Beer in food

If you have forayed into the world of beer, you know there is a food pairing for any beer. IPAs go well with fried or spicy foods, stouts go well with desserts, and pilsners go well with fish. However, you can also take it to the next level… with choosing a food or condiment made with beer.

You can pre-purchase a lot of these choices, or make them yourself at home with your favorite beer. I have personally cooked with our Black Creek beer, and the results were amazing!

Tracy’s Beer Jelly, available in our gift shop

Beer Jelly

Beer Jelly is exactly what you would expect – a jelly with beer as the main ingredient. It’s great for cheese boards, breads, or a glaze on meat. Beer jelly is great because you get the essence of the beer and its taste without the bitterness of the hops. We have beer jelly available in a range of flavors in our gift shop, including pilsner, IPA, and wheat beer. If you’re feeling adventurous, Men’s Journal outlines a recipe for stout beer jelly that is very achievable for a home cook.

Beer Bread

Our previous beer blogger Katie explored the relationship between beer and bread in a previous post. Beer and bread have very similar ingredients – besides flour and hops, it is almost identical. Adding beer to your bread gives it an extra dimension of flavor, and makes for a very hearty and moist loaf. Katie made a ginger beer bread using our historic ginger beer, and you can find the recipe here.

Beer Stew

You may have heard of using wine in savory cooking, but beer is also a great option. Dark beers such as stouts pair well with red meat and savory ingredients in a hearty stew. It’s a little hot for stew at the moment, but this is a good recipe to save for those cold winter months. Ricardo Cuisine has a great recipe for a beer stew using Guinness, but I think this recipe would be heightened by substituting it with Black Creek historic stout!

Beer Cake

Now this one sounds a bit odd, but it is really delicious. Remember how beer in bread  makes it moist and hearty? Think of what it could do for cake! Plus, the bitterness of beer cuts through the sugary and sometimes overly sweet taste of cake, creating a more complex and interesting flavor. The Food Network has a range of beer cake recipes using beers like pilsner, stout, and even IPA!

If you try any of these recipes be sure to let us know! They all look great, and seem like a great way to finish off that growler!

Spotlight on our commercial beers!

Did you know that you can purchase Black Creek beer in the LCBO? We have two great flavors to choose from – Canadian Frontier best bitter ale, and Rifleman’s Ration brown ale! Both are a uniquely crafted choice, and are a great choice if you are looking for something a little different than the other craft beer flavors out there. Not sure which one to pick? Here are some tasting notes for both beers, but you truly can’t go wrong with either one!

Canadian Frontier Best Bitter Ale – Canadian Frontier is an amber colored, malty ale with subtle hints of caramel and malty sweetness. It’s light enough to be a refreshing choice for warmer weather, but the flavors are strong enough that any craft beer fan will truly be impressed.  Originally brewed to celebrate Canada’s 150th birthday, Canadian Frontier lives on as a tribute to the English ales that would have been enjoyed by pioneers in small villages in Ontario.

Rifleman’s Ration Brown Ale – Our Rifleman’s Ration is a medium bodied brown ale that pours a chocolate brown color in the glass. This is a rich, malty beer with a slight sweetness and hints of espresso coffee. This beer is inspired by the money earmarked for beer that was given to soldiers stationed in 19th century Canada. Rifleman’s Ration was brewed in honor of the anniversary of the war of 1812, but we have continued to brew it long beyond the bicentennial!

Our beers are available in the LCBO, and in some grocery stores. I’d recommend calling ahead or checking the links above to see store availability near you!

Medicinal Beers

Hello readers! You may remember our previous beer writer Katie’s informative post about medicinal beers used in Victorian times. If there’s one thing i’ve learned about beer in the 19th century, it was not just a social drink. It had many purposes, including health benefits.

One of the many great primary sources on eating and drinking habits in 19th century Canada

In her post, Katie had done some research about how beer was beneficial to 19th century Canadians:

For nineteenth century Canadians, beer supplemented the diet. Beer contains several of the B-complex vitamins (not thiamine, alas), and depending on style, can be a source of iron, too. In her Female Emigrant’s Guide (1854), writer Catherine Parr Traill laments the comparative lack of private brewing among families, explaining: “During the very hot weather, some cooling and strengthening beverage is much required by men who have to work out in the heat of the sun; and the want of it is often supplied by whisky diluted with water, or by cold water, which, when drunk in large quantities, is dangerous to the health, and should, if possible, be avoided” (Parr Trail, The Female Emigrant’s Guide, 137). Beer was not only thirst-quencher, but fortifier.

