The Steam Whistle Brewery Tour

By | January 7, 2006

During the SloPitch tourney, a group of us went to the RoundHouse for a tour of the Steam Whistle Brewery.  This is a local Toronto beer that is brewed in the strictest pilsner fashion.  It has a very strong and bitter flavour that you’re going to either love or hate.  Either way, it must be served cold – no higher than 4C.

On Saturday, the brewery is open from noon – 6 pm.  We set out to take the 3:00pm tour.  The facility is quite remarkable.  It is a gutted edifice that was once used (up until 1982 I believe) to clean locomotive engines.  The history and functionality of the building is quite unique and can be explored in detail here.  Some interesting tidbits that are not really mentioned in the article that I discovered on the tour:

  • The building was completely torn down and rebuilt in order to clean it up.  Four of the original bricks were lost in the rebuild
  • As much of the orginal materials were re-used as possible.  When not possible (beam structures, etc), materials were used to match how the building was constructed originally.  For example, the ceiling/roof is composed of solid 2 by 4 planks – layed out length wise (so that when looking at the ceiling you see many long 2 inch strips).  This is a very expensive way to build a roof ($1.5 million for the rebuild) but would have guaranteed a solid roof for the snow-infested area.
  • The name of the beer is not related to the fact that steam was an integral part of the process of cleaning/maintaining the engines.  The beer’s name is derived from idea that ‘Steam Whistle’ calls to mind the good old days of the 50’s and 60’s.  Strange.

The tour itself was as straightforward as any tour goes.  The brewery is very simplistic and does not stray from the standard brewing process.  You know, lauder tun, mash, wort, transfer, yeast, alcohol, filter, bottle, transport, consume, return empties.  Speaking of empties, the brewery is EXTREMELY fond of their bottles and go to great lengths during the tour to impress upon the attendees the superiority of the bottles:

  • they’re green
  • they’re thick
  • they have labels painted on
  • they withstand 26 washings before they should be discarded

The one question that was never resolved by the guide:  How do they know the number of washes a bottle has been through?  At any rate, I IMPRESSED upon them that I highly doubt they are passing on cost to the consumer for them to maintain these unique bottles.  How can they compete when they have to pay Brewer’s Retail for the sorting, in addition to the hightech bottling facility they have on hand to the higher cost of the glass and the painting of the labels?  Ridiculous.  Just use the standard bottles and save me some coin at the store please!

A little side note (This is true for all facilities that need to wash recycled bottles):  Put your caps and gum in the bottles!  This requires manual labour at the bottling facility to pull that junk out.  Heh Heh.

Overall I was impressed with the brewery.  I thought their strategy of making one and only one recipe to be a good advantage for them.  This allows for streamlining since you don’t have to change the lines and the temperatures for each batch.  Thus, they can slim down on the machinery required.  I was a little concerned about how the brewmaster could challenge himself daily if he weren’t changing recipes and trying out new ideas.  But the one recipe formula does have its challenges when you consider the care the take to ensure a quality and consistent flavour.  Only 4 ingredients are used for this product and thus it would be difficult to maintain a consistency when you don’t have a lot of variables to play with.  Kudos to the brewmaster.

The kicker to the tour is in their pricing:

Tours run daily and take approximately 30 minutes. Choose from one of three tour options: The 6-pack tour for $12.50; the Suitcase 12 tour for $22.50; or the $6 Sample glass/Opener tour. All tours include a taste of our Pilsner. Reservations are required for groups of 10 or more.

What this means is that if you take the 12 pack tour, you are buying a 12 for $22.00 (which is better than the beer store) plus the tour for 50 cents.  Oh, and that 50 cents gives you the opportunity to drink as much Steam Whistle as you feel is necessary.  They have a cool bar/party area that allows for mingling with other guests and guides. 

Overall, quite fun indeed.  I intend to take the tour again next year when we go to the SkyDome tourney.  You know, in case something new is happening at the Round House 😉

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