Kingston St. Lawrence Base Ball Stats 1873

The big second season for the Kingston St. Lawrence was held in the summer of 1873. The 1872 stats are here. In 1873, there are reports in both the Kingston British Whig and the Kingston Daily News. In the Monday, 23 June 1873 issue of the Kingston British Whig, it asked:

Such is the mania for base ball just now. Will it be like lacrosse – up like a rocket and down like a stick?

It was called “a mania” by the KBW again on 30 August 1873. It was also a year of controversy as letters and articles in the KBW in June set out complaints about the base ball players taking over the Cricket Grounds which City Council had given the use of to the city’s cricket club some years before. Also, the Whig on 30 June states that the game has “ridden rapidly into popularity since its introduction last year by Dr. Jarvis and Mr. Eilbeck. Both men are listed as playing in the published box scores.

In addition to the second reference to KBW 30 July reference to “the silver ball” as the trophy of the Canadian championship (after the earlier reference in KBW 21 August 1872), one most interesting notes in the papers is in the Kingston Daily News of 24 July 1873 which reads:

The St. Lawrence Club has received a challenge to play from the Red Stockings of Boston. It has not been decided to accept this challenge yet.

The Boston Red Stockings of 1873 won the national Association championship and, in August, were on a tour of Canada winning all 14 games and outscoring their opponents 524-48. They became the Boston Braves, then the Milwaukee Braves and the Atlanta Braves. Al Spalding, shown in 1871, pitched for them. He later when on to found the sporting good company.

The team also had its own western Ontario tour in August 1873. Here is a listing of the games played by the St.L BBC in 1873:

2A: Saturday, 30 May – St. Lawrence (90) v. Locomotive Club (14). Played on the Cricket Ground. No umpire named in the KDN report.
2B: Saturday, 7 June – St. Lawrence (8) v. Ottawa Club (54). Game played at Ottawa. Ottawa had 4 US professionals. St. Lawrence served a written protest but played (KBW, 9 June 1873). Game mentioned. (KDN, 2 June 1873)
2C: Monday, 23 June – St. Lawrence (70) v. Stars (12). Umpire Dr. McCammon. Reported in both the KBW and KDN as part of a three match day. Only 2 hours despite the score.
2D: Thursday, 1 July. St. Lawrence (10) v. Silver Star, Port Hope (25). Played at 2 pm on the Cricket Field on Dominion Day 1873 (KBW, 30 June). Long report in KBW 2 July. Ten cents paid to watch, betting reported, sidelines crowded and ladies filled the cricket stand and benches. Umpire was named “Shibley” and was a nephew of a Port Hope player. Protests at his biased calls, defends himself by addressing the crowd, saying he is from New York and “was a success as an umpire”. Crowd takes the field in second inning and Dr. McCammon replaces Shibley as umpire. Game ends after seven innings at 5:15 pm as Port Hope needed to travel home on 6 pm boat for Ottawa game the next day. “Shibley” appears to have returned to the field to declare this as a “no game”. Much drama.
2E: Friday, 4 July – St. Lawrence (70) v. B’hoys, Cape Vincent, NY (9). (KBW, 3 July 1873). Box score in KBW 7 July.
2F: Wednesday, 16 July – St. Lawrence (26) v. “Union” Club (13). St. Lawrence had issued a practice challenge against best of rest of city. Practice is for upcoming game against Guelph Maple Leafs. St. L. states it is willing to play 9 to 18 players or give other side 6 outs per inning.(KBW 14 July; KDN, 15 July 1873). Game played at Cricket Ground as a “union” of the Union Club and the Stars Club. Umpire was Dr. G. W. Oliver of Cape Vincent, NY. Five innings with St. L allowed 15 outs and the Union team getting 30. Report in the KBW on 17 July states
2G: Friday, 18 July – St. Lawrence. first nine v. St. Lawrence second nine. No further reference than the advance notice is found in papers.
2H: Monday, 21 July – St. Lawrence (35) v. Guelph (27) Maple Leaf. Anticipated as “the great game of the season” in KBW 17 July 1873. Kingston defeats Guelph – headline in the KBW 22 July reads “The St. Lawrence Boys Astonish Guelphites and Every Body Else”. Game started 2 pm (2:15, KDN, 22 July) at the Cricket Field. Dr. McCammon umpired. Described as very gentlemanly – compared to recent Port Hope experience no doubt. 16 to 7 for Kingston after first inning. “Their backers at home would not believe the news of the defeat and telegraphed again and again in hope of a contradiction.” 700 to 1,000 watched (KDN, 22 July). KBW 23 July: Excellent supper afterward at the American Hotel. Fifty attended. No liquors were introduced to the table “out of respect to the temperance members of the Clubs”. Gathering ended at 11: 30 pm.
2I: Tuesday, 29 July – St. Lawrence (23) v. Cobourg (14). Game ends at 4:45 pm and score makes that day’s KBW. Full reports the next day in both the KBW and KDN. Played at Cricket Field. Mr. Salisbury of Cobourg umpired and judged to have done so very fairly.
2J: Thursday, 7 August – St. Lawrence (12) v. Newcastle Beaver(s) (5).
2K: Friday, 8 August – St. Lawrence (25) v. Victorias of Bowmanville (12)
2L: Saturday, 9 August – St. Lawrence (2) v. Dauntless, Toronto (7)
2M: Monday, 11 August – St. Lawrence (3) v. Maple Leaf, Guelph (36)
2N: Monday, 25 August – St. Lawrence (?) v. Boston Red Stockings (55?). Report in KBW of 26 August indicates a pounding.
2O: Monday, 25 August – St. Lawrence Second Nine (23) v.Maple Leafs, Kingston (31).
2P: Monday, 1 September – St. Lawrence (24) v. Mutuals Ottawa (31). Originally was to be against London Tecumseh Club but they canceled or were late. Good report in KDN 2 September 1873.
2Q: Monday, 2 September – St. Lawrence (19) v. Tecumseh Club, London (1). Played on Cricket Field on short notice after rescheduling. Inning in which no score is made as called “whitewash.”
2R: Monday, 25 August – St. Lawrence Second Nine (49) v. Harvesters, Kingston Twp (32). Mr. J McCammon was umpire. Played at Welburn’s Farm on Front Road. St. Lawrence traveled by wagon. “Wielding the willow” is description of batting. Cold with a strong west wind. Montgomery’s Quadrille Band was present.
2S: Monday, 25 August – St. Lawrence (57) v. Black Rivers, Watertown NY. (49). Game took 3 1/2 hours with team coming by Cape Vincent boat. St. Lawrence “batted themselves out” to get the game in before darkness. Black Rivers stayed in Kingston and took the morning boat back to Cape Vincent for game there. Last game of the year. Umpire was Mr. E. Nolan.

