Beer for all…
Sitting at the Left Field Brewery bar with Mike Tempest, the brewery’s tap room manager, I asked him what he thought a “craft beer lifestyle” might be. “There isn’t,” he responded. “There should be a beer for everyone – it is for everyone.”
Opening in February of 2015, the brewery itself was another step in the advent of Left Field Brewery’s march towards establishing itself as a brewery to watch. Starting out as a contract brewer in 2013, their now rapid expanse continues, adding more fermentation tanks to the brewery as recently as this past January. This addition included tanks specifically added for brews to be made with wild yeasts (and that makes me excited!).
…even if you need to find it
The brewery is located in what is really an alley (although it’s named like a street: Wagstaff Drive) just west of Greenwood Ave in the east end of Toronto. Where the brewery’s resides is like a hidden club, stashed away from any proper sidewalk. The coolness factor here could only be elevated if the brewery was also in a basement – but that would come with a whole host of logistical problems for a brewery, obviously.
With a lot of exposed brick, high ceilings (apart from one cozy seating area nestled on the west side of the bar) and large garage door windows that let in plenty of natural light, the interior is comfortable and inviting.
And baseball is the theme at Left Field Brewery. Their simple branding that remains consistent across all of their beer offerings, their baseball logo, it is only the names and colours on their cans that designate a different brew. It’s beautifully simple and distinctive.
A super-sized version of their logo is painted above the beer taps behind the bar. A large baseball scoreboard hangs above the beer fridge. Baseball bats emerge from the decor across the brewery. Ordering a beer flight will see you filling out a baseball-esque roster sheet. The swag continues the baseball motif, but you can even purchase baseball trading cards at the brewery. (See the full Left Field Brewery photo gallery here.)
Playing ball with a guest-first focus
The residents of the neighbourhood have had no trouble finding the aforementioned “hidden” brewery. Indeed, our visit at 1pm on a Saturday saw a mostly packed house. No wonder: Left Field Brewery prides itself on the guest experience, focusing on knowing their guests and community. Mike had no problems naming most of the guests who surrounded us at the time.
This social vibe extends beyond the brewery’s walls, as Left Field is involved in a number of community partnerships. From events featuring local food trucks to arts markets and charitable events, the brewery does its best to engage the community and give back to it.
The Red Door partnership
The brewery has a lasting relationship with the Red Door Shelter, an organization dedicated to providing emergency shelter for women in risk of violence at home, families in need and refugees.
“Blackburne Friday” was an event Left Field hosted at the brewery in partnership with Red Door Shelter. On Black Friday of 2018, the brewery celebrated the release of it’s “Blackburne” imperial stout (both the original and bourbon barrel-aged versions), with $1 from every pour going directly to the charity. This day merely launched the campaign though, which continued to donate in this way straight through to Christmas day.
Left Field Brewery then doubled down with Red Door, hosting the “Draughts & Crafts Makers Market” on December 9th, 2018. This featured an arts market with local artisans, showcasing local crafts in time for the Christmas season. A portion of the draught beer sales then went to Red Door Shelter, who were on hand to wrap gifts and keep people warm with hot chocolate. Achieving well beyond their initial target of $4500, the two campaigns raised a whopping $7100 for Red Door Shelter.
The Greenwood community
While Left Field likes to get involved with large projects like those, or their recent partnership with the Bill 7 Scholarship Fund in support of LGBTQ students (raising $3200 last June), they are also more than happy to host smaller groups from the neighbourhood, like Brew Babies TO, a group of young mothers who often frequent the brewery with their babies and toddlers for afternoon pints.
With no kitchen at the brewery, this means that dogs are allowed, adding a different atmosphere than typical: don’t place your pint on the floor! It also means that Left Field plays host to pop-up food shops in the brewery, usually on the weekends (the Cumin Kitchen was set up for our visit).
The people of Left Field Brewery
I had some fun when I arrived, meeting a couple of the staff. Sydney Boivin and Thomas Minguy both work the taproom bar, and both made me smile with some of the responses they had for the brief questions I asked them.
Thomas’ favourite Left Field beer is the “Sunlight Park” grapefruit saison. The pairing he suggested for it was as good as anything I could have written: “Pair it with the movie, (500) Days of Summer, because both the movie and beer are light but real; honest and full of love and reality. They’re also both easy, true and authentic.” Well put, Thomas, very well put.
Sydney likened her favourite Left Field beer, the “Eephus” brown ale, with her favourite movie, “Fargo” (an excellent film); but her response to my question about what a craft beer lifestyle might be had me jotting down notes. “One aims to provide exceptional quality beer in an accessible manner, but it’s really about the art of marrying traditional methods with creativity and personal expression.”
I believe that Left Field’s owners, Mark and Mandy Murphy, should be proud of Sydney’s answer here: with their own personal obsession with baseball (and I mean “obsession:” in Mike’s words, “Mandy is a baseball stat nerd!”), if Left Field Brewery has done one thing right (and here I’d say they’ve done plenty of things right), it’s “marrying traditional methods with creativity and personal expression.” Being at Left Field, pummelled with a baseball aura, is like being with Mark and Mandy whether they’re around or not, in other words.
From England…
I had a more in depth conversation with Mike Tempest who filled me in on the history of the Left Field. I was also interested in his history though, especially given his foreign accent. Hailing from England, Mike moved to Canada about 4 and a half years ago. A lover of beer, Mike was taken aback by the multitude of flavours and offerings in the now booming Canadian craft beer scene (England’s behind, but they’ve certainly jumped on their own craft beer train).
