TORONTO, ON – Beer writer Ben Johnson reports via Toronto Life and his own Ben’s Beer Blog that the previously announced third location for Amsterdam Brewery has an official name, planned opening date, and specific brewing focus.
Amsterdam Barrel House will be located 87 Laird Drive – previously gastropub Against The Grain – which is just around the corner from the main Amsterdam Brewery at 45 Esandar Drive in Toronto’s Leaside neighbourhood.
Amsterdam Brewmaster Iain McOustra tells Johnson that in addition to being a full service restaurant and bar, the new location will include a 3 hectolitre brewhouse that will used to create farmhouse ales and other funky experiments:
We have been working with barrels and brettanomyces since 2010 but it is difficult to do so in a working production brewery. Our new location will be a safe space to experiment with different Brett strains as well as aging with bacteria cultures. Our goal is to continue developing our house wild yeast strain while using the space to test different brewing techniques and raw ingredients. It’s essentially a lab, separate from the production brewery, that we can use to focus on making farmhouse ales that we love to drink.
Amsterdam Barrel House is expected to open in late September.