Katie also mentioned a few different types of medicinal beers: ginger beer, dandelion beer, root beer, and spruce beer. Let’s take a look at each of these types of beer, as well as their intended purpose in the 19th century.

Ginger Beer
Ginger beer was thought to combat nausea and other stomach problems. Ginger is also an anti-inflammatory, which was especially appealing to those with arthritis and chronic pain problems that could not just take pain medication to ease their inflammation. Of course, a real Victorian ginger beer brewed with generous amounts of real fresh ginger is much more likely to live up to these expectations than a store bought ginger ale soda would.

Dandelion Beer
We have actually made our very own dandelion stout at the Black Creek historic brewery in years past. Dandelion was a popular medicinal ingredient in Victorian times, as it was thought to cleanse the kidneys and liver, and prevent kidney stones. Dandelions contain a number of vitamins, and were also extremely easy to find and harvest. Dandelion wine was a more common choice, but dandelion beer did exist as well. Many websites dedicated to making homemade dandelion wine for health purposes exist today, showing that the tradition of using dandelions in beverages still stands.

Root Beer
Katie published an excellent, in depth post about Victorian root beer.  To quote her post:

Root beer is a beverage traditionally made with sassafras roots and/or sarsaparilla as its main flavouring agent. The Indigenous populations of North America were making sassafras-based beverages long before European contact, using it to treat various ailments from wounds to fevers. Unsurprisingly, then, when “root beer” began to be sold through the mid-nineteenth century, it was touted as a healthful drink.

Of course, this is a little ironic as it was later discovered that sassafras is actually carcinogenic, enough so that it was banned by the FDA in 1960.

Spruce Beer
Spruce beer is a beer I get asked about quite a bit down in the brewery,  and many people ask if it actually was used to prevent scurvy. The answer is yes, as explained by our previous beer writer Karrell:

Colonial soldiers learned from the First Nations peoples that spruce could prevent and cure scurvy: a scourge of mariners and soldiers alike prior to the 19th century.  Scurvy was recognized as a disease caused by a lack of fresh fruits and vegetables, but it wasn’t understood to be caused by a deficiency of Vitamin C until 1932!  Thus, while soldiers and sailors didn’t know that spruce was an excellent source of Vitamin C or why Spruce Beer kept scurvy at bay, they did know it was good for what ailed them!

We’ve actually made our own spruce beer in the historic brewery, but it had a taste that didn’t agree with everyone. Apparently, it tasted quite similar to a liquid Christmas tree!

So there are some great examples of some medicinal beers that helped the Victorians cure what “aled” them! Of course, it’s much more beneficial to use modern cures for what currently ails you, but it’s interesting to see how resourceful Victorians managed to make medicinal ales out of everything from dandelions to spruce needles! Many of these recipes can be found online if you’re curious, but maybe just stick to the pharmacy when you’re feeling under the weather.

What’s in the Tap Room?

The Halfway House is a very unique building here at the village. The Halfway House could be found on a stagecoach line between St. Lawrence Market in Toronto and the village of Dunbarton, near Pickering.  It was a great place to stay after a long journey, complete with a taproom to have a beer at the end of the day. Now, the Halfway House has a new lease on life as one of our most impressive historic buildings here at the village, and the site of the Black Creek Historic Brewery. This blog has showed you all the ins and outs of the historic brewery, so let’s shine a spotlight on a different part of Halfway – the taproom!

So what historic goodies can be found in our taproom? Let’s take a look:

Crokinole – Crokinole is a perfect choice as a taproom game, as it was thought to be invented in Ontario in 1876. Crokinole was a popular parlour game in the Victorian times, and is still played today. The game is similar to the idea of curling, with players sliding their pieces into the areas that get the most points.

Historic Glassware – So not all of this glassware is historic (definitely not the clear, modern looking glasses there) but check out those historic glass bottles! According to the Society for Historical Archaeology, black glassware such as the bottles in the taproom are some of the oldest types of colored glassware. Black glassware was excellent for keeping light from spoiling wine and beer, similar to brown or dark bottles today.