And here is a list of all the base ball teams mentioned listed in the KBW and KDN during 1873:

  • St. Lawrence Club, Kingston.
  • Locomotive Club, Kingston. Played in 2A. Played the Stars at 7 am (!) on Monday 30 June at the Cricket Field.
  • Ottawa Club. Played in 2B. Played Guelph on July tour on 23 July 1873, losing 16 to 2. Called the Ottawa “Mutuals” in KDN, 2 September 1873.
  • Foundry Club, Kingston. (KBW); Victoria Club of the Victoria Foundry
  • the Piano Forte Club, Kingston.
  • the “Stars”, Kingston. Played in 2C.
  • the employees of Messers Chown and Cunningham, Kingston.
  • the employees of Mr. R. M. Horsey, Kingston.(KBW/KDN). Played Foundry and beat them 41 to 30 on 23 June 1873.
  • “Union matches”(?), Kingston (KBW); the Unions Club (KDN). Beat Locomotive 26 to 14 on 23 June 1873. Played the Stars Wednesday 16 July 1873. (KDN).
  • Maple Leaf Club, Kingston (?). Played the Stars on Monday 14 July 1873, losing by 4 runs (KDN). Box score in KBW, 15 July. Score was 23 to 19 for Stars with Stars getting 29 outs(?) to Maple Leaf getting 27. Mr. J. Carson was the umpire.
  • Silver Stars, Port Hope. Played in 2D. Had a new base ball song composed by Mr. Fred Lockwood (KBW, 30 June). Played Guelph on July tour on 24 July 1873. losing 33 to 0.
  • The Maple Leaf Club of Guelph. Played late July tour. Swift, pitcher, and Maddock, catcher, noted in KBW 15 July 1873. Stated to have held the Canadian championship for four years (KBW, 17 and 22 July 1873).
  • Cobourg “Travellers”. Played in 2I. Played Guelph on July tour on 19 July 1873, lost 36 to 6.
  • Ogdensburg Pastimes. Played Guelph on July tour on 22 July 1873. Named in KBW and KDN 22 July. Played the “Bostons” (ie the Red Stockings) on Friday 29 August and lost 37 to 6. Pastimes still playing in 1921 (pdf!).
  • Newcastle Beaver(s), Ont. Called “Beaver” in the KBW but “Beavers” in the KDN.
  • Victorias of Bowmanville, Ont.
  • The Dauntless Club, Toronto, Ont.
  • Tecumseh Club, London, Ont. Played Cob(o)urg on 1 September 1873 (KBW 2 Sept)
  • Wolves, Kingston (?) KBW, 30 August 1873.
  • Bears, Kingston (?) KBW, 30 August 1873.
  • Dockmen, Kingston (?) KBW, 30 August 1873.
  • Dockmen, Brockville (?) KBW, 30 August 1873.
  • Volunteers of the 14th P.O. Rifles, Kingston
  • Barriefield Club. Played and lost to the Volunteers of the 14th P.O. Rifles on 19 September 1873 (KBW, 22 Sept).
  • Harvesters, Kingston Township. Played the St. Lawrence Seconds on 20 September 1873.
  • The Black Rivers, Watertown NY.

