There has been a lot of progress on the Trestle Brewing Company build and we are super excited to share an update with you. In spite of delays caused by bitterly cold temperatures in December and the break for Christmas holidays, our construction trades have been working hard. Everyday we see progress toward an opening date (which is still a moving target!). The brewery is now fully closed in with doors, garage doors and windows all installed.
In preparation for pouring the floor, there was a lot of plumbing and electrical conduit that needed to be installed in the floor. After talking with several friends in the brewing industry, as well as hearing Matt’s experience at previous breweries, we knew that it is crucial not mess up the floor and what’s underneath it. The chemicals and hot temperatures used to clean brewing vessels can wreak havoc on concrete floors, drains and wastewater plumbing if they’re not properly designed. To reduce the chance of this happening to us, we’ve installed stainless steel drains and all the brewery plant side wastewater piping is a specialized pipe that uses an electrofusion machine to weld the connections together. This week we are having a specialized urethane coating installed on the brewhouse floor to protect the concrete further.
Speaking of beautiful concrete, we poured the floor on January 24th and are in love with the results. Who knew that concrete love was a thing! The crew who did the pour are true professionals. The indicators of their mastery of their trade was obvious from their interactions with each other, their happiness in spite of the prospect of a long and tough day ahead, and the way they made it look so easy when it really isn’t at all. It was a concrete ballet… We had fun putting together this video of the process and the results.
With the floor in, construction has really started to move along. Electrical, plumbing, HVAC, and interior walls are all well underway. Then there’s all the work that’s about to start on the brewery plant side. The next while is going to be a whirlwind and a sprint. Thanks for following along and your continued support.
Cheers!
The Trestle Team
]]>Wow! What a year it has been here at Trestle Brewing Company! As most of you are probably aware, our project has been in the works since spring 2015 so it’s been incredibly exciting and to see it all coming together. There were many landmark moments for us this past year that wouldn’t have been possible without the constant support of our community here in Parry Sound. Thanks to you all for making it special.
A year ago we were in the process of hiring a Brewmaster and had just given a job offer to Matt. While we had interviewed several candidates we always knew that he was the best fit for the position and were thrilled when he decided to join the team. It was a big move for him and his family to buy a home in Parry Sound and move from Victoria to get on this crazy train ride. He started work in June and has been busy making delicious beer ever since. Along with our flagship beer, Trestle Golden Ale, and our first seasonal release, Trestle White IPA, Matt has been busy brewing pilot batches to tune up the recipes that will be “Brewed by the Bay” this coming year. We are looking forward to sharing these releases with you. Think of beers such as Rye Porter, Thai Wit, Belgian Tripel, West Coast IPA, Imperial Stout, and Tart Mango/Passion Fruit Ale. Matt truly is a beer ninja! Thanks for all your hard work Matt. We are looking forward to a great year ahead!
Another highlight this year was being able to share a taste of Trestle with you this summer through the restaurants and golf courses in the area that served our beer. Thank you to all our partner establishments! An especially fun part of this was the opportunity to host Craft Beer Cruises on board the MV Chippewa III. We hosted cruises co-hosted by Pedaling for Parkinson's, Hospice West Parry Sound, Georgian Bay Biosphere Reserve and Barnstormer Brewing. The pairing of tasty beer, great local food from Moose on the Loose and Food & Fervour and a Georgian Bay cruise always made for a good time even though the weather was less than ideal. We’re all looking forward to warmer summer days and more craft beer cruising in 2018!
Our team attended three beer festivals: KW Rib and Craft Beer Show in Kitchener, Session Muskoka in Bracebridge and Head for the Hills in Georgetown. While all of them were great, Head for the Hills was our personal favourite and lived up to its reputation as the best craft beer event in Ontario. Somehow, to our surprise, we managed to have the most popular tent at the festival pouring the highest number of samples out of all 35 breweries in attendance!
As summer came to an end construction on the brewery kicked off and has been ticking along ever since. High winds in October and November and recent frigid temperatures have inevitably slowed things down but the crew was able to get working inside in December and we’re on track to be brewing on site this spring. This is an important waterfront development for our area and we’re lucky to have the opportunity to develop this property into something truly special.
In October, Trestle Golden Ale was approved for sale in grocery stores. It’s especially cool to receive photos by email from beer lovers elsewhere in the province discovering our beer and contacting us with feedback and interest in visiting the brewery when we open. Matt at Sobeys Parry Sound has been a huge help getting our beer out to thirsty customers this fall and has sold a Trestle glass to seemingly almost every one of the residents here. Sampling days at Sobeys are some of our favourite times for the Trestle Team because of the interaction we get to have with you - our supporters.
On December 19th at 10:41am Trestle Golden Ale was approved for sale on the shelves of LCBO stores and kudos have to go out to Jennifer and her staff at Parry Sound LCBO for welcoming us so warmly in the middle of the holiday LCBO frenzy! By opening time on December 20th her team had our product on the shelves and heading out the door. Over 20 other LCBO stores had our beer on their shelves by Christmas. It was a long road to get this done but that is part of what made it wonderfully rewarding heading into the holidays!
These are just a few of the highlights of our year and we look forward to hitting new highs in 2018!
Thanks for being part of our journey!
There is a crazy year ahead no doubt… please join us for the ride.
]]>It’s all about the water around here.
That rings true with anyone who lives in or visits the Parry Sound area. Being in the Georgian Bay Biosphere, proper water management is something we believe is an important part of the sustainability of our brewery.
