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El Pinguino wrote:I have no idea how "big" or "small" most breweries are. I remember being surprised taking a tour at Muskoka and they said they were the Xth largest brewer in Ontario (4th or something like that).
Granite brewery has been around for ages, but they always seemed to have a small setup to me? How would their size compare to say Radical Road? I've been to Half Hours on Earth, and they're in an industrial building, with plenty of space for expansion...so I doubt they have to worry....if they keep selling, they can keep growing...
What you see at the Granite is the tip of the iceberg. You need to go downstairs to see how well they scale. Even then, they are not pretentious about their operation. I can't speak to the economics of the business, but I'm sure it's possible to run a sustainable brewing and restaurant business. "Sustainable" has become misconstrued as an environmental term, but it means more than that. Great businesses last generations without needing to chase absurd growth and returns.
True...ya I suspected they may have a larger operation in hiding
The "Grand Opening" is on Tuesday. I gather that means the start of bottle sales on site and more normal hours. The day itself features free food and exceptionally cheap drinks.
I live around the corner, so I've been a bunch of times now. I've been pleasantly surprised by how clean and generally decent the beers have been. If all you know about them are the couple of beers they put in the lcbo a couple of years back I'd suggest giving them another shot.
Was just there for a pre-Cask Days dinner. The beers are clean and tasty but nothing that will really knock your socks off. The food was great though. I had the Jerk wings and buddies had the BBQ braised beef and everyone was raving about how good the food was. Upstaged the beer pretty much.
I thought all of the beers I had were above average.
Yuzu Pale Ale: A cloudy, tart pale ale. This would be great on a patio.
Entropy Stout: This was just a solid stout.
Midnight Oil Oatmeal Imperial Stout: You would never guess that this was 9%. Hid it well and had a lovely creamy mouth feel.
I will definitely return and it's a nice addition to the East end.
El Pinguino wrote:
Granite brewery has been around for ages, but they always seemed to have a small setup to me? How would their size compare to say Radical Road? I've been to Half Hours on Earth, and they're in an industrial building, with plenty of space for expansion...so I doubt they have to worry....if they keep selling, they can keep growing...
What you see at the Granite is the tip of the iceberg. You need to go downstairs to see how well they scale. Even then, they are not pretentious about their operation. I can't speak to the economics of the business, but I'm sure it's possible to run a sustainable brewing and restaurant business. "Sustainable" has become misconstrued as an environmental term, but it means more than that. Great businesses last generations without needing to chase absurd growth and returns.
True...ya I suspected they may have a larger operation in hiding
I'm on the brew team at granite. generally speaking, our batches are 1000L with a 300L pilot system for one offs. Downstairs we have 3 conditioning tanks and 7 Brite tanks that vary in size from 600L to 2000L. We brew 3-4 times a week. Shoot me any questions you have.
A few more exotic offerings from these guys lately. Brett IPA (pretty good), Berliner (fine), Belgian table beer (did not try) and a Brett biere de garde.
So it seems like these guys are flexing their creative muscles a lot more than they used to. The tap list right now has two sours, a Brett, a cucumber mint Kolsch, a pale ale with fruit and an IPA made using Cavitation. Pretty great for a place that seats like 30.
The raspberry sour they have on right now is terrific.