The Bar Towel

The latest addition to Hamilton's burgeoning craft beer scene is Merit Brewing, which will apparently involve the former head brewer of Sawdust City.

No indication of brewing style, but it appears that they are opting for a brewpub / bottle shop set up with a more ambitious menu than most. Good location on James North.

http://bottomlesspint.ca/merit-brewing/

A few more details, especially stylistically, here....

https://bensbeerblog.com/2017/02/22/4104/

Really excited for this. Collective Arts is great for take away, but it'll be nice to finally have a few (hopefully) good brewpubs to sit down at in Hamilton.

With Merit, that makes 4 new brewpubs that are likely to open in Hamilton in 2017 (Rust City, Fairweather, Grain & Grit being the others). From zero to sixty, as they say. The pedigree behind Merit makes it the likely front runner for success, but wishing all of them good luck!

40 years too late for my time in Hamilton

Surprised there hasn't been a post yet about them. Hamilton brewery, look like the official open is on the 11th, tho there's been a soft open already. Anyone been? Their stuff looks really interesting. Chanan, a dry hopped saison with Indian coriander and fresh orange peel sounds amazing. Can't wait to check them out.

There was already a thread, so I merged them.

haha dang. thanks!

jeremyg wrote:Surprised there hasn't been a post yet about them. Hamilton brewery, look like the official open is on the 11th, tho there's been a soft open already. Anyone been? Their stuff looks really interesting. Chanan, a dry hopped saison with Indian coriander and fresh orange peel sounds amazing. Can't wait to check them out.

they're doing 2 saisons for their first two beer. i find that a bit...interesting.

a saison with coriander and orange peel? honestly, sounds like what a tripel would taste like. but whatever. might be good. who knows.
the owners are good people. very eager as well. they'll likely get support from the community.

http://www.meritbrewing.ca/uncategorize ... -flagship/

to be honest, though: i feel like we are (or should be) past the point where we're excited about a new brewery opening and brewing stuff that most of everyone brews (although, admittedly, few Ontario breweries brew great saisons). with Merit and the new QUeen st East and Eastern Ave Toronto breweries, i'm in this "ho-hum" stage. i wish them all luck but i feel little need or energy to run around and their their offerings, especially right off the bat when they still don't know their systems well.

I was at their soft opening on Friday and I was very impressed.

The Beer: They'll have 10 taps of their own stuff on at most times and one guest tap. All the beers of theirs I tried vere good, to very good, to excellent. Yeah, 2-3 of them right now are farmhouse-esque, but they are all radically different. Chanen is the hybrid with orange peel and coriander. It's neither a bastardized wit, nor a tripel, has a great yeast character and was honestly my second favorit of the night (their actual Tripel.....holy moley!). Whether or not perfect style guidlines matter or not is a philisophical discussion, best undertaken over, well, beers. My initial worry is that they might have been trying to do too many initial beers on a new system. While a few of their hoppier beers can no doubt be dialed in a little more, all were well above average and most importantly, had zero off flavors. However, this really isn't suprising, as Spinney really knows what he's doing. Overall, Merit hits the ground running and punches above their weight class.

The Space: Awesome. Big, open, huge windows and a ton of light. It feels a lot more cozy and intimate when the sun goes down and it's packed with people. Big windows into the back were the tanks are makes the space feel even more open. They will eventually have a nice big patio in the back, which hasn't been constructed yet.

The Food: They only had a partial menu for the soft opening, but it'll be sausages mixed with other small plates. Much like the brewing, their culinary pedigree is strong . The 3 different sausages I tried were fantastic and definitely elevated compared to normal pub fair. Great stuff.

The People: Full disclosure, I know some of them (and many of you probably do as well), so I'm probably biased. However, I met many of the people involved for the first time on Friday. Everyone there is super friendly, gracious, passionate and knowledgable. Not only am I super happy about this place, I'm super happy for the people running this joint!

Overall, Merit is definitely worth a stop if you are passing through Hamilton. As a local, it'll definitely be my new hang out. With another 4 breweries/brewpubs opening in the next few months/within the year, hopefully Hamilton will be worth a day trip.

atomeyes wrote:

jeremyg wrote:Surprised there hasn't been a post yet about them. Hamilton brewery, look like the official open is on the 11th, tho there's been a soft open already. Anyone been? Their stuff looks really interesting. Chanan, a dry hopped saison with Indian coriander and fresh orange peel sounds amazing. Can't wait to check them out.

they're doing 2 saisons for their first two beer. i find that a bit...interesting.

a saison with coriander and orange peel? honestly, sounds like what a tripel would taste like. but whatever. might be good. who knows.
the owners are good people. very eager as well. they'll likely get support from the community.

http://www.meritbrewing.ca/uncategorize ... -flagship/

to be honest, though: i feel like we are (or should be) past the point where we're excited about a new brewery opening and brewing stuff that most of everyone brews (although, admittedly, few Ontario breweries brew great saisons). with Merit and the new QUeen st East and Eastern Ave Toronto breweries, i'm in this "ho-hum" stage. i wish them all luck but i feel little need or energy to run around and their their offerings, especially right off the bat when they still don't know their systems well.

you live in toronto i'm guessing

boney wrote:I was at their soft opening on Friday and I was very impressed.

