“It’s a conduit or mechanism…
It was different sort of interview with Ajeet Grover, VP of business development and community relations at Common Good Brewing Company, when we sat down only days after the NBA had shut down its season, triggering the shutdown of much of North America due to the COVID-19 outbreak. While we could not avoid speaking about the pandemic (which we will get to below), I was still also interested to hear his response to my favourite question: Is there such a thing as a craft beer lifestyle, and, if so, how would you define it?
Ajeet was quick to respond: “Ya, I definitely think there is such a thing as a craft beer lifestyle. I think it really centres around the notion of ‘community’… About using craft beer as a conduit or a mechanism to bring people together.
“To us, craft beer is about people, about our relationships – which makes this current crisis so frustrating and challenging, because, you know, craft beer is something to be shared and enjoyed with others. It’s not the same when you’re drinking a beer by yourself at home – it’s ok, but…
“To us it’s all about community – and that’s also what Common Good is about: we’re a partnership-driven business, we’re about working with everyone – other businesses, charities, other breweries… Our unique business model [Common Good produces its own beer, as well as other beer for contract brewers] puts us central into the craft beer community because we’re on the ground working with so many other people in our industry.
“And that’s a big part of what the craft beer community is, is other people who are working in it and doing their best to make great products and get it out there to share it with all the great beer lovers in Scarborough, Toronto, and beyond.”
“…to bring people together”
Common Good Brewing Company opened in June of 2016, east of Warden on Ellesmere Ave in Scarborough, but the location was in fact the fourth plot of land that Scott White and Jamie Mistry tried to build Common Good upon. I’ll spare you the endless story of bureaucracy they were up against trying to get locations rezoned and frustrating landlords, but it was a 2 and a half year process before they were able to finally lease their current location in Scarborough – and then another year before opening.
But sometimes waits are worth it, and this one seems to fall into that bucket-type. Ajeet was there at the beginning with Scott and Jamie, but in a different capacity (more on that below), and now that they have their Scarborough brewery, they’ve become incredibly fond of the community in which they are in. Ajeet proudly shared with me how Common Good is the only brewery in Scarborough, and how that gives them a unique connection to the area.
The craft beer flag bearer in Scarborough
With a much more limited access to craft beer than the residents in most other areas of Toronto, Common Good finds itself introducing people to craft beer more frequently than those breweries downtown, and that’s a special feeling. In fact, during my visit, Rob McGuigan, a regular from the local neighbourhood, stopped into the brewery to grab a 6-pack for home, and admitted to me that he had never really tried craft beer before, until a year and a half ago when he decided to give the new brewery down the street, Common Good, a try : “I was hooked,” he described.
Leaving impressions on the people of their community like that one is exactly what, according to Ajeet above, a craft beer lifestyle is all about – bringing people together through the shared experience of craft beer. Ajeet loves Common Good’s role as “the flag bearer for craft beer in Scarborough,” and by the sound of at least one patron, they’re bearing that flag very well.
Open space and natural light
A large Scarborough flag proudly hangs high above the space in front of the to-go beer fridge, greeting you upon entrance to the brewery. The taproom stretches long-ways across huge floor-to-ceiling front windows that provide massive amounts of natural light during the daytime. A few picnic tables line the centre the room, with barstools against a bar for additional seating. A pair of sofas sit in front of a television on the east wall. Underneath resides a small book shelf stocked with around 120 beer books.
Walking by the beer fridge towards the washrooms has guests enter into the production area for a good peak at the facility. The brewing area holds 14 70hL fermentors that allow Common Good to brew a lot of their own beer, but also produce beer for contract brewers, brewers whose production capacity is too small at their own facilities to meet demand or brewers who do not have their own brick and mortar facility themselves. The brewery continues into a second, massive warehouse space at the back of the building, consisting of their walk-in fridge, canning line, and towers of skids of cans (some theirs, some contractors). (See the full Common Good brewery photo gallery here.)
Making beer during a pandemic
With my visit occurring at the beginning of the COVID-19 shutdown, the taproom was in a bit of disarray, as the team was taking advantage of the shutdown to accomplish tasks, such as painting and remodelling, that are more difficult to execute during regular business operations.
I asked Ajeet how things had been going since the shutdown began (at this point we were only about a week in), and his response was full of excitement at the possibility of being able to accomplish projects they had wanted to complete for a while, but couldn’t commit the time to when operating fully. (By the sound of Ajeet, the set up I described above won’t quite be the same by the time Common Good Brewing is able to reopen to the public…)
When I asked him to describe the difference between last week (prior to the shutdown) and this week, his tone, while still optimistic, wasn’t quite as excited. While guests are still coming in for to-go beer only, he said, there’s “obviously been a bit of a decrease in sales.” (Since my visit, Common Good has launched an online shop with home delivery as well.)