The Black Creek Gazette – So this is not a historic artifact, but a fun addition to the taproom. The “Black Creek Gazette” outlines some important late 19th century events that would have taken place around the time period of the village. It’s very interesting to see what was happening at the time, including the Civil War, labor movements, and of course Confederation!

Map of Upper Canada – As many of us know, Ontario was not always “Ontario” but “Upper Canada” instead. It was called Upper Canada due to its position relative to the Great Lakes. Our neighbor to the east, Quebec, was known as Lower Canada.

The Drunk Door – This is a really interesting one. This side door is thought to be a “drunk door.” So when someone got too drunk, instead of sending them out the front door of the inn (potentially harming the reputation of the establishment), they would instead be sent out of a side drunk door. I have never seen this door used before, but it would infact lead to the side of the building, out of sight from the main porch.

Nine Men’s Morris – This one is another taproom game you can find on our tables. However, Nine Men’s Morris has been around in some form or another since the ancient Roman times. Nine Men’s Morris was even referred to in the work of Shakespere.

So there you have it! This is definitely not the extent of the cool things you can find in the taproom, and in the rest of the Halfway House! Of course, you can also find the historic brewery in the lower level of Halfway as well. Come by and visit us!

Pioneer Harvest Festival and Fall Fair!

Fall is coming! Our Pioneer Harvest Festival celebrates all things fall and the harvest season. The Festival is a Mennonite and Pennsylvania-German festival, complete with food, crafts, historic demonstrations, and even a rummage sale! The Festival will be happening September 15th, and you won’t want to miss it! So what exactly is going to be happening at the festival?

• A Fast-paced, one of a kind Quilt Auction, with Handmade Mennonite quilts
• International food to eat on site and take home.
• Black Creek Registration Department Fundraising Book and Furniture Sale
• IODE Rummage Sale
• Cider Mill Demonstration presented by the Snider Family
• Hand Quilting Demonstration presented by the Mississauga Quilters Guild
• Sausage Making Demonstration and sale presented by the Pennsylvania German Folklore Society
• Pioneer Demonstrations: candle dipping (10:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.), historic cooking, apple schnitzing, and grain threshing (2:00 – 4:00 p.m.)

The Harvest Festival means fall is here at the village! 

For the first time ever, we will also be throwing a Fall Fair on September 16th, with carnival games, harvest activities, and apple bobbing! We will be offering all sorts of fun activities, and even a chance to explore our historic mill.

Of course, we will also have Brewery tastings running from 1pm until close. Be sure to take a little time out of all the fall fun to stop by!

 

Specialty beers from years past

Hello all! Today I have a fun post for you – i’ve dug into our archives and found some of our retired specialty ales to share with you. Some were interesting, some were strange, but all were no doubt delicious.

No matter what kind of growler you purchase, you know if it was brewed here it has to be good!

Lemon Balm Pale Ale (2010-2014)
This was one of our first specialty beers ever! This was definitely a popular one. This pale ale had a hint of lemon thanks to the lemon balm herb that Ed added to the recipe. This beer also had a slight hint of mint. It truly sounds delicious. If we had to resurrect any specialty beers from the past, this would be my vote.

Dandelion Stout (2010)
Dandelion stout was a favorite for medicinal purposes during the Victorian era, as dandelions were thought to cleanse the liver and prevent kidney stones. Ed brewed up a delicious take on a stout, with a little dandelion twist.

Raspberry Porter (2010-2013)
This one sounds delicious. According to our previous beer blogger Karrell, the raspberry porter had “a rich, full bodied taste with a subtle tart finish,” and was even brewed with raspberries picked from the village! There was even a short lived chocolate raspberry porter brewed in 2012.

Spruce Beer (2011-2013)
This spruce beer was brewed for our Battle of Black Creek event. It’s very historically accurate, as soldiers actually would have been drinking spruce beer to prevent health issues such as scurvy. However, Ed has told me that this beer tastes like a liquid Christmas tree. Perhaps not for everyone!

Barley growing for our Estate ale!

One Mile/Estate Ale (2011-2012)
This was a great little experiment we undertook between 2011 and 2012. The goal was to produce a beer with all the ingredients grown at the village! Of course, this was very hard work and extremely difficult to manage, so this was a specialty brew for only about a year.