The Beer: They'll have 10 taps of their own stuff on at most times and one guest tap. All the beers of theirs I tried vere good, to very good, to excellent. Yeah, 2-3 of them right now are farmhouse-esque, but they are all radically different. Chanen is the hybrid with orange peel and coriander. It's neither a bastardized wit, nor a tripel, has a great yeast character and was honestly my second favorit of the night (their actual Tripel.....holy moley!). Whether or not perfect style guidlines matter or not is a philisophical discussion, best undertaken over, well, beers. My initial worry is that they might have been trying to do too many initial beers on a new system. While a few of their hoppier beers can no doubt be dialed in a little more, all were well above average and most importantly, had zero off flavors. However, this really isn't suprising, as Spinney really knows what he's doing. Overall, Merit hits the ground running and punches above their weight class.

The Space: Awesome. Big, open, huge windows and a ton of light. It feels a lot more cozy and intimate when the sun goes down and it's packed with people. Big windows into the back were the tanks are makes the space feel even more open. They will eventually have a nice big patio in the back, which hasn't been constructed yet.

The Food: They only had a partial menu for the soft opening, but it'll be sausages mixed with other small plates. Much like the brewing, their culinary pedigree is strong . The 3 different sausages I tried were fantastic and definitely elevated compared to normal pub fair. Great stuff.

The People: Full disclosure, I know some of them (and many of you probably do as well), so I'm probably biased. However, I met many of the people involved for the first time on Friday. Everyone there is super friendly, gracious, passionate and knowledgable. Not only am I super happy about this place, I'm super happy for the people running this joint!

Overall, Merit is definitely worth a stop if you are passing through Hamilton. As a local, it'll definitely be my new hang out. With another 4 breweries/brewpubs opening in the next few months/within the year, hopefully Hamilton will be worth a day trip.

sounds great! won't be able to make it for the grand opening tomorrow night but i'll def check it out this weekend.

jeremyg wrote:

atomeyes wrote:

jeremyg wrote:Surprised there hasn't been a post yet about them. Hamilton brewery, look like the official open is on the 11th, tho there's been a soft open already. Anyone been? Their stuff looks really interesting. Chanan, a dry hopped saison with Indian coriander and fresh orange peel sounds amazing. Can't wait to check them out.

they're doing 2 saisons for their first two beer. i find that a bit...interesting.

a saison with coriander and orange peel? honestly, sounds like what a tripel would taste like. but whatever. might be good. who knows.
the owners are good people. very eager as well. they'll likely get support from the community.

http://www.meritbrewing.ca/uncategorize ... -flagship/

to be honest, though: i feel like we are (or should be) past the point where we're excited about a new brewery opening and brewing stuff that most of everyone brews (although, admittedly, few Ontario breweries brew great saisons). with Merit and the new QUeen st East and Eastern Ave Toronto breweries, i'm in this "ho-hum" stage. i wish them all luck but i feel little need or energy to run around and their their offerings, especially right off the bat when they still don't know their systems well.

you live in toronto i'm guessing

radical guess

as i said, i wish them luck. but if i'm looking for a drive-to brewery, it would be Barncat or HHOE. but it's great for Hamilton. and, having talked to one of the owners before, one of the brewery's goals was to help revitalize part of Hamilton.

rooting for them on a personal level, needle's barely moving on the beer geek level.

boney wrote:I was at their soft opening on Friday and I was very impressed.

The Beer: They'll have 10 taps of their own stuff on at most times and one guest tap. All the beers of theirs I tried vere good, to very good, to excellent. Yeah, 2-3 of them right now are farmhouse-esque, but they are all radically different. Chanen is the hybrid with orange peel and coriander. It's neither a bastardized wit, nor a tripel, has a great yeast character and was honestly my second favorit of the night (their actual Tripel.....holy moley!). Whether or not perfect style guidlines matter or not is a philisophical discussion, best undertaken over, well, beers. My initial worry is that they might have been trying to do too many initial beers on a new system. While a few of their hoppier beers can no doubt be dialed in a little more, all were well above average and most importantly, had zero off flavors. However, this really isn't suprising, as Spinney really knows what he's doing. Overall, Merit hits the ground running and punches above their weight class.

The Space: Awesome. Big, open, huge windows and a ton of light. It feels a lot more cozy and intimate when the sun goes down and it's packed with people. Big windows into the back were the tanks are makes the space feel even more open. They will eventually have a nice big patio in the back, which hasn't been constructed yet.

The Food: They only had a partial menu for the soft opening, but it'll be sausages mixed with other small plates. Much like the brewing, their culinary pedigree is strong . The 3 different sausages I tried were fantastic and definitely elevated compared to normal pub fair. Great stuff.

The People: Full disclosure, I know some of them (and many of you probably do as well), so I'm probably biased. However, I met many of the people involved for the first time on Friday. Everyone there is super friendly, gracious, passionate and knowledgable. Not only am I super happy about this place, I'm super happy for the people running this joint!

Overall, Merit is definitely worth a stop if you are passing through Hamilton. As a local, it'll definitely be my new hang out. With another 4 breweries/brewpubs opening in the next few months/within the year, hopefully Hamilton will be worth a day trip.

I'd agree with everything here. Was really impressed with my initial visit.