When the Brick Brewing Company Ltd. opened in 1984 it was a decision steeped in luck. Shortly after opening, the large breweries in Ontario locked out their unionized workers. This action left Brick as one of the few brewers still open for business in southwestern Ontario. It sold out its stock of fresh brewed beer in under an hour.
Brick took its name from its owner, Jim Brickman, a man with a dream. He was going to operate a successful micro-brewery. To this end, he imported his hops from Germany and age his lager for the maximum time legally permitted in Ontario. He used no preservatives.
In that first year, Brick Brewing produced 110,000 24-bottle cases. At its peak, I believe it produced something in the order of 5 million 24-bottle cases. Brick brewed good lager, winning gold medals at international quality competitions in Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam, Barcelona and Luxembourg. And yet, Brick never gave the big boys a run for their money.
Today the Brick Brewery has been evolved into Waterloo Brewing and is Ontario largest Canadian-owed brewery. Note the limiter, "Canadian-owned." Waterloo Brewing, like Brick before it, is known for producing a quality product.
2 comments:
Nice history lesson, skål!
Admittedly I am not familiar with it, but that's because I don't drink at all.
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