Let’s Hit The Trail

The Ale Trail is no more–perhaps it was an idea before its time–but most of the breweries on it are still open. They’ve been joined by new entries as well; Ontario’s brewing industry is steadily growing, and the province now has some 40 craft breweries. So let’s hit the trail!

The original Trail started halfway between the border and Toronto, but because we live on the American side, we penciled in an extra stop in Windsor, Ontario. A short drive north along the Detroit River brought us to the Walkerville Brewing Co. If the name Walkerville doesn’t ring a bell, perhaps Hiram Walker and Canadian Club whiskey do.

Hiram Walker, the legendary distiller, also established a lager brewery, which became one of Ontario’s largest. It fell victim to consolidation in the Fifties, but in 1998, a couple from Windsor bought the right to use the name “Walkerville Brewery,” and revived brewing operations inside an old Hiram Walker warehouse near the original brewery site. Walkerville turns out a Classic Amber and a Premium Blonde, which can be found in beer stores–more about them in a moment–throughout the region.

From Windsor, it’s a two-hour drive to London, whose blend of the foreign and familiar makes it an ideal base for weekend getaways. Something to eat, and some al fresco beer–an Ontario microbrew, of course–on Richmond Row, puts us in the right frame of mind.

Our first trip to London brought us face to face with some quirky liquor laws. Beer isn’t available in supermarkets and convenience stores; you have to buy it in provincial stores. And beer couldn’t be sold on Sundays and holidays. On a Canada Day weekend, we found ourselves in a fix until a friendly bartender alerted us to a loophole in the law. Breweries could sell their own product on Sundays. So that explained the line of cars outside the Labatt brewery. Fortunately, the law has been changed, and Sundays aren’t quite as “blue.”

From London, it’s a half-hour drive to Stratford, and one of our best-loved destinations. The world-class theater at the Stratford Festival is reason enough to go, but other attractions include roaming the streets of the prim downtown and watching the swans and rowboats glide along the Avon River. More often than not, we finish our day with after-theater pints at Bentley’s, a British-style pub that pours British and Canadian favorites.

D.G. Yuengling & Son in Pottsville, PA is a source of inspiration to its fellow regionals. The country’s oldest brewery was founded in 1829, when Andrew Jackson was the newly inaugurated president of the United States. During the 1990s Yuengling became a trend-setter: its Black and Tan (a mix of porter and premium lager) inspired dozens of copycat products, and its Traditional Lager (an amber beer) has added a new cachet to the word “lager.” Last year Yuengling produced 920,000 barrels, making it the eighth largest brewer in the U.S.

Yuengling has long inspired an almost fanatical following among residents of Pennsylvania’s coal regions. In 1893, a Pottsville resident named Charles Guetling—perhaps to win some barroom bet—pushed a wheelbarrow laden with a keg of Yuengling all the way to the Chicago World’s Fair. One hundred years later, Yuengling was forced to pull out of several neighboring states when local distributors hollered loud and long about beer rationing. Yuengling has since reclaimed its lost territory after purchasing the former Stroh brewery in Tampa, FL in 1999. The company was set to cut the ribbon on a modern, million-barrel-a-year plant just outside Pottsville.

After 172 years, Yuengling is still family-owned, and should remain way: the two oldest daughters of the current brewery president, Richard Yuengling, Jr., have earned their brewing diplomas from the Siebel Institute in Chicago and taken jobs at the brewery,

Survival Through Diversification

“Life was a lot easier in the 1970s,” sighs Ted Marti, president of the August Schell Brewing Co. in New Ulm, MN. “We were only doing 2-3 beers back then.” Now Schell turns out 16 different brands, including a line of all-malt specialty beers that ranges from Schmaltz’s Alt to Zommerfest (a kölsch) to Snowstorm (an ever-changing winter seasonal that most recently was an ale/mead hybrid).

The brewery was founded in 1860 and managed to survive a Sioux uprising in 1862 that razed the rest of the settlement. Asked how Schell has managed to last 140 years, Marti answers, “We’ve always had great local support. It’s something we never lost. We were adaptable. When the times changed, we changed. We also had a family that wanted to operate a brewery. I’m the fifth generation.”

Meanwhile, the Lion Brewery in Wilkes-Barre, PA—currently celebrating its 100th birthday—has survived by being a jack-of-all-trades. In 2000, the brewery operated at capacity, pumping out 400,000 barrels, according to sales manager Michael Luksic. But that figures incorporates dozens of brands of many types of liquid, both alcoholic and non-alcoholic. The Lion’s latest venture is Long Island Iced Tea, a “malt-ernative beverage” flavored with black tea and measuring 5.5% abv.

The Lion has de-emphasized its traditional Stegmaier and Gibbons brands, the latter relegated to the gulag of 16-oz returnable bottles. The Brewery Hill line of craft beer gets the bulk of attention nowadays. Goya Malta, brewed for a Puerto Rican company, also helps puts bread on the table. Malta is essentially non-fermented wort, a sweet, non-alcoholic drink popular in Hispanic communities as a health tonic. The Lion also produces designer soft drinks and hard lemonades like Hooper’s Hooch.