Sweet Potato Ale/Potato Stout (2013-2017)
Who knew potato goes with beer? We brewed a variation of a potato beer for a few years, where some of the barley in the mash was replaced with potatoes. In Victorian times when many farmers would brew their own beer, they could replace some of the barley in their mash with a starch such as potatoes if there was a bad crop or blight one year. However, the potato doesn’t make too much of a difference in the taste of the beer, especially in the stout. I would describe our potato stout as earthy, but very similar to our usual stout.

Sweet/Milk Stout (2012-2014)
This is another one I would have loved to try. Surprisingly, beer and lactose make a good pairing! The addition of lactose gave this stout a rich, silky, and smooth body. Milk stouts were originally brewed to be healthier than a regular stout, thanks to the addition of the lactose.

What an interesting list. Of course, this is not extensive, but these are some of the ones I thought were the most interesting.  Who knows, maybe next year some of these interesting flavors might make a comeback!

The Anatomy of a Growler of Historic Ale

I’ve said it so many times to guests that it’s become second nature – “Remember to refrigerate your growler!” “The last inch of the growler is sediment, which isn’t so pleasant to drink.” “Don’t forget that our beer is historic so it’s naturally carbonated.” “You can keep your beer refrigerated and sealed to the best before date, but once it’s opened be sure to finish it within a few days!”

The growler fridge in the gift shop – stocked and ready to go!

All of this information is important, but why do we bother letting you know? Let’s explore our growlers, and why they are stored and enjoyed in a particular way.

Keeping your growler refrigerated

If you have purchased a growler at the village, you have likely visited our historic brewery. All of our beer was made right there, with the same method and technique as was used in the 19th century. This means our beer is preservative free, and very fresh. Our beer doesn’t rely on anything artificial to keep it fresh, so it needs to be refrigerated in order to last to the best before date on the bottle. I love that our beer requires this extra care – it seems so much more authentic than drinking a can of beer that’s been sitting in my basement for the last few months!

When you are ready to drink your beer, we recommend taking your growler out of the fridge 30 to 90 minutes before consuming, to allow the beer to warm up slightly and get closer to cellar temperature. These beers really do taste so much better when they aren’t ice cold!

The last inch…

Our beer is not filtered, giving it a slightly cloudy look when poured into a glass. This is the brewers yeast – which is actually quite good for you. I also find that if a beer is not filtered, it retains so much more flavor and complexity. However, this also means that the last inch of your growler contains much more settled sediment than the first inch. Some people don’t mind at all, and will gladly drink that last bit of the growler. If you are not one of these people, you may want to stop before the growler is completely empty. You can rinse it out easily if you’d like to keep your growler bottle, as long as it hasn’t been sitting for a while! I’ve heard you can also bake with that last inch of yeast, but I haven’t tried that just yet.

The date on the bottle

Each of our growlers has a date written on it – this is the “best before” date, which is approximately 30 days from the date it was bottled by hand at the brewery.  Nothing in our beer will make you sick if you drink it after the date on the bottle, but it begins to lose subtle flavors and carbonation if left unopened for too long. Our beer is best about 2-3 weeks after the bottling date, but it will taste very fresh any time in that 30 day window.

When you break that seal and open that cap, try to drink the beer inside as soon as possible. It will be okay for a day or two, but it’ll start to lose its flavor and carbonation much more quickly than when it was sealed.

Natural Carbonation

Because our beer is brewed using 19th century techniques, the end result is a naturally carbonated product. We do not add any extra carbonation, meaning that it will not be as bubbly or foamy as a modern beer. In order to preserve that little bit of natural carbonation, just make sure that you drink your beer shortly after opening it! I enjoy the natural carbonation of our beer, and find in some cases it is easier to drink than a modern beer.

So there is the anatomy of a growler of our historic beer! All this ensures you are getting the freshest and best tasting product we have to offer. Growlers are available for purchase in the brewery and in our gift shop, so why not stop by and try some for yourself?

 

Goodbye to Ed

Anyone who has come by to visit the brewery on the weekends has likely met our talented brewmaster Ed. Ed makes all of our historic beer on site with care and attention to detail. If you’ve ever talked to Ed about out historic beers, you’ll find he’s a wealth of information about technique, as well as the historical context that these beers belong in.

