RIDGEWAY, ON – The historic village of Ridgeway, located in the town of Fort Erie, will soon be home to one of Ontario’s newest breweries.
Brimstone Brewing will be a nanobrewery located in the Sanctuary Centre for the Arts, a performing arts centre and gallery in a former church that is owned by architect and long-time Fort Erie resident Jason Pizzicarola. His partner in the project is Rod Daigle, a veteran homebrewer who is new to Ontario, and has wanted to start a commercial brewery for a number of years.
The duo will start brewing test batches next month, and aim to have their first commercial product released by the spring, with plans to have their beers available in both bottled and keg format. Daigle will be brewing on a half-barrel system in the basement of the Sanctuary, and will be using locally sourced ingredients whenever possible, including hops from Lowland Fields, the name he has given a small hop garden in his backyard.
According to Diagle, Brimstone will likely launch with an “approachable (sessionable, if you will), malty Blonde ale (albeit much more flavourful than the fizzy yellow stuff) that will introduce craft beer to those who don’t already know about it.” Many more styles should be expected to follow, as indicated by this quote from his email to CBN:
I’m a fan of flavour, plain and simple. When I drink a beer that’s supposed to be hoppy, give me 70+ IBU. When it’s supposed to be malty or on lees, give me lots of that too. I’m interested in brewing with hot stones, and smoked malts. So expect to see fire outside on the lawn of the Sanctuary on a fairly regular basis. I’m passionate about beer and don’t believe beer has be to cold, fizzy and tasteless. I wanna brew what I wanna drink, and I find it fairly difficult to find the styles that I enjoy locally. I’m selfish that way.
For more information on Brimstone and their plans for opening and beyond, check out their website and Facebook page.