Canada, MB: Torque Brewing excited to open its doors to the public in St. James

A River Heights man is excited to open the doors of a new brewery for the city.

With the support of new legislation, Winnipeg will soon have no shortage of craft beer brewers and taprooms. Among the first is Torque Brewing, located in St. James at 330-830 King Edward St., Winnipeg Free Press reported on August 22.

Torque president John Heim, a River Heights resident says that the goal is keep it as local as possible, from the brew to the equipment and taproom furniture. The brewery recently churned out their first batch, which will be available by the end of summer.

"In 2009 I went down to Minneapolis… and I tried a beer by Surly (Brewing Co.) and that was sort of my ‘Ahh!’ moment," Heim said. "We knew the potential of brewing in Manitoba, where the rest of Canada was, where we should be… we were well on our way before the legislation changed but a lot of people got on board after."

New legislation includes a tax break for new, local breweries and taprooms as well as bylaws specific to those facilities. Torque can’t be open later than 9 p.m. or operate a kitchen or serve food that requires a knife, unless they want to go through another set of applications.

For now, they will be focusing on the beer, the taproom and stocking their spot on the shelf in Liquor Marts. Torque will be producing approximately 10,000 cans of beer over the summer to keep up with LC demands.

The brewery will offer four mainstay varieties: a red IPA, a Belgian wheat beer with citrus tones, a dark American stout and what Heim calls an "easy-drinking beer."

"It’s not too dark, not overly hoppy, it’s got nice flavour, it’s a good quality product but it’s not something you’ll have one of and go, oh, that’s enough."

Regardless of the style, Heim said craft beer is a completely different experience than what "big beer" companies produce.

"Typically, the introduction to beer is Bud Light or Bud Apple/Lime, and they always tell you to drink it cold and the reason they tell you that is because it hides all the bad flavours," Heim said. "Minus two Coors Lite on the Boston Pizza commercial, but most beers should be served between two and five degrees, not minus two.

"What happens with the better crafted beer is when it warms up it tastes better, the different flavours come out and knowing that your beer is made here and you’re supporting local. You’re not buying a guy at Budweiser a third summer home, you’re helping put someone through baseball."

Heim said when they can’t find it in Winnipeg, they will at least buy Canadian. Torque’s mixing and fermentation tanks are from Vancouver, while the canning line comes from Calgary. Visitors will get to see the entire process if they come down for a tour, which will likely take place on Saturdays.

"I think it’s important that people see it like grandma’s kitchen, we have the ability to tweak our recipes and really put our own spin on something rather than big beer, that’s basically a robot that puts out the yellow fizzy stuff," he said.

21 August, 2016