Brandon Bickle and Matt Filion are excited to share their love of beer with the community. Their dream project, to own and operate a craft brewery, is about to come true at the end of March when they open Focal Brewing Co., just outside of Hastings.
Brandon and Matt started home brewing together about 10 years ago and after looking for a property in the Port Hope area initially, Brandon and his wife purchased a five-acre property on County Road 35 that had a pole barn. Brandon and Matt converted this barn into their dream brewhouse.
Focal Brewing will produce between 700 and 1,000 litres of brew a week. The beer will be sold in 473 ml cans.
Bickle and Filion settled on the current line of beers after trying out more than 200 recipes over the past 10 years.
Their flagship beer will be called Welcome to Ontario Pale Ale, showcasing the hops and the malt in it.
“It’s a hop-forward pale ale with some maltese undertones,” said Filion.
The other four beers are Fieldcrest Blonde Ale, Pole Barn IPA, Faster Than Trouble Session IPA (which has lower alcohol content than the others), and a coffee chocolate porter that will be brewed every winter and is part of the company’s Explorer Series
They will also do one-off beers that we will produce seasonally working with local businesses like Dooher’s Bakery in Campbellford to create a Dooher’s Pastry Stout but they are also open to other businesses who have ideas for flavours too.
“We are opening as retail space with samples to try but we also have plans for the summer to include an outdoor serving area too in the “Hops Garden” we built,” added Matt. “We want to become a destination here in Trent Hills.”
To learn more about Focal Brewing and to get notified as soon as they are open, go to https://www.facebook.com/FocalBrewingCo, or visit its website at: www.focalbrewingco.ca.
