I am in Toronto for a conference related to my day job (usually the only way I get out of town). I flew in Tuesday and the conference didn’t start until Wednesday, meaning I had a few hours of classic beer time. I knew I could hit a couple of Toronto’s beer pubs, quietly have some beer and a bite to eat, but opted instead to see if I could arrange a visit with the folks over at Mill Street Brewery. Thankfully they were more than  happy to host me.

I spent a couple of hours with Mill Street’s Brewmaster, Joel Manning, and another staffer, Trevor Walsh. First, they were very gracious hosts, answering all of my insanely technical questions about their brewing process (and even offering me a few very useful tips for my homebrewery regarding sour mashing, water chemistry and pH). I really appreciate opportunities to spend extended time with the people behind craft breweries. Even if X Brewery’s beer is not your favourite, spending time with them gives you a clear sense of their passion, their commitment to community and their pride in their beer. They are always some of my favourite moments as a beer writer.

Second, I gotta say, there is a lot going on over at Mill Street. For beer geeks, Mill Street might be a brewery you pass over, enamoured as we can all be by a big, bold imperial something-or-other. There are some pedestrian beer in their regular line-up (Organic Lager and Stock Ale are clearly not designed for me), but if you choose to look more closely, they are playing around quite a lot. First, there is a constant barrage of seasonal and one-time beer (most don’t make it to the west, so you can be forgiven for not knowing that). Second, as I discovered yesterday, they are now also a nano-distiller. Okay, to be accurate, the retail license isn’t coming for another 24 hours or so, meaning they make the stuff but can’t move it outside the distillery yet. Third, Tankhouse Ale has long been a wonderful pale ale.

I won’t go on and on about them for the moment, as I am planning some columns focusing on them in the near future. But I want to relay two things here for the moment. First, the distillery. It is truly unique for Canada. It is very small, producing only 200 or so litres per batch. They are likely the first distillery to be located (legally) in a residential building, as the site is the first floor of a large condo complex. But second, and more important, they create spirits from beer, rather than mash, which is super-cool. They brew up a batch of beer, pipe it over to the distillery and proceed to distill it. Their product, for the moment, is a Bierschnapps, which is made from a mixture of their Tankhouse Ale, Framboise and Coffee Porter. One of the great advantages of distilling from beer is that it is impossible to create the toxic and dangerous methanol (which is the major – and totally justifiable – reason home distilling is illegal). The other advantage is that it creates a totally unique spirit – a hoppy (but not bitter), fruity spirit with a touch of roastiness.

Second, my visit made me way more appreciative of their commitment to their local roots. They may sell beer across Canada, but they care a lot about their location. For example, did you know that Tankhouse Ale is named for the building the original brewery and brewpub is housed in? The brewery is located in the Old Distillery District and the building, constructed in 1872, was a tankhouse for the distiller, where spirits would sit while waiting to be piped over to the barrel house. Joel tells me that the distillery on the site (which operated until 1989!) was, at one time the largest distillery in the new world, producing more than 2.2 million litres of whiskey a year at its peak. Don’t you love brewers who are also history buffs?

They care deeply about connecting their beer to their location. For example, some beer only gets brewed at their Ottawa location because of the water (Ottawa water is softer than Toronto water), and they want to make sure each location can claim legitimate local roots. It is also why most of their beer never make it outside their pubs. When you sell beer in every province (except Quebec in Mill Street’s case), it can be easy to see the project as transcending space, so I think Mill Street has done an admirable job of keep in touch with its roots.

As I say, I will write more about them in the near future – as they have an interesting story. But that will do for now. Besides, I got some beer pubs to hit before I return home.