Kingston St. Lawrence Base Ball Stats 1872

You may recall the whole vintage base ball thing that came out of the Kingston Society for Playing Catch (KSPC) thing which came out of the whole community playing thing? Well, the season is now upon us and the Kingston St. Lawrence Brown Stockings Vintage Base Ball Club has two tournaments on already in the works, one in town and one over in Sackets Harbor, NY. Styled upon the “second nine” or the second-rate junior team from the main club that played in Kingston from 1872 to 1876, the KSLBSVBBC has a record of 0-1-1 with the tie coming in last year’s rain canceled game in Sacket’s Harbor, NY. The loss? Well, that was the year before.

Nutty yet based in history, we now have a team of crack researchers is now working on the actual heritage of the original St. Lawrence team, combing through articles like the one from 1873 shown here, in an effort to best replicate the details of uniform and play… and also to justify the effort to our spouses, bosses and bankers. Here are some stats arising from the games played by the Kingston St. Lawrence Base Ball Club in 1872 as reported in the Kingston British Whig. It is possible the list of games is not complete given the gap from 1 July to 21 August:

1A: Friday, 15 June – Married (39) v. Single (75). Umpire C. Van Arnam.
1B: Friday, 1 July – St. Lawrence (24) v. Cape Vincent, NY Ontario Club (26) – 1,000 in attendance at Cricket Grounds. Umpire: Mr. Cooper, Cape Vincent, NY.
1C: Monday, 21 August – Married (34) v. Single (54) – Eilbeck has switched sides having gotten married that summer. “Large attendance” at Cricket Ground. Singles called “the Benedicts” in the article. Umpire: J.M. Fo[r]te.
1D: Tuesday, 10 September – St. Lawrence (9) v. Clipper Club of Ilion, NY (70) – rain delay. Ilion were “masters of the Canadian bowling”. K’ton hosted Ilion at the “Anglo” in the evening. Umpired by T.L. Twiss of Ilion, NY

The list of all teams referenced in the Kingston British Whig in the summer of 1872:

  • St. Lawrence Club, Kingston.
  • Cape Vincent (NY) Ontario Club.
  • Williamsville Club. Williamsville was then a neighbouring community to Kingston. Played a “return match” with Orange L[?]y’s on 20 August 1872 (KBW, 21 Aug. 1872).
  • Orange L[?]y’s, Kingston. Played a “return match” with Orange L[?]y’s on 20 August 1872 (KBW, 21 Aug. 1872).
  • Maple Leaf Club of Guelph. Champions and holders of the Silver Ball (KBW, 21 Aug. 1872); “recently” beat Ilion at Ilion, NY (KBW, 11 Sept. 1872).
  • Dauntless Club, Toronto. Mentioned in the New York Times in 1872 but the Red Stockings toured Ontario in 1873.
  • Clipper Club of Ilion, NY.
  • Ogdensburg, NY.
  • Port Hope, Ontario.

More information will be forthcoming. Lots of it. Brace yourself. Players lists. Details from the games. Notes on which hotels were the site of post-game libations. Notice, too, that of the four games reported in my Whig articles, two were played within the Club by teams composed of married men and single men. A “club” in that era was just that – a gathering for a common purpose, not just a team which took on other teams in a league schedule. In The June 15, 1872 article in the Whig, the club is stated to have 60 members.

