Habits to be nano brewing

[groulxsome]

Want to keep you folks in the loop with how things are developing at the nano. We've just finished our excise inspection and tank calibration, which is pretty much the last bit of red tape between us and brewing. The inspector said that might take a couple of weeks, so it is most likely we will begin brewing very early days of the new year. Again, you know how these brewery things go: always a 4 unit (days, weeks, months, years) delay between whatever someone from a brewery says reality.



In other news, the tap list has been updated IRL but not yet online. In order as they appear in the picture above:
1. Nickel Brook, Naughty Neighbor
2. Great Lakes, Lake Effect IPA
3. Beau's, Lugtred
4. Amsterdam, Boneshaker
5. Nickel Brook x Stone City Ales, Sons Of Sydenham (S.O.S)
6. Spearhead, Morocian Brown Ale
7. Nickel Brook, Le Paysan Saison
8. Steamwistle
9. Sawdust City, Old Woody Alt
10. Delirium Tremens

That Lake Effect is tasting mighty fine.

And here is a quick shot of the nano brewing system. It's located in the kitchen and, since the kitchen is open concept, you can easily see where we'll be brewing. Great place to drop in for a pint and some really good food!

[groulxsome]

An update for you fine folks. We had our first brewday yesterday! We are now a fully licensed, taxed, bonded, and operational brewpub.

Ideally, we should be ready to sell our Saison by Valentines Day. We're going to be ramping up our batch size once we get the last few kinks out and get some feedback (I'm sure there are no vocal people on here...) to see if we want to tweak things a little.

If the yeast gods smile upon us, I'll update shortly with a launch date.

Edit: We also have Clifford Porter on tap right now and for the next while (I suppose until it runs out), as a nice nod to the other nano that was once in the neighborhood.

[Cass]

Congrats & thanks for the update! Looking forward to coming down to the bar soon.

I take it the crazy 6.5% abv rule hasn't changed for brewpubs?

[groulxsome]

Congrats & thanks for the update! Looking forward to coming down to the bar soon.

I take it the crazy 6.5% abv rule hasn't changed for brewpubs?

No problem! Looking forward to your thoughts! We're hoping for some good two way brewery/community discussions about the beer.

And, no, no change to the foolish 6.5% ABV limit on brewpub beers. It limits us, but we've got some good things in development for sub-5% ABV, which seems to be something people are looking for right now, or at least I am.

We can grab good 6.5%+ beers from other breweries (like Bellwoods!) so it's not so bad at the moment. Though it is a silly, silly law. Maybe we can get some collaborations with non-brewpubs (like Brad did at Get Well) to offer some of our higher gravity ideas.

[lister]

When the woman is back and the saison hits the taps we'll probably make our first trek to Habits. (I have an itch to go to the Caledonian again so that'll work nicely.)

Has anyone in the biz questioned whichever body has this 6.5% ABV rule about getting it changed or removed entirely?

[JerCraigs]

Has anyone in the biz questioned whichever body has this 6.5% ABV rule about getting it changed or removed entirely?

One of the things that changed was the introduction of tied house rules and different license. Places like Granite and Indie, and Bellwoods are legally speaking not brewpubs but pubs attached to breweries (if I have that correct). I'm not sure of all the ins and outs, or what specific license those places have though.

[groulxsome]

An update for you good Bar Towel folks. We are going to begin serving the first batch of Habits Saison this evening (February 17) when we open at 5PM. Habits Gastropub is near College and Dovercourt.

I think there will be a proper press release today too. I'll be around Habits most nights this week if anyone wants to talk about the beer or the brewery.

We're looking for feedback on the first batch too. We've already dialed it in a little more for the second batch. I believe we're also planning on a proper launch party sometime in March to align with Habits Saison batch three (and perhaps including a second beer).

Anyway, we're really looking forward to hearing from folks. We've only got a few kegs of this first batch, but I'm hoping it will be enough to last the week.

Let me know if you have any questions. There are lots of other tasty things on taps at Habits right now too including Clifford Porter, Nickel Brook Immodest and Headstock, Karma Citra, and (I think) a beer from Northwinds.[/i]

[lister]

Cool, the missus is back in town tonight for a bit and we'll be up that way on Thursday. That may be dinner plans.

[Derek]

Congrats! Hopefully some of the Bartowelers in town will be able to make it out for your momentous occasion!

[saints_gambit]

http://saintjohnswort.ca/habits-gastropub-house-saison/

[beerstodiscover]

I went for dinner here last night. The tap and bottle list is well above average and food was great, especially the seabass, mac and cheese and batatas bravas. I thought the Habits Saison (4th batch) was good and very accessible, maybe a bit light on the funk. My non-beer geek friend loved it and said it reminded her of Beaus Lug-a-Tread. Perhaps the hop profile is similar. For 3 appetizers, 2 mains and 5 beers it came to $130 with tip. Not bad at all!

