Beer. It only gets to you in so many ways. You make beer and provide it to your community. You make beer and ship it to another community. You ship beer in and provide it to your community. There are not too many other options for the beer trade whether you are talking about 1810 or 2010. Today we are talking about the late 1700s and early 1800s.
The community I happen to live in now, Kingston Ontario, is a lucky choice if you are interested in the history and beer in Ontario as it is where Ontario began. Actually, it was all the Province of Quebec when it began as a British governed community in 1783. At that point, Quebec then ran all the way west and included Ohio and Michigan. The people who first settled here were wealthy Mohawk Valley NY land owners, their slaves, their Mohawk allies and their Loyalist tenant farmers evicted from New York state during the American Revolution. Not the British. This is a community started by battling Yorker farmer warriors.
Allen Winn Sneath in his book Brewed in Canada states that the first brewery in what by then was called Upper Canada was the Finkle’s Tavern, founded a few miles west of Kingston in Bath in 1800. The Ontario historic plaque indicates it was built earlier, in 1786 when the area was still Quebec. Sneath’s book has a photo from the collection of beer writer Ian Bowering. What did they do before then? For the first years of Kingston we are likely looking at locally made home brewed ales, maybe some casks of strong ale being brought in for the wealthy but mainly lots and lots of rum if you go by the ads in the available newspapers. In a way, the tastes of Kingston echo of the community led by Sir William Johnson who died suddenly in upstate NY in 1774 just before the Revolution. He left his affairs to his son John who went on to lead led the Loyalist defense of upstate NY in the Revolution and then because the Superintendent of the resettlement here, the first colonization of the Great Lakes basis under British command. William Johnson was in the habit of importing good strong beer. It’s likely his son, John, continued the practice.
Kingston was still a strong ale town in 1890 according to this article from that year in The New York Times. The town was filled with farmer warriors who would have immediately grown their own grain crops as soon as they hit the shore. In that clip from the Kingston Chronicle of the 3rd of March 1820 above, the first commercial brewer in Kingston, Thomas Dalton, seeks out local grain to make his extra strong bodied ale, even using a nationalist argument to encourage drinking of Canadian beer over West Indian rum.
So, good strong ale was likely being both brewed and brought into Kingston soon after its founding in 1783. And with it came the genesis of the Ontario craft beer trade that continues today.
[Original comments…]
James – June 20, 2010 11:52 AM
Nice post. Alan. Can you tell us why all the “s’s” in the newspaper article are typed as “f’s”. Fubfcriber? Did they not have the letter “s” on their typewritters back then? Yet “amiss” is typed as “amifs”
Alan – June 20, 2010 12:45 PM
I knew my early 80s BA in English Lit would come in handy sooner or later. I give you… “the Long S”.
Steve Gates – November 16, 2010 1:51 AM
Alan, interesting stuff, I’m not sold on the idea that Ontario found it’s own way more than any other Canadian province, the nature of the man who chose UC vice the well established LC speaks for itself in terms of strength of character, unparalleled determination and good ol’ Canadian pluck. Dalton was your classic UC entrepreneur, ingenious, inventive and inovative. He was also a poet, a prolific writer and a politician in waiting. I don’t think he was the first Kingston Commercial brewer, Robins, Robinson, Gilespie, Burley and Schofield come to mind but he was one of the first. I don;t think that Finkle was the first either, the idea that the beer drinking desires were stronger in Bath than they were in Kingston seems proposterous, I will give Finkle beerpub props but I would think that someone was selling a local beer in K-Town prior to him. Oh by the way, I’m from Kingston as well, thanks for the article, I love the sleuthing you did to find the Dalton ad in Montreal… good job, so typical of the times in that a UC entrpreneur seems driven to make it in LC before he can call himself a success.
Alan – November 16, 2010 9:09 AM
Citations! We need citations for those observations, Steve!!! Where do you find the names Robins, Robinson, Gilespie, Burley and Schofield? I am practically speaking locked away from libraries so have to make most of this stuff myself.
But I do tend to agree with you. Since I wrote that, I have learned a little more and see that there was a Brewery Street in 1800ish. I am not sure where I got the “first commercial brewer” idea. Commercial might be the twig. You should read the new book by Alan Taylor “The Civil War of 1812” as well as “In Mixed Company” which might combine to indicate that before a certain point beer was tied to either home or the taverns and taverns were part of a non-commercial imperial complex… not a lot of entrepreneurs so much as Tory lackies and backroom boys being given sweetheart deals to control the military supply contracts or obtain the licenses. BTW – distilling was banned in the war of 1812 so I doubt anyone was brewing. Rum kept everyone happy.
Steve Gates – November 16, 2010 3:27 PM
Alan, quite right, distilling was banned but brewing never was,because soldiers being soldiers (by the way I am a soldier ) had an invested right to 5 pints aday, even after they retired! The beer had to come from somewhere and it seems that political affiliation or personal contacts did not help you, what meant anything in those days to a post 1812 brewer was your regimental affiliation or your element of service ( army or navy ) Henry Murney and Thomas Davis of Kingston are but a couple of these former military men flogging beer. The Prescott brewing scene was even more military minded in the early 19th century brewing industry with men like Kilbourne, Lewis and Conway pitching wort in a post 1812 economy and catering to the needs of the troops of Fort Wellington. The period od 1830-50 are an even more interesting brewing period in the St Lawrence corridor. I am examining the brewers that were fighting for Col By’s contracts during the construction of the Canal…any observations besides the obvious Robert Drummond choice? Beerfully, Steve.
