ST. THOMAS, ON – Railway City Brewing has become the latest brewery to welcome a local homebrewer into the brewhouse for a collaborative session, and the resulting beer is being released this week as the first in a new annual series.
Known as the Platform Series, the beers will be created based on recipes entered in a homebrewing competition sponsored by Railway City. According to brewery co-founder Paul Corriveau, “We decided to name our homebrew competition Platform, as we wish to extend to the homebrewers a platform from which to showcase their talent. It also ties in nicely with our railway heritage.”
The inaugural edition in the series was developed and co-brewed by homebrewer Eric Desjardins from London, and is a unique beet and honey ale that is being released under the name Platform 12: Off the Beet’n Track (the ’12’ signifying the year 2012). Brewed with 250 pounds of locally grown beets, 125 pounds of local honey and over 19 pounds of hops, the red-hued ale was brewed to 6.3% abv, and a theoretical bitterness of 240 IBUs based on the recipe.
Platform 12 was previewed at last weekend’s Toronto Festival of Beer, as well as at a special IPA Day event held at the brewery yesterday. It’s being officially released today with a very limited run of 200 bottles available at the Railway City retail store, and the remainder of the batch being sent out in kegs to select bars and restaurants in Southern and Eastern Ontario.