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 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.” “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. And finally, there is the Rockwell Pilsner, Colling- wood’s third permanent brand. 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.” “We bought the building and sunk a lot of money into it before we even brewed a drop of beer.” Bearing in mind that this is a business, after all, and not just a personal brewing adventure, Freeman admits that they are wandering into the IPA world. “It has taken us a few years, and we were a little hesitant to make it because there are so many out there. Also, I wasn’t sure I would be doing anything different from the other IPAs out there. So I wanted to design something that was more in line with what I have been doing with the other beers.” He continues, “The result a nice hop aroma, but it’s not in-your- face. And admittedly, part of making this one was to balance the business side with my taste preference. IPAs tend to be craft brewers’ best sellers and I guess I have resisted for about as long as I can. So we’ll be launch- ing the IPA in the LCBO in May.” Like most craft breweries, community plays a huge role in the success of Collingwood. “Our goal is to be a commu- nity brewery. We even bill ourselves as The Collingwood Brewery. So it’s really important for us to have ties to all Collingwood’s ESB, or Extra Special Bitter, is a well-bal- anced English-style pale ale.
Freeman really grew to appreciate the value of consisten- cy. As he explains, “You can ramp up the hops and other ingredients in certain beers and make them a real punch in the face, and people will say ‘wow what a great beer.’ But they get through one of them and they have to move on to something else.” 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 definite- ly 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. Freeman mentions that this drinkability was 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 —
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