Beer Hear!: Godspeed Brewery

Thursday, September 28, 2017

Godspeed Brewery

http://mofohockey.org/podcastgen/download.php?filename=2017-09-28_bh205.mp3

Non-Flash version of the podcast

Luc "Bim" Lafontaine, a native of Gatineau, Quebec, worked his way up from apprentice to head brewer at the Dieu du Ciel brewpub in Montréal, where he crafted incredibly interesting and technically excellent beers for about twelve years. Eventually, the dream of owning his own brewery became irresistible. So, in 2012 he opened up a new brewery just outside of Tokyo, Japan, where is wife Kuramasu is from. It was called Ushitora (cow tiger) for the horoscope animals of him and wife.

Ramon serving the beer at Proletariate, with Luc and B.R.

But before long, business complications (it's not so easy to operate a small brewery in Japan) made him look back towards home, to try again there. Thus was conceived Luc's Godspeed Brewery in Toronto (not quite Gatineau)! The brewery auspiciously opened to the public on Canada Day, July 1, 2017. It's located east of downtown at 242 Coxwell Ave. in the Greenwood-Coxwell neighborhood of Toronto, near Little India and the Upper Beaches neighborhoods. It's four blocks from Lake Ontario, right by the Coxwell Ave. stop on the 306 streetcar line, and walking distance from the Coxwell station on the 2-line subway.

Kim at Brouwerij Lane between Luc and Jason

On a recent trip to New York with his fellow brewery owner Jason Fisher, we got to hang out and talk with both brewers. Justin's Indie Ale House is located at 2876 Dundas St. West at Keele St., in The Junction neighborhood. It's on the other side of town from Godspeed, by the Keele station on the 2-line, 18 stops west of Godspeed. Godspeed is a brewpub with a full food menu, and licensed to sell beer retail to the public.

At Spuyten Duyvil with Jason, Luc, Cory (Beer Street),
Alex (Spuyten Duyvil), and B.R.

We're most definitely going to visit Toronto soon to check out Luc's Godspeed Brewery, Jason's Indie Ale House, and all the other interesting beer developments in the old T-Dot.