Canada, ON: Grey Matter Beer Company now open in Kincardine, Ontario

Some new flavour has been poured into downtown Kincardine and now for the first time in the town's history a licensed manufacturing brewing company exists.

For many years locals opening the doors to 726 Queen Street Kincardine meant shopping for clothing, but now the building is host to Grey Matter Beer Company, the Kincardine News reported on April 27.

The doors opened Thursday April 26, 2018 and the story of a long journey has been told through the transformation of the building.

"There were quite a few struggles... the building was in rough shape going into this," said Grey Matter president and brewmaster Michael Hueftlein, who said setting up the brewing equipment was a challenge in itself.

"The tanks wouldn't fit in in the beginning. They came in one piece... but with some brute force and some stubborn Germans, we managed to get them in," Hueftlein laughed.

Small projects one at a time rolled into the massive undertaking of renovating the large space and turning into to an operating brewing business which now features the end product to the public.

"We're both trained brewers, we met in Niagara College, I decided that I was going to open up a brewery, we came up with the idea, and here we are, it's incredible and exciting that we're now ready to pour beer," added Hueftlein.

The line-up of local beers includes a lager, wheat-based beer, and two intense flavours, with one called 'Dawn of Civilization' - a pale ale and the other 'Mission to Mars', which is an oatmeal-based beer.

The oatmeal brew was a fan favourite on opening day where customers came in for the first time and took in the new look downtown Kincardine.

The first customer in the door was George MacDonald and there were more to follow throughout the day leading into the evening which made for a busy opening day for the Grey Matter Beer Company.

The storefront sells beer and merchandise and featured its first pop-up food event on Saturday April 28 starting at 11 a.m., featuring Kincardine's Soup Spoon Co. offering food items like pulled pork made with Grey Matter brews. Others are planned in the future.

The facility features views of Lake Huron and a number of games for patrons to enjoy with their beverages as well.

29 April, 2018