Cosgrave & Sons - IPA, Stout & Lager

[robhu]

I found a very old beer deliver case. The box reads.....


Cosgrave & Sons
Toronto

India Pale Ale
Extra Stout
Lager Beer.

The case is hand made, old square nails, leather hinges.

Amazing information, thank you all for your information.

Regards,


Robertbhutchison@yahoo.com

[PRMason]

You may find some stuff about this at Mill St. brewery. They have a history of brewing in Toronto in their lobby.
I imagine it was one of E.P. Taylor's conquests.

[inertiaboy]

In 1990, the Brewers Retail did a nice poster of old beer labels. You might see it up in a few bars - Kingston Brewing Company has it, for example. The poster has pictures of the Pale Ale and India Pale Ale labels. The description for this brewery on the accompanying notes is:

Cosgrave Brewery Co. of Toronto, Limited
Cosgrave & Co's.

This brewery was established as early as 1835 and was acquired by Patrick Cosgrave in 1863. It was originally known as the West Toronto Brewery, Cosgrave & Co. and dates from 1872-1895. The joint stock company Cosgrave Brewing Co. of Toronto Ltd. was formed in 1895 and survived until 1921. All Cosgrave brands were dropped in 1945.

[old faithful]

As noted in the last post, the name was Cosgrave (not Cosgrove), Cosgrave Brewing Co. It originated in the mid-1800's. At one time the first Cosgrave was an associate of Eugene O'Keefe who founded what became O'Keefe Brewery. Cosgrave brewed on a site east of Garrison Creek (does that watercourse still exist? - I am not from Toronto originally and don't know all the areas). As Perry stated it was acquired by E.P. Taylor of Canadian Breweries but had been merged, probably in 1921, with Dominion Brewery whose imposing building still stands on Queen St. in Corktown. There is a pub at the corner that bears the name Dominion which probably was the brewery tap. The Cosgrave labels were dropped in 1945. As the box shows, IPA and Irish-type stout were standbys of the Ontario brewing scene then. What did Cosgrave's IPA taste like? This is hard to say. Probably it evolved from the mid-1800's, when it might have tasted like, say, one of the Granite's draft beers, until cessation of production when it probably resembled what Labatt IPA was like at the end (which was pretty good but not assertive like the micro ales of that description today). I wonder if there are descendants of the brewing Cosgraves still living, I would think this likely.

Gary

[Uncle Bobby]

As noted in the last post, the name was Cosgrave (not Cosgrove), Cosgrave Brewing Co. It originated in the mid-1800's. At one time the first Cosgrave was an associate of Eugene O'Keefe who founded what became O'Keefe Brewery. Cosgrave brewed on a site east of Garrison Creek (does that watercourse still exist? - I am not from Toronto originally and don't know all the areas).
Gary

Gary,

Garrison Creek stills exists as a culvert under the west central cityscape. It runs from about Bloor St. down to the lakeshore and was the watercourse that fed the garrison at Fort York. Parks and depressions mark its present day course. The big dips in Bickford Park (at Grace and Harbord) and in Trinity Bellwoods more or less indicate the parts of the former ravine that were too deep to be filled in with construction rubble and garbage as were many others. The curvy contour of Niagara St. in the King and Bathurst area is another indication -- you can see a depression in the road just west of the Olde York pub.

That means Cosgrave may date to one of the original breweries to serve the garrison at Fort York.

Now that's a wonderful bit of local breweriana.

Regards,

Uncle Bobby

[Publican]

According to Ian Bowering's book The Art and Mystery of Brewing in Ontario, Patrick Cosgrave and his partner John Moss established a brewery in the village of Pucky Huddle (which is the Erindale neighbourhood of Mississauga today) in 1852. They brewed Irish porter and the reason they picked Pucky Huddle was that it was near a ready supply of barley. Patrick Cosgrave left Pucky Huddle around 1861 and he moved to Toronto where he entered into a new partnership with Eugene O'Keefe. Cosgrave left Pucky Huddle because it was 30 miles from Toronto and it soon became apparent that they were to far from Toronto to prosper. I grew up in the Erindale neighbourhood and it's intresting to know that there was a brewery in my neighbourhood over 100 years before I was born.

[old faithful]

Thanks gentlemen, most interesting (sipping an Irish-style porter as I write, John Sleeman's, and it is very good, better even than the first release - it has that "Worcestire sauce"-like scent and taste that good porter and stout have - maybe an aged element was added). Bobby, where is the bridge buried? Is it on the part of Harbord that is just east of Crawford? That crosses the ravine I think you are talking about. There is an old stone partition on one side (although steel reinforcing peeps out here and there) that could denote the ballustrade of a circa 1910 bridge. I was there on my bike today but couldn't clearly see where the bridge was.

Gary

P.S. I also bought Sleeman's IPA and again this is actually better than when it was first put out. It has a cleaner, richer taste. The all-Goldings come through very well and meld perfectly with the malts. I would prefer smaller bubbles (it has big bubble carbonation, the Porter too) but I just shake the bottle around a bit (when opened of course) to reduce the spritzy effect. Very good beers and I'd wager Cosgrave's IPA in the day was quite similar to the Guelph IPA.

[old faithful]

I found the information (about the bridges) online.

On Harbord just east of Crawford street the road bed is actually the deck of a late 1800's stone arch bridge. The bridge was buried when that part of Garrison Creek ravine was filled in in 1920. On the north side of Harbord (over from Grace) you will see a low, old stone fence or partition that doesn't "fit". It was part of the north balustrade of the bridge.

If you turn left onto Crawford (which you can't by car since it is one way, but say by bike or on foot), the stretch that straddles the park on its northwest edge (between Dundas and Harbord but on the northern end) is the deck of another bridge, which used to straddle a part of Garrison creek that wended south-east-west before continuing southerly more or less to the lake. That bridge was built in 1910 and was a handsome arched steel bridge. That part of the ravine was filled in in the 1950's with fill and debris from the Bloor subway excavations. Pictures of the original bridges are available online by doing simple searches (say, "Harbord bridge" + "Garrison Creek"). They are completely intact but entirely obscured because the ravines they crossed were filled up and around them by landfill.

I would think Cosgrave's was further south, nearer to Fort York on the east side of the ravine. Parts of the ravine were filled continuing south except the deepest parts so it is intermittently like a trench looking south from say the north end of Christie Pits. My Toronto geography is not that strong but I know what I am saying about the bridges is correct. I am not sure where Garrison Creek started at its northern end.

The creek still runs but it is encased in a culvert which runs under the visible bottom surface of the parts of the ravine not filled in.

Gary

[Tapsucker]

I have to say, I have always loved the connection between beer and Ontario history. This story is no less fascinating!

Does anybody know anything more about the village of Pucky Huddle? What a great name! A couple quick searches didn't turn up much on the history of this place.