The Bar Towel

So Stone City Ales this summer, and now MacKinnon Brothers opening shop in the Kingston Area. I know I drink a lot if beer, but I'm not going to be able to keep two breweries a float...or will I?

http://www.thewhig.com/2014/05/23/broth ... en-brewery

Sounds cool. No mention of the styles of beer they will be starting with... anyone heard anything? Great beer scene emerging in this little city.

Based solely on the content of their website (http://www.mackinnonbrewing.com/), namely the fact that the brewmaster brother has a "Master's degeree in brewing and distilling from Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, and extensive experience at the brewing research girm BRI in London, England", I would guess that they will be brewing predominantly English or English-inspired styles. They have such a great story to go along with the brewery and the fact that they intend to eventually grow all of the ingredients themselves is excessively appealing to my sensibilities, so I'm fully preparing myself for the terrible possibility of them announcing their initial flagship offerings as being a some uninspired pale ale, amber ale, or pale lager.

ChrisK wrote:so I'm fully preparing myself for the terrible possibility of them announcing their initial flagship offerings as being a some uninspired pale ale, amber ale, or pale lager.

Dude, English ales can be exciting. Porters, barleywines, old ales, dark/pale milds, ESBs, RIS's among others are all traditional English styles...

liamt07 wrote:

ChrisK wrote:so I'm fully preparing myself for the terrible possibility of them announcing their initial flagship offerings as being a some uninspired pale ale, amber ale, or pale lager.

Dude, English ales can be exciting. Porters, barleywines, old ales, dark/pale milds, ESBs, RIS's among others are all traditional English styles...

Oh, I know. Don't misunderstand, I love English ales and would welcome a selection of properly-executed products. My skepticism stems from the past year's list of brewing start-ups rolling out with uninspired filler. I really really hope these guys come out of the gate with something unique and high-quality because i love the concept and story they have going.

They look like an interesting outfit. They've built themselves a cold cellar, instead of just a refrigerated room and they're growing their own hops and barley. Pretty neat.

They're not really in Kingston either, they look to be 30 minutes or so out of town.

Will be brewing in Bath. Great news for us. I too hope that they don't stick to safe styles. Here's hoping they do some "big" beers.

Looks like they're coming out of the gate with an English pale ale which is now on tap at a few bars in Kingston.

I have a bit of a family connection to these guys, so I will definitely be pulling for them to do well. What they are doing is at least interesting and unique; hopefully the quality of the beer will be good too!

Had a couple pints of their 2nd offering Crosscut Canadian Ale (an unfiltered blonde ale). Nice easy drinking citrusy summer beer, nothing mind blowing, but good. A fairly safe start out.

I visited the brewery last weekend. Cool set up. Tried the Crosscut as well as a Wheat Beer that was still fermenting. They have fairly limited capacity right now but they plan to compliment Cross Cut and the English Pale Ale with experimental and seasonal brews.

Retail store seemed a few weeks/a month away and will sell growlers (2L) and cans.

Looking forward to seeing what they have in store.

http://m.kingstonregion.com/community-s ... f-ontario-

Pretty cool, and will be driving out to pick some up...

Those guys were actually like the second or third batch that Barn Owl did. They're very keen on the local/crafty thing.

Grabbed a growler tonight. While, I'm happy to support this venture, they continue to make bready, flat ales with slight diacetyl qualities. Props to growing it local on three trellis lines, just need to add more hops...