Tour to put Ottawa area’s brewing history on map
An important initiative for beer lovers in Ottawa was quietly announced shortly before National Craft Beer Week wrapped last weekend.
Brewers in the region have been working with Ottawa Beer Tap, the organizer of National Craft Beer Week run by Ottawa brewer J.P. Fournier, to create a historical tour of important breweries and locations around the region that help tell Ottawa’s 200-year-old brewing history.
While details of the tour haven’t been finalized, one location that Fournier said will be a required stop for tourists and beer lovers alike is Gatineau’s Les Brasseurs Du Temps. It was the region’s first brewery, built in 1813 to quench the thirst of hard-working Irish immigrants who came to Canada to build the Rideau Canal. It may be the first stop on the soon-to-be announced Ottawa-area brewing history tour.
The brewery, which was also a distillery, was founded by farmer Philemon Wright, who also founded the county of Hull (now Gatineau). Wright was a hop farmer who knew of the brewing process, and he set up his brewery next to the Chaudière Falls in a building that is now located at 170 Rue Montcalm and which houses BDT today.
According to historical records, Wright sold hops from his farm in Massachusetts to Canadian brewing pioneer John Molson as early as 1798.
Growing tired of the overpopulation that was plaguing his home state, Wright convinced a group of labourers to move with him to an area near where the Gatineau and Ottawa rivers intersect. There the labourers cleared land and laid the groundwork for what would grow into a booming lumber industry, especially during the Napoleonic wars when Great Britain had trouble finding exporters of lumber needed for its naval ships. The settlement became known as Wrightstown and is credited for the founding of both modern-day Gatineau and Ottawa. At the heart of the settlement was Wright’s brewery, built along the shore of what became known as Brewery Creek. A second brewery was later opened on Laurier Street.
Wright died in 1839, and the Gatineau brewery and distillery operated until 1845, when the building was converted into an axe factory.
The former city of Hull operated a pumphouse on the site from 1905 until 1971. The building housed the Ecomusée de Hull natural science museum from 1996 to 2004. It closed because of a lack of visitors.
But the region’s brewing history didn’t end with the demise of Wright’s brewery. There were at least two other breweries and three beerbottling plants on Hull Island, which became known as Beer Town during the early 1900s. Its moniker changed to Little Chicago during the years of Prohibition, which started and ended in Quebec in 1919, as people flocked to the area to imbibe.
As the market for beer heated up, another Ottawa-area pioneer jumped in to expand the industry. In 1875, Moss Kent Dickinson, founder of Manotick, builder of Watson’s Mill and mayor of Ottawa from 1864 to 1866, created the Canada Bung, Plug and Spile Factory near his mill.
The factory quickly became a world-leading supplier of bungs, used to help carbon dioxide exit beer during the fermentation process.
It’s in honour of these pioneers that the founders of BDT wanted to reclaim the old brewery and turn it back into a hub where suds could flow and people could meet.
“The historic part is important to us, it gives meaning to what we do,” said Alain Geoffroy, president of BDT. “We are giving the site back its original vocation.”
The microbrewery opened in 2009 and now employs a brewmaster, Dominique Gosselin, who brews all of the pub’s beer on site. The pub seats 250 people inside; another 250 can fit on the patio. The brew pub also incorporates a museum, which is free to visit, that proudly details the brewing history of the region.
The museum is open during BDT’s business hours.
While BDT offers beers to suit almost every palate, there are more than 13 in-house brews on tap at any time. Almost all of BDT beers are also available in bottles at the pub and from SAQ stores as well as dépanneurs across Quebec.