A Toronto base (sort of) for Creemore Springs

In the days since a Toronto Life magazine reporter strolled by the former Duggan’s brew pub at the corner of Victoria and Lombard Streets in downtown Toronto, noticed a building permit in the window with Creemore Springs Brewery written on it and published a picture of it on the magazine’s blog earlier this week, the beer world has been abuzz with possibilities. A Creemore Springs brew pub? A new branch of the brewery? A new home for the brewery?

To find out more, the Echo sat down with Creemore Springs executive vice president and brewmaster Gordon Fuller and communications director Karen Gaudino, and discovered a project that is in a way still very much in the conceptual stage, despite the fact that renovation work has begun.

The one thing that is for sure, though, and was stressed several times by Gaudino, is that Creemore Springs beer itself would never be brewed anywhere but Creemore. “It can’t be,” said Gaudino. “It wouldn’t be Creemore Springs without the spring water we use here.”

The building, in fact, won’t even be branded with the Creemore Springs logo, though you will be able to find plenty of our local beer in the fridges in the retail store that will be one component of it. The basement of the building will provide offices for the Six Pints Specialty Beer Company, the selling wing of Creemore Springs that was set up by Molson to focus on that company’s craft beers – currently Creemore Springs and Granville Island, though a few craft imports will soon join the fold. But even though those offices are one of the main reasons for acquiring the building, the Six Pints logo is also unlikely to grace the side of the building.

There won’t be a pub or a restaurant either, despite the fact the building came equipped for both. One of its two kitchens will be preserved and used for events and event rentals, but the decision to stay away from a dining and drinking establishment was easy, said Gaudino. “There are too many of our clients in the area, and we don’t want to step on their toes.”

So what will the main floor of the building be used for? Well, here’s where it gets interesting. There is a small brewing facility that will be kept and used, but the beer that’s brewed there won’t be Creemore Springs or Granville Island. “Maybe it will be called the Victoria Street Brewery, or something like that,” offered Gaudino, letting Fuller explain that the facility will be used as an “experimental lab,” you could say, where different types of craft beer will be brewed, each one available for a limited time in the retail facility. “We tossed around the idea of just calling them “Number 1,” Number 2,” and so on,” said Fuller. If they hit on a good one, he continued, there’s a possibility the recipe could be brought up to Creemore or out to Kelowna to be brewed as a seasonal special.

As mentioned, the limited edition beers will be available in bottles on site (there’s a small bottling plant in the basement of the building), plus there will be a small “tasting lounge,” where people can come off the street, sit at a table or on a couch, and buy one pint of whatever is being brewed. That’s it though – it’s not a pub, just a place to stop in and taste the latest.

The rest of the building will feature two large areas – one, accessible from a different entrance off the street, will be a sort of “beer museum.” Visitors, as well as employees and clients undergoing training, can wander the area and experience several interactive exhibits telling the story of good beer. “It will be ‘brand agnostic,’” said Gaudino, meaning it will not tell only the Creemore Springs and Granville Island stories, although we’re sure they will be in the mix somewhere. “Really, it will be a celebration of craft brewing, a way of showing people a different view of what beer can be,” she explained.

The other room will be an events room, available for rent. Large events can use the beer museum space as well.

So that’s what the building will contain, but the question remains is, what will it be called? “It will be something like ‘The Beer Academy,’ although that’s definitely not set in stone.”

It’s obvious that Gaudino and Fuller are excited about the project (though Fuller will remain the brewmaster in Creemore, working with a different brewmaster at the new facility), even if they and parent company Molson are still working through the details.

“It will be a sort of beachhead for Creemore Springs in Toronto, although we still have to figure out how we connect the place to Creemore Springs,” said Gaudino, wondering if it might be as subtle as having the fridge stocked with Creemore, letting people know that in a place that celebrates good beer, that’s the one of choice.

“It gives us an interesting way to sell and merchandise beer outside the LCBO,” she said. “And beyond that, we want it to be an innovative, incubative kind of place. We like to do things a little differently, and this place will allow us to play a little bit without necessarily changing what Creemore Springs is.”