DRAFT Magazine

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.

By Chris Gigley

Greg Taylor has always been a car guy. But until a few years ago, the co-founder of Steam Whistle Brewing in Toronto never knew how excited other people get when they see one with a fancy paint job.

He does now. Since Taylor bought and tricked out his first classic vehicle for the brewery in 2000, a 1949 International Stake Truck nicknamed “Lumpy,” Steam Whistle has become almost as famous for its fleet of eight vintage vehicles as it is for its beer. These aren’t just showpieces, either. While the vehicles are valuable promotional tools for the brewery, they also do honest-to-goodness work, delivering beer or serving suds at live events and shuttling people to where ever they need to go.

“We want these vehicles out on the road so they’re constantly being seen,” says Taylor. “The idea is that these vehicles start a dialogue. People will ask about them later on or they’ll come up and address the driver. People are engaging us and talking about the brand right away without us having to reach out to them.”

Taylor decided to amass a vintage fleet before he even launched Steam Whistle. While working for Upper Canada Brewing, he helped deliver beer in a couple of old vans that had not aged gracefully under the workload. When Taylor caught wind of a graffiti festival in town, he figured even a coat of spray paint would be an upgrade. So, he let a group of graffiti artists go nuts.

“When I drove one of the vans back to the brewery, people were shouting at me, ‘Right on!,’” he recalls. “The paint job didn’t really promote the brewery, but I realized what an impression a vehicle can make.”

Sleeman Breweries bought Upper Canada in 1998, and Taylor, Cameron Heaps, and Greg Cromwell left to launch Steam Whistle two years later. But Taylor didn’t forget about the vans. That’s why he immediately made an offer to buy a souped-up stake truck he saw near his parents’ home in southwest Ontario.

“It was the perfect vehicle, because it was vintage and still could be used to haul beer,” he says.

Taylor’s determination and persistence paid off. He kept checking in with the owner, and a year later he finally sold Taylor the truck, Lumpy. Taylor quickly acquired and revamped other classic trucks for duty. He found a 1950s Chevrolet Sedan Delivery, for instance, at an old fire house south of Montreal.

“I almost didn’t make it back to Toronto,” he remembers. “The thing was shaking so bad I couldn’t sleep that night because of the back and neck pain. A couple days later, we were driving it somewhere and a wheel fell off on the road. I learned some lessons right there. You never know where the weaknesses are when you get these vehicles.”

Now the Sedan Delivery, appropriately nicknamed “Shakey,” runs smoothly for its regular driver, Steve Ellery, Steam Whistle’s customer service supervisor.

The most unique-looking vehicle in the fleet is Chuckles, a 1956 Dodge Fargo that looks like it came from a cartoon. The cargo vehicle was once used for postal service. Now, it hauls fresh kegs and cases of beer to private house parties in greater Toronto.

The most popular vehicle, however, is virtually unanimous among Steam Whistle customers. Even Taylor says the “Steam Machine,” a 1967 Ford Econoline Heavy Duty van with a tap built into the side, is his favorite.

“It’s just such a ridiculous design with so much character,” says Taylor. “We put blue shag carpet inside and added a sound system that plays different songs and the steam whistle sound. But most people love it because we can pour beer from the side of it.”

Recently, Steam Whistle added a 2010 Chevrolet Camaro to the fleet, which seems like an odd move.

“It’s not really a departure from the rest of the cars,” Taylor insists. “The Camaro has a retro design and we’re getting it in its first model year, so we get the same kind of reaction we get from our vintage vehicles.”

For those who prefer the authentic rides, Taylor says not to worry. He and his car guy, Paul Speirs of Speirs Automotive, are currently rehabbing a 1958 Chevy, nicknamed “Retro Electro,” to run on electricity. That vehicle will be sent West to promote Steam Whistle in the Vancouver area.

Taylor says his goal is to convert most of the fleet to electric and have the larger trucks, such as “The Party Bus,” a 1965 Ford Blue Bird, run on biodiesel. Taylor says he is currently scouting for a streamliner truck, a popular hauler in Canada in 40s and 50s. If he finds one, he says it will also be switched to biodiesel.

“We take environmental initiatives seriously because it’s a big part of our brand,” says Taylor. “We’ve probably spent about $35,000 on Retro Electro alone, but it’s worth it.”

Spoken like a true car guy.

– Chris Gigley is a freelance food, travel, and sports writer who has discovered that Natty Greene Red Nose Ale, brewed in his hometown of Greensboro, NC, is an excellent cure for writer’s block.