The craft brewing industry in Ontario continues to grow by leaps and bounds and one of the largest challenges being faced, especially in smaller rural communities, is water management. One of the neat things about our industry is the unique locations that many breweries are locating in. Overall though, this presents challenges around water management. Breweries such as Lake of Bays in Baysville and Beau’s in Vankleek Hill are brewing large quantities of craft beer in small communities and out of necessity have become experts and leaders on water and wastewater best practices.
In Parry Sound we are told there is plenty of capacity in the municipal wastewater system for the volumes we will be dealing with. But it’s important to us to do the right thing from the start. We are the beneficiaries of knowledge being passed on to us from experience and this helps to form our position and best practice. As we anticipate our growth we have been planning to lead from the front and be early adopters of a sustainability methodology. We’ve have invested in engineering to design systems and developed procedures that reduce our overall water use and wastewater impact.
November 24th we visited Sawdust City Brewing in Gravenhurst to attend a seminar they were hosting in partnership with The St. Lawrence River Institute and organized by the Ontario Craft Brewers Association. Sawdust’s unparalleled success is no secret among craft beer enthusiasts, and with their growth, Brewmaster Sam Corbeil decided to take a proactive approach and implemented a sophisticated water management strategy and developed innovative solutions and procedures to reduce the potential impacts of their increased production. We went to learn from their experience and about the processes they’ve put in place. Although they started as a larger brewery than we will be to start, Sawdust is a perfect analog for us in many ways and we are committed to implementing many of the same processes they are using. The session made us keenly aware that we were on the right track and that we are in a fortunate position to be able to build solutions and systems into our project from the get go.
Our Brewmaster Matt Lyons says “The most important step for us to take initially is implementing a detail oriented side streaming program that keeps the bad stuff out of the drain. It sounds easy, and some of it is easy, but some aspects become more complex as time passes and we experience potentially rapid growth. Spent grain and yeast will be collected and sent to farmers in the area to be used as feed for livestock. Trub (hops and proteins that precipitate out after boiling) and other solids will be captured and composted off site.”
Matt says “we have designed our wastewater system to have separate streams from the brewery production floor and from the retail/taproom sides of the building. The brewery wastewater flows into a balancing tank outdoors that reduces effluent temperature, balances out the pH, and settles residual solids before the wastewater enters the municipal system.”
Support for our project comes in many ways and we are thankful to the Ontario Craft Brewers Association and to Louis Savard from the St. Lawrence River Institute as well Michael Fagan at the Bloom Centre (their website is a great resource for any brewery - http://waterandbeer.bloomcentre.com/). They and many others have been a big help to us in developing our systems and standard operating procedures.
If you are interested in learning more about the nuts and bolts of these systems and procedures we would be happy to hear from you. Please email us at sustainability@trestlecraftbeer.ca.
]]>First off, a big thank you to everyone for the support of our Golden Ale launch at Parry Sound Sobeys! Cheers to Matt Derouin for supporting local! The number of people buying our beer has surpassed our greatest expectations and we are humbled by your support. We've loved hearing from you and having you share your photos enjoying tasty cold Trestle Golden Ale. Please keep sending us your photos!
We are adding more locations every week where you can buy our flagship beer - Trestle Golden Ale. Grocery stores in North Bay, Innisfil, Orangeville, Lindsay and Vaughan carrying our beer! It's pretty neat to see beer lovers from outside of our area try our beer. It is even better when our beer gets great reviews and customers contact us to find out when they can come visit the brewery!
On the shelf in Orangeville! Keeping good company...
If you'd like to see our beer in your local licensed grocery store, please ask for them to bring it in, it really does help us get it there.
We are working on distributing Trestle Golden Ale through LCBO stores as we write this but it is a separate process. Hoping for an announcement on that soon!
]]>Construction of the brewery has been moving along well over the past month! The weather has been challenging with high winds and a lot of rain slowing things down. Overall we're moving along well and almost on schedule.
No sun - no moon!
No morn - no noon -
No dawn - no dusk - no proper time of day.
No warmth, no cheerfulness, no healthful ease,
No comfortable feel in any member -
No shade, no shine, no butterflies, no bees,
No fruits, no flowers, no leaves, no birds! -
November!
- Thomas Hunter
The steel frame is up and the services (water, sewer, natural gas, hydro, and fibre) are all across the road to the building. The site work is progressing well and the siding, roofing and insulating of the building are nearing completion. The crew onsite is looking forward to closing in the building, getting out of the cold and starting work inside.
We put a video together of the first few weeks of construction. Check it out!
]]>Exciting things are happening onsite as construction is now well underway.
Things were really ticking along this week, enjoy some photos of the progress!
]]>Our brewhouse has arrived!
Check out the fun we had getting it unloaded! Looking forward to getting this installed in our facility.
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ON TAP AT:
Swiss Country House Restaurant & Bar’n
IN CANS AT:
Parry Sound Golf & Country Club
The MV Chippewa III Cruise Boat
Charles W. Stockey Centre for the Performing Arts
Please enjoy our beer responsibly.
]]>It was a big day for the Trestle Team as we finally reached this milestone.
Thanks to the Mayor, Council members and other supporters who were on hand to help us mark the occasion, turn the first shovel, and celebrate with a tasty Trestle Golden Ale!
While we’ve got your attention, we thought we’d answer a couple of the most common questions about our project…
Q- When will you be open?
A- As soon as we can be!
Q- Where can I get your beer until then?
A- We’ve had our beer available at a number of our favourite establishments in the Parry Sound area all summer. Find the full list here: WHERE TO BUY
Q- I love your Golden Ale. Where can I buy cans to drink at home?
A- Nowhere quite yet. But stay tuned for an announcement on that soon!
Thanks again to everyone for your support!
The Trestle Team
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