Brews news: New brewery, Italian eatery opening in Port Stanley

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Harbourside and hops are getting closer as Port Stanley, finally, gets set for a second round of craft beer.

It’s been six years since the adventuresome Last Castle went on indefinite leave and more than a year since a new brewery was pumped as a project to bring new life to an old building on the west side of the village’s recreational boating harbour.

This spring, the new Port Stanley Brewing and its companion Italian restaurant and homage lounge are taking shape as the weather heats up.

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The restaurant will be called Riva, Italian for “shore.” It’s going to be more than a pizzeria, so common a pairing with breweries. Riva promises to be more in the spirit of La Birrotecca by Indie Ale House inside Toronto’s Eataly.

The lounge name will tip a hat to Port Stanley’s famous big band beachside dance club, the Stork Club.

It’s a rebirth for what was once the Dominion of Canada building, key when the harbour was a bustling international port. It was the customs and tariffs facility for international goods.

The new restaurant will have 40 seats but the sweet spots will be two outdoor covered patios making the total 270 seats, according to the Agar Architect website.

And the beer? The expectation would be styles that sell well and pair with Italian fare. I’d expect light lagers and wheat beer. IPAs would work on the patio to serve hop fans, but the bitterness would make for an odd pairing with pasta.

Port Stanley Brewing, with its views of passing and docked boats, windsurfers and the lift bridge, should be another boon to a village that’s made some sweet upgrades aimed at pumping up tourism during the past few years.

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Craft beer will be a great ally in attracting visitors beyond the beach.

DOWN ON THE CORNER

Moving faster on allowing beer sales in Ontario’s convenience stores comes with a $225-million price tag to taxpayers and lots of questions for consumers, retailers and craft breweries.

Big retailers already selling beer will be expected to find a way to take returns. Mixing empty cans and bottles with food retailing is something the Beer Store doesn’t have to worry about. One wonders if corner stores will sell at premium prices, the price of convenience. And, unlike the Beer Store setup, shelf and cooler space is small in convenience stores so isn’t it to be expected selection will be limited to only the top sellers?

“I think it’s going to make things more challenging for small breweries,” Gavin Anderson, of Anderson Craft Ales in London, told me in an email. “It’s good to have expanded access for consumers, but on the brewery side, the logistics are much more difficult. Instead of just shipping to a few LCBOs and Beer Stores, now we need to ship to LCBOs, Beer Stores, grocery stores, convenience stores, big box stores, gas stations, and whoever else they decide to add. In addition, we need to have people going to each location to convince them to stock the beer. It will be logistically challenging for us. The best thing our fans can do is ask select stores to bring in our product if they don’t see it there.”

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Even better, buy directly from your favourite craft breweries.

NEW AND NOTED

Port Stanley this summer won’t be the only place for boaters to enjoy dockside craft beer. Last year, Glasstown Brewing Co. opened on the river in Wallaceburg. Among its beers is Libby Lager, a pale lager named as a tribute to the glass-making history of Wallaceburg, and a kettle sour made with blueberries from Parks in Bothwell.

New in St. Marys at Broken Rail is Tart and Twisted, a dry-hopped sour with flavours of stonefruit and citrus. Patrons at the Stratford Festival will find Broken Rail’s Incandescent Blonde is now sold there.

From Sarnia, Imperial City’s Craft Cerveza with its spiffy new label is now at select locations of the LCBO.

Also in Sarnia, Refined Fool blends clapback and humour with its new All Over the Map, a hazy IPA named and packaged to critique craft beer graphics. The plain white can wrap features 12 point Times New Roman. “Over the years, we’ve released a wide variety of beers, most with a questionable name accompanied by a colourful, wacky image,” the brewery says on its website. “This practice has been unfair to those who love the colour grey and straightforward beer names like ‘Hoptown IPA’ or ‘Wheat-field Lager’ We’ve been all over the map and want to make things right.” All Over the Map is five per cent alcohol by volume with Refined Fool noting flavours of strawberry, peach, passionfruit and citrus.

Wayne Newton is a freelance journalist based in London. 

BrewsNewsTravels@gmail.com

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