A City Of 1890 In Love With Strong Ales

qcc

I had reason to mine the archives of The New York Times today – for entirely proper purposes, I can assure you – but it was quite a moment, that moment when I knew in my small way that I was living out the life Pattinsonian, beery archive sleuth. What I came upon today was an 1890s travel piece with beer references worked in for good measure, the sort of thing our pal Evan Rail of Beer Culture fame, provides for The New York Times today, 118 years later. This is the key beer-related bit.

…The similarity to the English extends quite noticeably to minor matters, even to eating and drinking. Pipes rather than cigars are smoked in the streets and public places. English relishes and sauces in great abundance are displayed upon the dining tables. Lager beer is wanting almost absolutely. I remember in all my travels, extending through hundreds of miles in Ontario, beginning at this place, to have seen the sign “lager beer” displayed only once. Light wines are rarely called for. Strong ales like Bass’s and stouts like Guinness’s abound. Coffee is rarely served and when ordered is found to be a mockery. Tea is, next to mineral waters, the stable temperance drink at table…

That is an interesting bit of social observation. The whole piece with its August 16 1890 dateline is interesting and, if you have any idea of Kingston and its rare preservation of a huge part of its Victorian architecture, one that you can immediately place in the streets about the downtown. Except there’s lager beer here now. A little too much, frankly.

Who Was The Last Slave In Ontario Or Kingston?

levi1Right: Levi Veney, ex-slave who lived in Amherstburg, taken at J. D. Burkes’ store, 1898. Archives of Ontario. Click for large view.

I am not one of those anti-MSM, “the boogiemen are just round that corner now that Democrats are here” sorts of persons that have been so tediously active in the blogosphere in the last 24 hours…but when I heard a self-congratulatory reference in a CBC radio piece suggesting Canada not having a history of race issues as had the USA, it did grate on the ears. Reminded me to switch stations. But it got me thinking…there must have been a last slave in Canada. We traded in human souls with the best of them before a certain date, before the long path to today began. Google Books to the rescue with the 1869 book History of the Settlement of Upper Canada (Ontario), with Special Reference to the Bay of Quinté by Wm. Canniff. where we read at page 574:

…when the British Act of Emancipation was passed, in 1833, setting free the slaves in all parts of the Empire, there was no slaves in Canada, Upper or Lower. Thirty years previous had the evil been crushed in Lower Canada, and forty years before Upper Canada had declared that it was “highly expedient to abolish slavery,” and had enacted laws to secure its abolition…

The story goes on to mention the slaves of of the first Loyalist familes who settled along the eastern shore of Lake Ontario and down the St. Lawrence and, at pages 576 and 577 there is this extraordinary statement:

We have before us the copy of an assignment made in 1824 by Eli Keeler, of Haldimand, Neweastle, to William Bell, of Thurlow, of a Mulatto boy, Tom, in which it is set forth, that the said boy has time unexpired to serve as the child of a female slave, namely, ten years, from the 29th Feb. 1824, according to the laws of the Province ; for the sum of $75. Probably, this was the last slave in Canada whose service closed, 1835.

It appears from that reference and a few others that a child of a slave was a slave until majority during the transitional period. So who was the last one alive? Probably not this gentleman, given Mr. Veney above, but he is worth mentioning now as Canniff did at page 577:

In the Ottawa Citizen of 1867, appeared the following: A BRITISH SLAVE — An old negro appeared at the Court of Assize yesterday, in a case of Morris vs. Hennerson. He is 101 years of age, and was formerly a slave in Upper Canada, before the abolition of slavery in the British possessions. He fought through the American war in 1812, on the side of the British; was at the battles of Chippewa and Lundy’s Lane, and was wounded at Sacket’s Harbour. He is in full possession of all his faculties. He was born in New York State in 1766, and was the slave of a TJ. B. Loyalist, who brought him to Canada. He was brought to this city to prove the death of a person in 1803, and another in 1804.

If he was wounded at the 1812 Battle of Sackets Harbor (there was another in 1813) that means he was at least in Kingston then as the British force was based here, a generation before the Martellos were built. I will have to see if that case is reported, if it actually gives his name.