The way Ajeet continued though was to slowly get back into his excitement of new and different, “special projects.” This would include upgrades to both the taproom and the production areas, both functional improvements and aesthetic ones, which gives the team something to look forward to during these times. Having things to be excited about is certainly important at this time, for both Ajeet and the Common Good team.
Of course, production will not entirely cease at Common Good, as they are still moving retail products at the shop and for delivery. Because they also brew other brewers’ products as well, they have those accounts to also help keep them busy and provide some additional cashflow.
(Contract brewers though are in their own uniquely difficult position during COVID-19, which Ajeet expressed concern for. Read Jordan St. John’s insightful analysis of this very topic here.)
The People of Common Good Brewing
While I had a brief introduction to brewer John Austen, and spent some time enjoying his artwork that appears throughout the brewery, I was able to have a more extended conversation with Deanne Deschamps – or “Dee,” as everyone calls her.
Dee is Common Good Brewing Company’s retail and taproom manager. She oversees the staff, events, product displays and onsite marketing, social media and updating Untappd menus, some admin duties, and, of course, her own relationship with guests visiting the taproom.
I asked Dee how she got into beer, and her first response was, “Alcohol and I have always been friends… At many different levels.” While we both laughed at Dee’s response, the story of how she ended up in the position she currently holds at Common Good is it’s own enjoyable anecdote.
Dee is not from the beer or beverage or restaurant or hospitality industries. Dee had spent 20 years in the corporate world, working various administration and sales roles, as a “pencil pusher,” she kidded. Living nearby the Common Good brewery, and being a beer lover herself, she popped by one night after they had opened, wondering if they had a licensed taproom inside to try their brews – they did.
“Always been friends”
After enjoying one of her now favourite brews from Common Good, the “Samson Brown Ale,” Dee began making the brewery one of her go-to spots for a few pints on weekend afternoons and evenings. Overhearing a conversation between staff one day about them looking for additional employees, Dee started thinking about the possibility of selling an item (i.e., beer) she was truly passionate about, and half-jokingly blurted out, “Hey – do you want me to work a Saturday shift? I’ve never worked in the industry, but I really love beer and would be happy to help!”
A couple of weeks later, in early 2018, Common Good offered her the job Dee wanted, working part-time, on the weekends only. Before 2019 would begin though, Dee would leave the corporate world and start taking on a more prominent, full-time role for the brewery, becoming the staple, and welcoming, smiling face that greets most patrons to the taproom today.
In my usual way, I asked Dee what television series she would pair with her favourite Common Good beer, the Samson Brown Ale. She took a moment to think it through, and then decided, “Columbo.”
Why Columbo, Dee?
“Because it’s a classic, just like a brown ale, and I watch that in the evenings when I want to get warm and cozy – the Samson is a roasty, toasty 7-percenter that’s the perfect complement…
“Oh – and not to sound cliche, but Columbo does wear a brown trench coat.”
Superb pairing, Dee – she really passed that perfectly into my wheelhouse.
The anti-establishment corporate lawyer
I sat with Ajeet Grover for a great conversation that saw him fill me in on the majority of Common Good’s history – and some of his own.
Ajeet himself is a bit of a contradiction. I asked him how he got into craft beer, and he claimed that when he was growing up, he was always an “anti-establishment” youth, so when it came to beer he was never interested in the macro brews and he had always gravitated to local, craft beer options. That’s actually fairly impressive, and an incredibly rare answer to such a question.
While Ajeet grew up anti-establishment, his career path saw him get into corporate law, and I have to wonder whether there is a way to be any more pro-establishment than corporate law?
Funny the way life goes… Especially when a move into corporate somehow moves you back into a local, mom ‘n pop business like a craft brewery.
Ajeet joined Common Good in the fall of 2017, but his relationship with the brewery extended well before they had opened. Scott and Jamie, when searching for Common Good’s location, appealed to Ajeet’s law firm for direction and advice with permits and zoning regulations. Ajeet became their main contact at the firm, and continued in an advisory role after the building was leased.
In 2017, Ajeet left his job to look after an ill family member, but continued his consulting role with Common Good. Eventually, it became clear to both the team at Common Good and Ajeet that Ajeet had more to offer the Common Good project. He became the VP of business development and community relations, dealing with “everything that has an external facing with the brewery” (sales, marketing, branding, beer festivals and events, media, etc.).
And that external facing of the brewery is very much about nurturing the connection with the community that Ajeet speaks of above. Indeed, they have “hardly scratched the surface of the Scarborough market,” and are excited about the possibility Scarborough presents them.
Ajeet looks forward, and has great ideas for expanding the Common Good brand and helping to connect breweries outside of downtown Toronto, in the east GTA, to the breweries downtown – but, for Ajeet, that plan is too far down the road for me to talk about any more here. It’s percolating in his head now, and is the exciting sort of distraction to think about during such challenging times as these.