[groulxsome]

I went for dinner here last night. The tap and bottle list is well above average and food was great, especially the seabass, mac and cheese and batatas bravas. I thought the Habits Saison (4th batch) was good and very accessible, maybe a bit light on the funk. My non-beer geek friend loved it and said it reminded her of Beaus Lug-a-Tread. Perhaps the hop profile is similar. For 3 appetizers, 2 mains and 5 beers it came to $130 with tip. Not bad at all!

Thanks for dropping in! I'm glad the beer was accessible and always happy to hear non-beer geeks enjoy it. I like saisons to be very drinkable. Almost like a "pilsner of the north" (especially a good hoppy pilsner). Of course, granted both beers have very different profiles, but both, we believe, should be really quenching. We're aiming for the first one to be more of a thirst quenching saison than a more funky one. More like Hennepin or Dupont than, say, Fantome.

If you're looking for some funk, however, check back in a couple months when we start up our farmhouse program which will have some mixed fermentation ales with brett. We've also got a saison with a bunch of Sorachi Ace and Galaxy hops fermenting right now that should be more of a beer geek kinda beer. We're working on other projects too... but for now just keeping our house saison in supply is proving to be difficult!

Anyway, we've got our website up now with more about our approach. habitsbrewing.com

[ercousin]

I went for dinner here last night. The tap and bottle list is well above average and food was great, especially the seabass, mac and cheese and batatas bravas. I thought the Habits Saison (4th batch) was good and very accessible, maybe a bit light on the funk. My non-beer geek friend loved it and said it reminded her of Beaus Lug-a-Tread. Perhaps the hop profile is similar. For 3 appetizers, 2 mains and 5 beers it came to $130 with tip. Not bad at all!

Thanks for dropping in! I'm glad the beer was accessible and always happy to hear non-beer geeks enjoy it. I like saisons to be very drinkable. Almost like a "pilsner of the north" (especially a good hoppy pilsner). Of course, granted both beers have very different profiles, but both, we believe, should be really quenching. We're aiming for the first one to be more of a thirst quenching saison than a more funky one. More like Hennepin or Dupont than, say, Fantome.

If you're looking for some funk, however, check back in a couple months when we start up our farmhouse program which will have some mixed fermentation ales with brett. We've also got a saison with a bunch of Sorachi Ace and Galaxy hops fermenting right now that should be more of a beer geek kinda beer. We're working on other projects too... but for now just keeping our house saison in supply is proving to be difficult!

Anyway, we've got our website up now with more about our approach. habitsbrewing.com

Have you considered bottling your more unique saisons then having them available for purchase (to be consumed in Habbits) from a bottle list of previous releases?

[northyorksammy]

http://saintjohnswort.ca/habits-gastropub-house-saison/

this page not coming up for me

[groulxsome]

I went for dinner here last night. The tap and bottle list is well above average and food was great, especially the seabass, mac and cheese and batatas bravas. I thought the Habits Saison (4th batch) was good and very accessible, maybe a bit light on the funk. My non-beer geek friend loved it and said it reminded her of Beaus Lug-a-Tread. Perhaps the hop profile is similar. For 3 appetizers, 2 mains and 5 beers it came to $130 with tip. Not bad at all!

Thanks for dropping in! I'm glad the beer was accessible and always happy to hear non-beer geeks enjoy it. I like saisons to be very drinkable. Almost like a "pilsner of the north" (especially a good hoppy pilsner). Of course, granted both beers have very different profiles, but both, we believe, should be really quenching. We're aiming for the first one to be more of a thirst quenching saison than a more funky one. More like Hennepin or Dupont than, say, Fantome.

If you're looking for some funk, however, check back in a couple months when we start up our farmhouse program which will have some mixed fermentation ales with brett. We've also got a saison with a bunch of Sorachi Ace and Galaxy hops fermenting right now that should be more of a beer geek kinda beer. We're working on other projects too... but for now just keeping our house saison in supply is proving to be difficult!

Anyway, we've got our website up now with more about our approach. habitsbrewing.com

Have you considered bottling your more unique saisons then having them available for purchase (to be consumed in Habbits) from a bottle list of previous releases?

Yes indeed. It's in the works. Just working on getting space cleared for some bottles (and time and space to brew more beer!). Wine barrels are also in the works! Hoping for some bottles to start appearing in the fall. Hoping to keep up with demand in the summer!