The Ontarios Against The Excelsiors Circa 1873

shvbb6

It was a fantastic time except I had to assist a crank (fan) after a keener and later mortified muffin (person of little experience and skill) let a bat fly into the stands. All is well and you can rest assured that the ER at the Samaritan Medical Center is dandy and the Sacketsonians are extremely kind…but, other than a wicked warm-up of many solid contacts, I missed playing our game but still caught a bit of the senior game between the Sackets Harbor Ontarios and the Rochester Excelsiors. High neato quotient nonetheless and greater plans are in the works.

shvbb5shvbb4shvbb3shvbb2
shvbb6

Vintage Base Ball Tomorrow

Some neato happening tomorrow as a small group of vehicles will leave Kingston filled with guys who are going to play a game in another country that they have never played before. Heck, even though we’ve had a batting practice, all nine players have not even been in the same room together yet. But tomorrow we play vintage base ball, sort of the logical extension of the Kingston Society for Playing Catch.

What happened was there was a call out from Sackets Harbor, New York to tourism folk in Kingston to get a team together to take on their team, the Ontarios, in a game using circa 1865-1875 rules as part of their Can-Am summer festival. A team from Rochester is also coming. Kingston’s inclusion is warranted. Some research shows that in 1875 and not much before and not much after Kingston had a club, the St. Lawrence Base Ball Club, that had two levels of players – the Reds and the Brown Stockings – that briefly played at the highest level. In 1875, they played the Live Oaks of Lynn Massachusetts as well as another a team from New Haven, Connecticut which appear to be the teams that the two pitchers who claim to have invented the curve ball and beat one of them. In that year, they also seem to have beaten the Canadian Champions Guelph Maple Leaf Club as well as the London Tecumsehs. The next year, they appear to have joined Canadian Association of Base Ball but also went on a ill fated tour of central NY which led to most of the team being fired for indescribable conduct of some sort.

So we are holding ourselves out as the echo of the mighty St. Lawrence. It is an exploratory game, not only to see if we are any good and even if we are not to learn the rules and exactly which rules are to be used from the quickly moving post-Civil War period but also to check out the sort of uniforms and equipment might be needed to do this right. For tomorrow we are dressing something like Mennonite cricket players but I did buy a bat as well as a couple of lemon peel balls from the Phoenix Bat Company of Columbus, Ohio. The lemon peel has no core and is a bit bigger than a modern ball which makes it a bit easier to handle – which is good because we do not wear gloves.

So likely some photos tomorrow. Best of all, it is being sponsored by the Sackets Harbor Brewing Company, the good folks of which I have had the pleasure of getting to know through beer blog work. This bodes very well for lunch, whatever the score.

Book Review: A History of Brewing in Holland 900 – 1900

hbhI started reading my copy of A History of Brewing in Holland 900-1900: Economy, Technology and the State by UBC professor Richard W. Unger, published in 2001. Careful readers will recall that I had ached after this book ever since I reviewed his 2004 publication Beer in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance but was a bit depressed about the sticker price of this one. Divine (or at least professorial) intervention, however, landed me the prize of a review copy.

I am only about 70 pages in – up to the 1400s – and am fascinated all over again by the precision and detail of the research yet also by how readable Unger makes understanding his work. So far, in a nutshell, he has taken medieval tax and shipping records and then traces how the semi-autonomous cities and towns within and neighbouring the Low Countries produced traded and consumed beer. He shows how Holland’s success in leveraging the new fangled hop that arrived from the south-eastern North Sea shipping trade in the 1300s led to the replacement of gruit as a flavouring in beer, triggered a shift in taxation and public regulation while expanding commerce through the ability of hops to stabilize the beer to allow it travel farther while maintaining its good condition. This portion of the book mirrors some of what was included more detail in his other book – for example, how taxes were based first on granting a monopoly to supplying an ingredient (ie counts farming to local towns the right to control the gruit trade) then on the production of beer (excise tax based on production provided more than 50% of Lieden’s revenue in the early 1400s) then on control of shipping of beer (through tolls, holding periods for trans-shipped casks and special import duties). The general information on the medieval economy is also interesting – like the fact that the Black Plague led to the marketplace for labour after it passed through as the survivors could decide what to do with their skills and thereby their lives.

I will add to this post as I move through the book but, again, I am struck how I would love to find a current text of this detailed quality in relation to the economics of English, American or any other region’s brewing but, other than Hornsey’s more scientific and encyclopedic A History of Beer and Brewing, know of none.

