoor shopping mall, making the intermissions a little more bearable. Unfortunately, the arena is ruled by local brewing giant Sleeman. That’s fine during the game, but beer lovers should check out Guelph’s Wellington Brewery, Canada’s oldest independent microbrewery.

After experiencing greater Toronto’s array of OHL teams and craft brewers, the answer will be as clear as a Steam Whistle pilsner. When it comes to beer and hockey, smaller is better.

– Chris Gigley favourite thing about Canada is Tim Horton’s, where the combo meals don’t include fries. They include donuts. He suggests the Canadian Maple.