companion for those days you take for yourself, leaving your cares behind. Its golden hued, floral and fruity, this beer features a blend of Mosaic and Challenger hops resulting in a unique hybrid India Pale Ale. Collingwood also offers seasonals and a freestyle series beer so best to head in and see what they have brewing. Like most craft breweries, community plays a huge role in the success of Collingwood. “Our goal is to be a community brewery. We even bill ourselves as The Collingwood Brewery. So, it’s really important for us to have ties to all sorts of community groups and support local activities, which we do as much as we can. We are trying to tie that support in with our tap room and give people the opportunity to come and use it for their own activities. Community groups, sports teams, whatever.” Getting the message out to the community is no small feat for the brewery because they are tucked away in an industrial area, a little off the beaten path. However, they often take their activities on the road to spread the good word. Freeman mentions, “There are festivals and a few other types of events that we participate in. And we support lots of charities and community groups through fundraising.
Things like sponsoring a hole on the golf course for charity tournaments or donating gift baskets or tap room experiences. We help with fundraisers for schools and churches in Collingwood. We are always trying to leverage our space and resources to help people improve the community.” So, what have they been up to recently? Well Freeman and the team at The Collingwood Brewery have brewing down to a science now and are being recognized as one of Canada’s best, taking three awards from the Canadian Brewing Awards, that we head in Toronto. The company took home gold in the English Style India Pale Ale for their White’s Bay Pale Ale and two bronze awards in the New England Pale Ale Category of their Freestyle Strawberry Milkshake and the French and Belgian Style Saison for its 3-Point Saison. With summer here in Canada, you can be sure to see a can of Collingwood sitting on the armof aMuskoka chair at an Ontario lake near you. Remember to look for it at your favourite beer retailer and don’t forget to tell them who sent ya! Kick back and relax! •
popular in the marketplace of the moment. I’m thinking of what am I going to be able to drink a couple of personally, and then I kind of hope the market takes to it.” “Our goal is to be a community brewery.” Collingwood’s Kingpost ESB, or Extra Special Bitter, is a well-balanced English-style pale ale. “People who try it and possibly don’t expect to like it end up loving it. Out of all of our beers, it probably has the most cult-like following. People who love it really love it. But it’s not as massively popular as the Downhill,” explains Freeman. Collingwood has two other permanent brands, their Rockwell Pilsner, as a familiar pilsner, it is by far their most approachable beer. It was intended to be their big seller, but despite all efforts, choosy Collingwood drinkers have kept it in a close second. “We wanted to get something out there that we thought might overtake Downhill. And the Pilsner is popular on tap, but the Downhill still beats it at the LCBO. It’s our lightest at 4.6% — a Czech-style Pilsner.” Then there is their, White's Bay IPA, which is named after a local fishing hole where the day could be whiled away in the summer sun. This eponymous IPA is the perfect
With the prospect of opening his own brewery in the near future, Freeman was seriously pondering what kind of beer he wanted to lead with and make his flagship. “I was looking at the market at the time, six years ago, and there weren’t many craft breweries that made an American style pale ale as their flagship brew. As it turned out, by the time we launched, the whole market had turned that way anyway. So, our Downhill Pale Ale was actually my final project in college. I had to design and brew a beer for the course, so I decided that I was going to brew the beer that was destined to be my flagship when I started my own brewery. I brewed Downhill at the college and probably brewed it another 10 to 15 times again at home before I finally made it at the brewery a few years later when we opened.” Well, let’s call that one a success. Downhill Pale Ale is definitely the kind of beer that you can have four or five of over the course of a hockey game on TV, and not feel that your mouth has been assaulted. In fact, based on what the industry and the current market is churning out for IPAs, it’s actually lighter in hops without sacrificing the body of the beer. Freemanmentions that this drinkabilitywas definitely by design. “Yes, we were trying to find that sweet spot where it wasn’t too light — there was a nice body going on — and the hops aren’t dominating. They are in there with a nice hop character. So that was my real goal, to hit that right balance between all those elements and make it so you can drink a number of them in one sitting. And to this day, Downhill is our number one seller. None of the other brands have out-sold it yet.” Collingwood’s other styles available out in the retail outlets are just as approachable as the Downhill. Freeman points out that he lets his own taste buds do the thinking for him. “Honestly, in the end, we make beer that we like to drink ourselves. So, when I’m designing a beer, I’m not really thinking of what’s
74 SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE • AUGUST 2019
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