NO HOGGIN’ THE HOPS!
Goure brothers cultivate own ingredients for Windsor craft brewery
Jordan Goure, the head brewer at Brew, waters hops plants at a farm in Amherstburg under the watchful eye of the family’s pet pig Pierre. The Windsor microbrewery, run by Jordan and his brother Joshua in a former chocolate factory along University Avenue East, is the first local craft brewer to grow its own hops.
It’s micro-brewing meets microfarming.
Brothers Joshua and Jordan Goure will soon become the first Windsor-area brewers to grow and use their own hops.
The Goures — Joshua, 32, marketing director, and Jordan, 29, brewer — run Brew, the hip craft brewery and tasting room at 635 University Ave. E., in a former chocolate factory in the shadow of Caesars Windsor.
But since they have developed a taste for hyper-local suds, they recently planted a hop yard on a 15-acre property in Amherstburg — and hope to let the flavour flow in two years when the yard is ready to produce at full capacity.
“It’s a fun project for us,” Jordan said Thursday during a tour of the newly planted field featuring a double line of telephone polls that will be strung with aircraft cable, on which the hops will grow 20 feet skyward. “Hops have a big impact on flavour. The earlier you add hops to your recipe when you’re brewing, the more bitterness you’ll get. The later you add them, the more you get aroma and the actual flavour.”
Brew’s motto, however, is “smooth, easy-drinking beer,” so don’t expect the bitter bite some craft ales offer almost as a challenge. Brew has a Proper Lager and some other fun fare, such as its Brew Light Lime, Canadian Maple Brew, Brews Wayne Dark India POW Ale, and seasonal offerings such as Black ’n’ Brew Chocolate Stout, a homage to the building ’s roots.
The Goures source as much as they can from Ontario. But even that didn’t cut it. They wanted more from Windsor and Essex County.
Hence, the foray into farming, of which they knew zilch. Luckily, Jordan’s fiancée Sarah Van Raay comes from a farm family. So Jordan’s future father-in-law Dave Van Raay has been providing guidance on irrigation, berms and much more.
Their first yield should end up producing 200 to 300 pounds of cascade hops. That variety, known for a flowery and spicy, citrus-like quality, is most widely used in North American microbrewing.
Brew uses only 100 to 150 pounds annually for its beer so far, but its sales are rising like yeast. In fact, Brew now counts more than 30 places that sell its beer. The Goures might also sell hops to other local brewers if interest arises.
Mostly, however, the Brew crew wants to produce more than just brew. It wants to offer a whole craft-beer adventure.
“We wanted to create an entire experience for people,” Jordan said on a stroll through the hop yard and the beginning of wooded trails on the Front Road North land. “It’s a nice property right on the wine trail. We wanted to create something special for people.”
When all done up, with landscaped trails, a barn, a couple of hop yards, etc., Joshua and Jordan envision wedding photos and more with a nouveau-rustic feel.
They plan to soon offer the two-bedroom home — a steelblue, white-trimmed cottage — for rent through Airbnb. As well, they hope to offer tours with beer samplings as part of the wine tour, assuming visitors would like to taste some suds with their vino.
“It’s a fantastic idea,” said Gordon Orr, CEO of Tourism Windsor Essex Pelee Island. “You can’t remain complacent. You’ve got to grow your product, you’ve got to diversify, you’ve got to be creative and innovative. And that’s exactly what the folks at Brew are doing.
“Craft brewing is a growing industry, make no mistake. So it’s a whole new element for people to explore and enjoy.”
A bonus for people visiting the Brew hop yard: Pierre, Jordan’s pet miniature-Juliana pig, a cute and chubby creature who never met a carrot he didn’t like.
“It’s all about being local,” Jordan said. “The next stage is that people want to see where things come from, so we want to be on the cutting edge of that.”