Book Review: A History of Beer and Brewing, Ian S. Hornsey

I have been working thought my review copy of this 632 page paperback published by the Royal Society of Chemistry for the best part of a month now. It is fascinating. Likely the best book on beer I have ever read. Clear, comprehensive and incredibly well-researched, this book contextualized beer and related beverages in the cultural and scientific world contemporary to any given era from pre-historic cave dwellers to the modern era and CAMRA. Yes, insert your joke of convenience now…

It is this latter aspect, the context, that really is a treat. As we learn how beer and brewing evolved, we also learn about about such things as potting techniques, movements of peoples across continents as well as how scientific advances such as in the Enlightenment came about. I had no idea that Ancient Egypt was pretty much a society on the bottle all of the time or that the Stuarts in the 1600s were the originators of much of the alcohol related law that still exists today – including taxing drinking as a mechanism for reducing drunkenness…outside of the Egyptian-esque Court of King James I, that is.

This is such an expansive work that it is really hard to write a review of this length. It has a certain scale others I have read do not. For example, Hornsey describes 15 different peoples between the Israelites and the Celts over almost 50 pages to trace the likely route of beer making from its birthplace in Egypt and Babylon to north-eastern Europe and Britain at the time of Christ. In addition to such anthropology, there is plenty of archaeobotany where the stuff in the pot found in the grave or the newly uncovered early medieval basement as well as review of primary documentary sources going back to the beginning of writing. Also, this is a peer-reviewed sort of scientific text which both adds to its trustworthy completeness compared to some of the recent pop histories on beer as well as to its practical status as a benchmark against which other histories are measured. For the casual reader, it should serve as either a dispute settler in itself or at least as a pointer, though its extensive bibliography, to most solutions to the questions that can arise between nerds.

I may think of more to add later as I get through the last third of the book but I can leave it here by saying this is the best history I have encountered to date.

Reason #17 As To Why We Need Sponsorships

underholl

This is what I am talking about. I would love to get a copy of this book but – wow! – one hundred and fifty-four clams. Don’t get me wrong. A History of Brewing in Holland 900-1900: Economy, Technology and the State by Richard W. Unger (2001) would fit very nicely beside his next following text Beer in the Middle Ages and Renaissance reviewed back here with great gusto. In have a review request in to the publisher in Holland but am not holding my breath given that it is five years old. Yet access to this sort of research is vital to the workings of A Good Beer Blog.

So should you see an ad pop up sometime, this is why. Just saying.

Ontario: Neustadt Springs Brewery, Neustadt, Bruce County

neu3As I headed up from Stratford towards Owen Sound on a family tour, I knew that Neustadt was roughly on the way but I had to figure out the shift in the north-south concession lot roads from the north-west to south-east ones…and I got a little lost. South of Clifford on highway 9 I got my bearings again and soon was there. Watch out if you find yourself on School Road #7, though. I am glad I did find my way there as my whole family was treated to the sort of tour of Neustadt Springs Brewery by owners Val and Andy Stimpson, up and around the brewing equipment, that I really love and the others tolerate in return for all the other great things I do in life…really.

neu6

neu5

neu4

 

 

 

 

You may recollect that Neustadt’s 10W30 is a favorite of mine. Well, meeting the couple that make this brew was a real treat and also an education. We were shown their special import New Zealand hops, asked to grind a few pellets and shown which ones have hints of kiwi fruit and mango. Dandy. We were also given some of the short run Manchester Bitter to try and had a few secrets shared. I found it an excellent light beer in something of the light mild tradition. You will note there was only a bit left when I thought to take the photo of the brew.

 

neu2

neu11

neu9

 

 

 

 

After that, when the kids got a bit Dad’s-dragged-me-to-a-brewery…again, Andy said he’d take care of them and we all went off to the cellars. You see Neustadt is a 21st century micro sitting in and on top of a mid-Victorian brewery, the Heuther Brewery opened in 1868 or so and run by a cousin of the original operator of the now revived Heuther Hotel, another modern micro-brewery in Waterloo. In the basement we were shown the brewing area, the tunnels to the downtown area of the village as well as the one to the Victorian brewer’s home. We were also shown the air vents, below left, dug into the ground to keep the air sweet.

neu1a

neu8

neu7

 

 

 

 

Great stuff. So now I got to support Ontario craft brewers while picking up a dandy 10W30 glass and t-shirt as well as a bunch of bottles fresh from storage. In the fall they are putting on a porter. Worth the trip if their other beers are anything to go by. Here’s the BAers take on the beers.

Directions to Neustadt Springs