Kichesippi Beer Company is set to purchase Heritage Brewing

sprague11 · Post by **sprague11** » Thu Mar 17, 2011 4:20 pm

jpm wrote:
1) Heritage Lager - we are no longer brewing this beer.

2) Brew Master - Don Harms (formerly of Propeller Brewing) has joined our company and will be in charge of all production, brewing and quality control.

Both worthy of a

Kel Varnsen · Post by **Kel Varnsen** » Sat Mar 26, 2011 10:55 pm

notdan wrote: Can't wait to see where this is going. I still hope the Bitter Brown sticks around. Very curious to see which beers are discontinued/replaced/created over the coming months. I look forward to stopping by the brewery this summer to pick up some bottles and see what's changed.

I did a tour of Kichesippi this afternoon and according to the tour guide, it sounds like they are going to be eliminating the other styles sticking just brewing Natural Blonde, Heritage Dark and Sgt Major's IPA (and it sounds like Dark lager might get rebranded as a Kichesippi beer). It kind of makes sense since he talked about how when it was the Heritage brewery they had 11 different brands in rotation and that was the cause of some quality control issues. Although it makes me wonder, if the only brands you are keeping are a dark lager and an IPA, why bother buying the Heritage/Scotch-Irish brand at all. Why not just buy the brewing location/equipment and come up with your own IPA. I mean since it is not like the heritage/SI brands really had that big a following.

The guy also said that they would probably start trying thier own seasonals possibly as early as the summer.

Also on a side note I was listening to CHEZ 106 the Ottawa classic rock station and I noticed that Kichesippi is a sponsor of their annual Toys for Boys contest. It was interesting since the brewery actually got some promotion, and that single mention on the radio was probably more media promotion then I ever heard heritage getting.

ErkLR · Post by **ErkLR** » Sun Mar 27, 2011 10:17 pm

Kel Varnsen wrote:why bother buying the Heritage/Scotch-Irish brand at all

Future expansion? Why come up with your own recipes when you have ready-made and tested recipes? It would be too bad if Corporal Punishment was discontinued.

Jon Walker · Post by **Jon Walker** » Sun Mar 27, 2011 11:05 pm

It might have something to do with LCBO sku's. If a brewery rebrands then they have to re-acquire LCBO shelf space, if available, and pay for it all over again (I believe this is what happened to Flying Monkeys when they took over Robert Simpson and then rebranded). In the case of Steelback they went through a major overhaul and purge when the ownership changed but kept several of the beers in order to not go through all the hassle with the LCBO (at least that's what I believe was their motivation).

So yes, acquiring the myriad of Heritage/Scotch Irish sku's might have more to do with it than purely a love of the recipes and/or branding or market share of the previous brewery.

Kel Varnsen · Post by **Kel Varnsen** » Sun Mar 27, 2011 11:22 pm

Jon Walker wrote:It might have something to do with LCBO sku's. If a brewery rebrands then they have to re-acquire LCBO shelf space, if available, and pay for it all over again (I believe this is what happened to Flying Monkeys when they took over Robert Simpson and then rebranded). In the case of Steelback they went through a major overhaul and purge when the ownership changed but kept several of the beers in order to not go through all the hassle with the LCBO (at least that's what I believe was their motivation).

So yes, acquiring the myriad of Heritage/Scotch Irish sku's might have more to do with it than purely a love of the recipes and/or branding or market share of the previous brewery.

That makes more sense then just the fact that they love the recipies. I mean I imagine that a brewmaster with any kind of experience shouldn't have that much trouble coming up with his own IPA recipie. But paying a bit more money and not having to wait months for LCBO approval would be a huge plus. One of the guys at the brewery said that Natural Blonde would be at the LCBO now, but the letter 'M' on the label was too big and the LCBO didn't want people thinking that 341Ml of beer meant 341 megalitres or 341 million litres of beer.

Also while I was there I noticed that in the cooler they had a bunch of cases of Erdinger. Including a bunch of cases of alcohol free Erdinger. I am not much of a conspiracy guy but it makes me wonder if a Hefeweizen is possibly in the works from Kichesippi

lister · Post by **lister** » Sun Mar 27, 2011 11:42 pm

Kel Varnsen wrote:but the letter 'M' on the label was too big and the LCBO didn't want people thinking that 341Ml of beer meant 341 megalitres or 341 million litres of beer.

*facepalm* Must have discovered the mass-shift Transformers technology.

Also while I was there I noticed that in the cooler they had a bunch of cases of Erdinger. Including a bunch of cases of alcohol free Erdinger. I am not much of a conspiracy guy but it makes me wonder if a Hefeweizen is possibly in the works from Kichesippi

Hopefully it's there just to show how NOT to make a weissebier.

