Bevan Fawcett recently spent two weeks travelling across Quebec and Ontario with our Canadian distributor, visiting breweries of all shapes, sizes and styles. The aim was to gain a greater understanding of the Canadian brewing scene, strengthen relationships and introduce Thomas Fawcett & Sons to new breweries.
The first week took Bevan across Quebec, visiting some of the province’s leading craft breweries, including Messorem, Le Trou du Diable, Sir John, Bas-Canada and Boréale. These breweries are pushing the boundaries with hazy, fruit-forward, juicy IPAs, and it was encouraging to see several using our oat malt to enhance mouthfeel and haze. Equally pleasing was the number of breweries producing traditional, malt-forward English styles, including Brasserie Albion, Trois Lacs and Kahnawake, who champion heritage varieties such as Maris Otter and Golden Promise.
Ontario was equally enjoyable, with Muskoka, Collective Arts, Flying Monkeys and Lake of Bays standing out for the scale and quality of their operations. There was arguably a greater emphasis on English beer styles here, and some wonderful beers were sampled from Clifford and Concession Road, both loyal users of Fawcett malt.
Across both provinces, there was considerable enthusiasm for our heritage malts, alongside our speciality crystal and roasted ranges. It was reassuring to see such appreciation for traditional British malting across the Atlantic.
Away from the breweries, a personal highlight was spending evenings in sports bars getting to grips with ice hockey and baseball. As a cricket fan, Bevan particularly enjoyed the baseball, and seeing the Milwaukee Brewers win the World Series was surely a good omen for the brewing industry!