Alan – November 16, 2010 4:56 PM
Where are you getting this stuff? Are you over at RMC with access to all the good stuff – by which I mean records? Did Murney and Davis, for example, have leases over at the City Brewey next to Place D’armes? And were they pre-1812 as well?
Steve Gates – November 16, 2010 6:29 PM
The Brewery near Place D’Armes was the Kingston Brewery with Forsythe, Robinson, Burley et al the City Brewery was located on Ontario St below West St, the original site of Burley’s last brewery. Murney was pre and post 1812 and Davis was post 1812. I have a book written on this material, I just need to type it, my goal is to have it on the shelves for summer 2011. I have travelled everywhere for my info from RMC to Queens and Pt Vincent to Ogdenburg on the American side.I have always been interested in Kingston brewing history and I am enjoying chatting about it.
Alan – November 16, 2010 8:45 PM
Well, that relieves me of the need to write that book, too. How are you with 1860s-70s baseball?
Steve Gates – November 17, 2010 1:00 AM
I have no interest in America’s game, have you located any adverts from other breweries attempting to trial the Kingston market similar to what Dalton was trying to accomplish? I am always interested in foreign competition probing the early Kingston market.
Alan – November 17, 2010 8:34 AM
The only thing I have seen is that there was an Albany Ale agent in Montreal. Have you followed the Albany Ale posts?
It would be interesting to know if there was brewing in Ogdensburg. It was a fairly autonomous prosperous community, well funded by land speculators and developers as the focus of NNY trade into the Montreal market.
Baseball was Upper Canada’s game, too. Predates hockey with a peak of Kingston’s madness around 1873 or so. Worker’s games pre-shift at dawn. Thousands attending games.
Steve Gates – November 17, 2010 12:25 PM
Ogdensburg was the home for the Crichton family brewery… quite large and quite successful. It’s proximity to Prescott allowed a liberal trade relationship to develop. Your observations about baseball are interesting, in fact, I have uncovered a reference to brewer Wm Ellis as an skillful baseball and cricket player and often played in Kingston with “uproarious appreciation” I have also located a reference to Oswego Ale being sold at a hotel in K-Town. I have read the Albany Ale posts but I am not so sure if I understand the nature of the beverage…same as reg beer but made of malted wheat perhaps???
Alan – November 17, 2010 1:45 PM
No, we think now it was a high test export brew (10%?) that was pretty hoppy but mostly the odd thing is that it shipped to Newfoundland and California.
I think I have run across Ellis’s name. You have confirmed my suspicions with the Ogdensburg and Oswego comments. I wonder where they got their malt.
Steve Gates – November 17, 2010 6:12 PM
The Ogdensburg Brewery procured their malt from at least 60 farmers from both sides of the river, it was a real free for all with long standing loyalties ie. I sell to Labatts because my father did. Did Albany ale originate from Albany NY? The markets of NFLD and Cali seem like polar opposites, what was the attraction to those markets? What is the common denominator?
Alan – November 17, 2010 8:13 PM
Have you done any research over at the Watertown Daily Times? I have a good connection there – they still have their own librarian. I am convinced that there was plenty of cross border St. Lawrence trade that was legitimate and served as an example of co-existence. The WDT might have more evidence if you haven’t hit there yet.
It is very odd that there is no local popular history about it but there is no real local popular history as far as I can tell. I am a Maritimer. Lack of local popular history is like having TV stations that only broadcast every second night.
Steve Gates – November 18, 2010 2:33 PM
I basically kept me research to those communities regarded as River Towns, Cape Vincent, Oswego and Ogdensburg… all 3 have active historical societies and are a friendly lot. Local popular history is abundant in Prince Edward County but 50kms east and there is virtually none, I have found that communities with a long standing military presence has helped create this phenomenon, a culture of secrecy borne of military operational security is moct likely the culprit… this is my theory and it is not corroberated with actual fact or statistics.
Alan – November 18, 2010 3:50 PM
Interesting stuff. Soon time to have that beer, you know.
Steve Gates – November 18, 2010 7:24 PM
That should be do-able eh? Somewhere where there is casked conditioned ales would my preference. I noticed in another blog site you mentioned going to NY state for a half decent beer, what are your favs… what do you think of Neustadts 10w30? New beermaking show coming on Sunday at 10 PM… could be cool.
Alan – November 18, 2010 8:08 PM
Hard to find in Kingston. My local preference is oatmeal stout at the Brew Pub. New York is Beervanad compared to here. In Syracuse, the Blue Tusk and Clarks are among the great beer bars in the western hemisphere.
Steve Gates – November 23, 2010 12:53 AM
Alan, Is there anything in the LCBO that you can recommend right now, I usually play it safe and buy Belgian beers but can you suggest something from Ontario? I should be supporting the local breweries since beer making seems to be important to me, at least, historically. Thanks.
Alan – November 23, 2010 7:31 AM
I would check out Beau’s if you haven’t already. I like Muskoka Dark, Church-Key Northumberland (a throwback stock ale), Black Oak Pale Ale, Mill Street Betelgeuse Belgian Tripel, Neustadt 10w30 Brown Ale.
I really liked the large format bottle of Muskoka Harvest Ale I had the other week and it is also on tap at the Brew Pub… which reminds me about going for that beer.