Torontoblue · Post by **Torontoblue** » Mon Mar 28, 2011 8:45 am

Kel Varnsen wrote: the letter 'M' on the label was too big and the LCBO didn't want people thinking that 341Ml of beer meant 341 megalitres or 341 million litres of beer. i

Nothing to do with the LCBO, labeling standards are set out by the Canadian Foods Inspection Agency. If a label doesn't meet standards, you can either have it rectified at source or provide strip labels with the correct info on.

Kel Varnsen · Post by **Kel Varnsen** » Mon Mar 28, 2011 2:38 pm

lister wrote:
Kel Varnsen wrote:Also while I was there I noticed that in the cooler they had a bunch of cases of Erdinger. Including a bunch of cases of alcohol free Erdinger. I am not much of a conspiracy guy but it makes me wonder if a Hefeweizen is possibly in the works from Kichesippi
Hopefully it's there just to show how NOT to make a weissebier.

I don't know I like Erdinger, and it is in a fair number of Ottawa bars and seems to be fairly popular especially in the summer. I could totally see Kichesippi trying for a Hefeweizen. Plus it sounds like they want to focus on the local market, and Beau's doesn't currently make a Hefeweizen. This of course is all speculation based on some cases of beer that I saw in their cooler. For all I know Erdinger might just be someone at the company's favorite beer.

GregClow · Post by **GregClow** » Mon Mar 28, 2011 5:13 pm

Kel Varnsen wrote:Also while I was there I noticed that in the cooler they had a bunch of cases of Erdinger. Including a bunch of cases of alcohol free Erdinger. I am not much of a conspiracy guy but it makes me wonder if a Hefeweizen is possibly in the works from Kichesippi

Before he started Kichesippi, Paul Meek was the Ottawa rep for McClelland Premium Imports, who represent Erdinger in Ontario. If he still has that gig, that would explain it.

cfrancis · Post by **cfrancis** » Fri Apr 15, 2011 2:59 pm

Just an FYI

Kitchesippi is releasing their second beer today.

http://www.kbeer.ca/uncategorized/kichesippi-1855-2/

Tomorrow we launch our 2nd Beer – Kichesippi 1855. This beer is a dark ale that continues our mandate of offering food frirendly beer with a balance of flavour while also being refreshing. The beer offers dark malt flavours with woody, earthy aromas.

Mayor Jim Watson will be stopping by the brewery tomorrow to pour the 1st Official Pint. If you want to try a pint tomorrow, Johnny Farina will have the beer on tap and the Cheshire Cat in Carp will have a cask conditioned version. Both places will start pouring at 545pm tomorrow night. Growlers will be available at the brewery starting Saturday.

Inkling · Post by **Inkling** » Fri Apr 15, 2011 4:59 pm

cfrancis wrote:Cheshire Cat in Carp will have a cask conditioned version.

That's good to hear. Availability of cask ales has been poor in Ottawa (it seemed to be better back in the 90's), looking forward to trying this one.

ErkLR · Post by **ErkLR** » Fri Apr 15, 2011 7:33 pm

Speaking of dark ale, the LCBO lists Corporal's Bitter Brown (aka Corporal Punishment) as discontinued: http://www.lcbo.ca/lcbo-ear/lcbo/produc ... mber=94383
Boo-urns.

edited to add: And Stuart's and Black Irish Plain Porter.

Inkling · Post by **Inkling** » Sat Apr 16, 2011 6:13 pm

I stopped by the brewery to pick up a growler of 1855. It's quite nice, pretty light but has a nice taste. I will definitely buy more of this and would like to try the cask conditioned version at the Cheshire Cat.

Edit: I don't usually use the term 'sessionable' but after polishing off a good chunk of the growler tonight watching hockey, I guess this one would qualify. It's not a 'big' beer but it goes down nicely. I think I prefer it to their first offering, the blonde.

Kel Varnsen · Post by **Kel Varnsen** » Mon Apr 18, 2011 9:56 am

ErkLR wrote:Speaking of dark ale, the LCBO lists Corporal's Bitter Brown (aka Corporal Punishment) as discontinued: http://www.lcbo.ca/lcbo-ear/lcbo/produc ... mber=94383
Boo-urns.

edited to add: And Stuart's and Black Irish Plain Porter.

They talked about this on the tour I went on a few weeks ago. I guess the fact that Heritage/SI had so many brands was part of the reason for the quality control issues. The tour guide said at one point they were producing 11 brands (and the brewery isn't really that big). As far as killing brands goes, it doesn't really bother me that much since I would rather a brewery produce a few really good consistent beers than a ton of beers that are really hit or miss in terms of quality.

carguy · Post by **carguy** » Mon Apr 18, 2011 10:40 am

Speaking of such, I purchased a John By Imperial Stout the other day, and it was completely undrinkable. Horribly infected. Hopefully, this is addressed as well.