Ed has moved on from the Black Creek historic brewery as of August 13th, and has taken on a new opportunity. We wish Ed nothing but the best of luck, and we thank him so much for the time and energy he has dedicated to making the historic brewery so special and unique.

In honor of how much visitors loved and connected with Ed, I am posting an interview I did with him last year. It was so much fun to learn a little more about him… hopefully you think so too!

Ed pouring some hot wort into the cooling ship

DM:  So Ed, how did you end up becoming the brewmaster at the Black Creek Historic Brewery?
EK: There was an email sent to my beer club back in 2009 looking for brewers to work at Pioneer Village. Since I lived relatively close, I thought I’d give it a shot. At first there were four [brewmasters] working part time. The following year, they invited me to brew here full time.

DM: What started your interest in brewing?
EK: Ever since I can remember, I’ve been making wine, cider, and mead, but I was always afraid to make beer. I thought it was hard to make. People would give me bottles of homebrew, and it was always bad! Because of that, I always wanted to stay away from beer. Then one day I saw malt extract at Costco, and I thought I’d give it a shot. I went home and brewed, and that initially got me interested. After that, I picked up some books, and it progressed to brewing on the kitchen stove. Then I started with all grain, and I never looked back. I began brewing every weekend as a homebrewer, and I began to enter competitions. Me and my best friend entered some contests, and we were both co-winners of the Canadian Amateur Homebrewer of the Year award.

DM: What is your favorite part of being brewmaster at the Black Creek Historic Brewery?
EK: Probably watching people’s reaction when they try this beer. Especially the people who don’t normally drink beer. These beers are different from a modern beer – not filtered, not pasteurized, naturally carbonated, and served at cellar temperature.

DM: What is the most interesting historical fact about beer you’ve learned since becoming the Brewmaster here?
EK: Probably the fact that people didn’t drink beer socially, but as an alternative to water. A lot of people assume that people back then [in the 1860s] drank beer just because that’s what they liked. But it was because the beer was safer than the water.  Also, back when the City of Toronto was called York, it had a population of 50,000 with 16 breweries in downtown York. There was lots of beer being consumed back then.

So there you have it! Again, we wish Ed the best of luck. While we will miss Ed immensely, we are excited to share with you how the Brewery will change and evolve going forward. Keep your eyes peeled!

Brewery Announcement

Hello beer lovers,

It’s the end of an era! As you may know, our brewmaster Ed has moved on from the historic brewery to pursue a different opportunity.  Ed of course, is our one and only brewmaster here at the village. We will miss him dearly, but he has moved on to hoppier pastures!

So what does this mean going forward for the brewery? Since we are dedicated to quality control and serving you the best beer possible, we are going to be switching gears a little bit. Brewing with the historic method using historic equipment by hand can be complex, and adequate time and understanding is needed for a brewmaster to begin brewing the excellent historic beers we pride ourselves on serving and selling. Because of this, we will be halting brewery production on site for the remainder of 2018. We still have some growlers in stock, likely until the beginning of September.

We will be continuing our guided tasting experience, and will have a beer expert in the brewery daily from 1pm until close. We will be offering flights of our commercial beers, Rifleman’s Ration Brown Ale, and Canadian Frontier Best Bitter. These beers will also be available in the LCBO.

2019 will open up new opportunities in the Brewery, and we are excited to share them with you. Check back to this blog for any updates.

Brewery Update – Goodbye to Ed

Hello readers,

Some of you may know our historic brewmaster, Ed. Ed is the one who makes all of our historic beer by hand, using the same method and technique as was used in the 1860s. Ed has been one of the most important parts of the brewery since its inception. We will miss Ed’s passion, drive, and pure love of historic brewing.

Ed and Jonathan busily stirring the mash in the historic brewery

Sadly, Ed will be leaving us shortly after this weekend. He has accepted a new opportunity at another brewery, and will no longer be the brewmaster at the Black Creek historic brewery. We will miss Ed very much, but we are happy and excited on his behalf for this brand new opportunity.

If you’d like to come and say your goodbyes, Ed will be brewing this weekend, and on Monday. The brewery will be open for tastings from 1pm until close, so if you’d like to come by and hang out with Ed one last time, now is your chance!