LITTLE CURRENT––What happens when you mix a Manitoulin Brewing Company (MBC) small batch brew with the taste of the iconic Farquhar’s lemonade? You get Lemon Weiss, MBC’s latest offering, a refreshing beer with light lemon notes that tastes like summer.
Lemon Weiss is the third MBC small batch brew. Partner Blair Hagman explained, “We have six beers in the line-up right now. In our fridge three of the beers are in the LCBO distribution and we’re in over 200 LCBO outlets across the province from as far west as Kenora down to the south, Niagara to Windsor area.”
The small batch series was initially started to develop recipes that could potentially be in the lineup for the LCBO as well. Last fall/winter they brewed cream ale using local honey from Isle Away Farms in Mindemoya. “The key of our small batch brews is to try to figure out how to incorporate local ingredients into each brew,” said Mr. Hagman.
The second brew, after the cream ale, was a porter that is a dark ale and includes dark chocolate ingredients from Manitoulin Chocolate Works in Kagawong in the recipe. “We were able to create dark chocolate and coffee notes within the brew,” he said.
photo by Lori Thompson
“For the third small batch series, which is the one we’re launching now, we wanted to create a new brew that was ideal for the summer patio,” Mr. Hagman continued. “Something that’s low in alcohol but also complements the summer season to be refreshing. That’s when we started to think about what style of beer we’d want to create and we thought about the Lemon Weiss beer. We did a lot of sampling of different products that had used a lot of lemon weiss or even just German weissbiers (wheat beer) directly from Germany to see what kind of characteristics we wanted to get in our brew. “
“We wondered how we’d be able to utilize some sort of local lemon flavouring in the brew and that’s when Farquhar’s made sense. We quickly realized that Farquhar’s lemonade is quite popular in our area. Everybody looks forward to buying Farquhar’s lemonade in season. We talked to close friends and some even mentioned that they get Farquhar’s lemonade sent to them wherever they are because it’s a great lemonade. It’s also locally made and it’s still in the same traditional carton.”
MBC contacted Farquhar’s Dairy to see if they would be interested in source providing the lemon syrup for their new recipe. They spoke with President Don Farquhar and he right away said that he’d be interested in providing that ingredient to their brewing recipe. Mr. Farquhar is also an advocate of promoting Northern Ontario business through collaboration.
Mr. Farquhar said his company is excited to collaborate on this beverage. “The people I’ve mentioned it to are certainly anxious to try it. I probably could have brought a busload of people with me to sample it. I was getting all kinds of calls. From our standpoint we’re just happy to be able to support you guys. I think any Northern manufacturer, we really should stick together as a community and if we can help each other, and retailers, I think it’s important that we do to do so. So we’re happy to help you and we hope this is very successful for you guys and all your future endeavours.”
“It worked out really well because we took the time to develop the Lemon Weiss beer,” Mr. Hagman explained. “We used a different strand of yeast we’ve never used before which is a German Weiss yeast. Typically a German Weiss yeast will provide a clove and banana flavour notes to it and we add the lemon syrup from Farquhar’s that adds the lemon notes that we wanted to create to accentuate the lemon flavour in the beer. We had Kendra Edwards of Kendra Edwards Design do the design for the can. We just packaged this on Tuesday. We are going to be putting sticker labels on it to launch it on the weekend. Our small batch series are all sticker labeled here on site.”
Initial small batch brew production is 2,000 litres. MBC’s cream ale went up to 4,000 litres for the second brew because it was so popular for the first run; they are already anticipating they will have to do a double brew of the Lemon Weiss beer in June in order to fulfill demand.
Lemon Weiss is an unfiltered beer with 4.3 percent alcohol. “You’ll definitely notice by the aroma there’s lemon notes in it,” said Mr. Hagman. “That’s from Farquhar’s. It’s nice, light and refreshing and perfect to enjoy on the patio all summer long.”
Each MBC beer is distinctively different from their other beers. “The blonde is different from the English ale and the English ale is different from the Bridal Veil pale ale and the lager and the porter and the cream ale,” he continued. “The Lemon Weiss is another one that’s completely unique in its own way and we look forward to continuing to brew it and hopefully get it out to a larger market than just in the retail space and on the patio.”
The recently launched Haweater’s brew is currently the most popular brew on-site, according to MBC partner Nishin Meawasige. “We can’t keep it in the fridge,” he said. Off-site, Swing Bridge and Cup and Saucer brews are popular right across Ontario.
“Over the fall and winter,” Mr. Hagman added, “it was Cup and Saucer that was outselling all of our beer in the LCBO combined. Just on fire, doing really well. On site the small batch brews, the cream ale, the porter. Porter especially. I was surprised how much porter we’re selling recently. Especially going into the summer, it’s a darker beer but a lot of locals are coming in and buying it on a regular basis which is great. We’re happy and we’ll continue to brew that throughout the summer as well so we’re all stocked up and ready to roll.”
Lemon Weiss will be on tap at two locations off-Island: Finn McCools in Guelph and Raven Republic in North Bay. They already have preorders for the brew.
The big launch was this past weekend on site in the Silo. The Silo is MBC’s patio bar in Little Current. “We’ll have it only sold exclusively at the brewery over the course of the summer,” noted Mr. Hagman “We’ll get feedback from locals and tourists and potentially see if this small batch brew will be submitted into the LCBO.”
Also on Saturday they hosted a garage sale in the parking lot where locals sold their gently used treasures. Tables were supplied by the Little Current Lions Club for $10 each with proceeds going to support the Lions Club for Haweater Weekend. Greg Mashinter provided live music for launch day.
