TORONTO, ON – Last weekend, two cask ale events in Toronto featured soft launches for new breweries from two of Ontario’s most respected craft brewers.
The Cask Ale Crawl was an event that took place at six different pubs across the city, and one of the ales available at The Rhino was Cheshire Valley Dry Stout, a pilot batch from brewmaster Paul Dickey. Known for his work as head brewer at Pepperwood Bistro & Brewpub in Burlington and as associate brewer at Black Oak Brewery, Dickey is setting up Cheshire Valley Brewing as a contract brewing operation, and will be making his beers at the new Black Oak facility in Etobicoke.
The Cask IPA Challenge happened at Volo on Sunday April 5th, and featured 18 different IPAs and Pale Ales from craft brewers all across Ontario. One of the new beers was Number 9 IPA from Michael Duggan, the former head brewer at Mill Street Brewery who is currently at Cool Brewing. Similar to Dickey, Duggan will be running his yet-to-be-named enterprise on a contact basis, using the equipment at Cool to brew his beers.