It’s times like these we need some other things to get passionate about and take our mind away from the pressures and uncertainty of the current state of the COVID-19 world. With our parting salute to each other, Ajeet stocked me up with a number of Common Good brews that I could use to be distracted by something I could get passionate about myself – pairing the beer.
Pairingwith… Common Good Brewing’s “Sociable Pilsner”
The “Sociable Pilsner” from Common Good Brewing Company is the brewery’s flagship beer, offered year round. With the current state of the world and the COVID-19 outbreak, this is really the perfect pairing for social distancing.
I made sure to keep my distance here, leaving the can in my bedroom, as I enjoyed the brew in my kitchen. Gotta keep space between us – we’re about flattening the curve after all, and the more space we keep between each other, the sooner we can get back together and get physically sociable again.
After washing my hands thoroughly and then putting on latex gloves, the Sociable Pilsner poured a fairly clear, straw-like colour with a fluffy head. A nice grassy aroma arises from the glass, and the liquid goes down easily with its clean mouthfeel, mild hop bitterness, sweet grain and citrus flavours, and a pleasantly dry finish. Perfect for, well, socializing – physically or virtually.
Sterilize the can; sterilize your hands; pour your Common Good Sociable Pilsner; and then depart from the room to enjoy it from a distance. We’re keepin’ spaces clean and space between, so we can get close again.
Pairingwith… Common Good Brewing’s “New World” Pale Ale
The “New World Pale Ale” with Sabro is the second instalment of the “New World” series from Common Good, currently available for a limited time from the brewery. Given how much the world has changed over the last month or so, this was a clear pairing with the new world will are all living within: the confines of our own homes.
When the space you frequent rarely extends beyond the boundaries of your home, enjoying a pint on your front stoop needs to be experienced as a journey of sorts – it’s likely the most travelling any of us are going to get for a while. While I can’t say that I don’t miss sitting at a bar drinking beer on draft and chatting to the bar’s staff and patrons, my front stoop at least allows me to glance out into the new world around me, from the alleged safety of my property. Ya, I know – it doesn’t really do the trick…
But at least I’ve got the New World Pale Ale from Common Good to pair with this world! Pouring a mildly hazy orange, and providing pleasant citrus aromas, the brew arrives in my hands at the perfect time, like sunshine after a storm. While I enlist my best efforts to make my home as fun as the outside world I miss, its the flavours of food and beverage that can dull the experience of being amputated from the outside world. Common Good’s New World Pale Ale is a perfect example, with its wonderful showcasing of the Sabro hop, imparting flavours of grapefruit, tangerine, and apricot to the the tune of a muted bitterness, slight vanilla accent, and citrus and floral tinged medium-bitter linger. My front stoop now at least tastes a little bit more like the bar I wish I was sitting at.
While we have the time, let’s give a little more to the homes we now spend the majority of our time in, fixing things up and making improvements – it’s good timing for this anyways, given it’s spring (cleaning time) – it’s the new world you live in after all. And while cleaning and improving, there’s nothing wrong with cracking a can of Common Good Brewing’s New World Pale Ale to help make the day go by with a little more sunshine than anticipated. Your home’s your home, and it’s the new world you make: make your new world well.
Pairingwith… Common Good Brewing’s “Bonsai Kitten” White IPA
The “Bonsai Kitten” is a white IPA from Common Good Brewing, available seasonally (currently). The beer is quite a predictable pairing with a Mason jar.
Seriously though: with a Mason jar.
Yes, I was quite surprised myself to learn what this beer is named after: a defunct satirical website that marketed “bonsai kittens;” kittens that were put inside a Mason jar so that the shape of their growth inside the jar was controlled – similar to cultivating a bonsai tree.
So yes, the beer pairs perfectly with a Mason jar.
As I pet my bonsai kitten (the can of beer) in it’s jar, sitting against a tree in my backyard, a dank waft of herbs and grapefruit arises from the hazy, orange-yellow liquid. A deceivingly easy taste that follows the citrus-heavy nose disguises the Bonsai Kitten’s heavy-hitting 7.7% ABV. A subtle, sweet malt backbone balances the herbal and citrus hops nicely, and give the impression of easy drinking. A mild bitterness makes these great for drinking in the backyard in the sun, but, with it’s high ABV, at a more responsible pace.
Crack your can; crack your Mason jar. We’re stuffing high ABVs in cans and crushed cans in jars – all in the comfort of your own back yard. Enjoy your Bonsai Kitten from Common Good, and crush the can, but not quite the contents inside as quickly: we’re growing into the shape we want over here with this one.
Quick Links
- FULL COMMON GOOD BREWING PHOTO GALLERY
- PAIRING OUTTAKES
- Common Good Brewing Company’s WEBSITE
- Common Good Brewing’s ONLINE SHOP
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