Mike initially involved himself in social housing allocation, an “exhausting” industry with high demand and low supply. While he loved beer and was impressed by the offerings here in Canada, it wasn’t until he returned home to the UK where he tried a “Golden Champion” from Badger Brewery in Dorset (see: England has it’s own game!), a golden ale with notes of elderflower, where his palette really began to open up.
…to Left Field Brewery
Upon his return to Canada, Mike was intent on working at a brewery, and his first choice was Left Field. Hanging around at breweries and getting involved in menial tasks got his foot in the door. Once the foot was in though, it wasn’t long for the rest of Mike to really make his mark on the team at Left Field.
Now the taproom manager, Mike can speak at length about beer and, indeed, Left Field beers (and I mean that: this was perhaps the longest interview I’ve had, and I was beyond happy for it!), but he sums Left Field beer up this way: “We brew what we want to drink.” Perfect.
I too wanted to drink Left Field beers, and Mike was happy to hook me up with 3 brews that I then excitedly went off for my usual ‘pairing’ fun.
Pairingwith… Left Field Brewery’s “Go-Ahead” Raspberry- Hibiscus Gose
The “Go-Ahead” raspberry and hibiscus gose from Left Field brewery is a one-off they brewed last fall, which seems to have some serious legs to it. Here’s to hoping it becomes a year round offering.
With the opening of the MLB season this week, it was fitting to feature the baseball-branded Left Field Brewery on the blog. Obviously, their pairings therefore needed to focus on baseball. Here, I pair the Go-Ahead with a kiss. Why? Because a kiss, of course, is getting to first base – and I hope that, now that I’m here, I can be the go-ahead run.
The big tart raspberry and hibiscus flavours of the Go-Ahead mix wonderfully with a subtle saltiness on the finish that helps balance the overall sweetness of the beer. Incredibly refreshing and light-bodied, the beer lives up to its style, but gives a little extra kick with its 5.2% ABV (a bit higher than a traditional gose).
It’s the sort of beer that is more than perfect for the sunshine, and especially at the game. It itself is a sort of kiss from the sun: one taste evokes a beautiful, sunny day. With a gorgeous blond like Dana Somerville to grace me with her lips, it could’ve been pouring rain: like a sip of the beer, one kiss from her was enough to make the clouds part (thankfully for me, we had to have some retakes).
With the spring officially here, this is a pairing we can all go-ahead with: the sun is out; the bats are out; lips are out (you know what spring is like, people!); and, in the spring, we all feel like we’re the go-ahead run. Yes: this beer is the perfect pairing for all that spring stands for – go-ahead, get it to your lips!
Besides, I’ve always wanted to make the “kiss cam.”
Pairingwith… Left Field Brewery’s “Bang-Bang” Sour
The tart and juicy “Bang-Bang” dry-hopped sour is a year round offering from Left Field Brewery. A “bang bang” play in baseball is when a runner arrives at the base at the same time as the thrower’s ball: it’s a super-close play that is called “safe.”
This makes for a perfect pairing with trying to cross the intersection at Yonge and Dundas in Toronto: when the pedestrian countdown clock reaches zero and your foot hits the curb at the same moment – bang-bang!
The tropical flavours of pineapple and papaya explode with a bang in your mouth with every sip of this beer. The puckering effect of the sour is balanced nicely by a citra hop bitter that resolves in a wonderfully dry finish. The Bang-Bang is not a complex beer, and purposefully so: it’s made to be refreshing and easy to devour.
So easy to devour, in fact, that it’s the sort of beer that one can guzzle one after the other. And this is the perfect complement to wading through the intersection at Yonge-Dundas Square, surrounded by people running to work or frantically shopping, confused tourists, whacky street performers and a myriad of characters. The consistency of the Bang-Bang will contrast the confusion perfectly; while the excitement of the tropical, tart life of the beer will mirror the hustle around you.
With the Jays season opener this week, the Bang-Bang gets one ready for the summer season of outdoor activities, and in an excited way. Indeed, just like a bang bang play, where it’s so close you’ll want to see multiple replays, the Bang-Bang is the sort of beer you’ll want multiple replays of bringing it to your lips.
Being downtown is like always being in a rush: don’t take your time; get on base – pop the can and enjoy the bustle in the sunshine… Just don’t get caught in the intersection. BANG-BANG.
Yonge-Dundas Square
Yonge-Dundas Square had its ‘soft-opening’ in November of 2002, officially opening the following year, in 2003. Before the one acre space was transformed into a square, it hosted a number of 3-4 story tall buildings full of various retail outlets. (I can still picture the giant shoe store on the corner, with its Honest Ed’s-esque giant banner hanging 2-3 stories high above the entrance to the shop.)
The revitalization of the area began in 1996, as part of the Yonge Street Regeneration Project, which aimed to renew the space and sense of community, while attracting new retail and entertainment projects. Of course, it also aimed to beautify the area, which had started to become a bit run down (a la the shoe store) and outdated.
The Square serves as a meeting place for the downtown community, joining neighbours from across the city with celebrations, musical performances, theatre performances, art exhibits, crafts and farmers markets and a series of special events throughout the year.
While I recall enjoying the REM concert on Yonge St in 2001 – the stage set up just south of the Yonge and Dundas intersection, and the crowd filling Yonge Street to south of Shutter; a crowd of 20,000 – Yonge-Dundas Square was still being built, hidden behind large scaffolding and construction walls at the time. The concert was an incredible experience, but the intersection is a much improved place now.
Pairingwith… Left Field Brewery’s “Greenwood IPA”
The “Greenwood” IPA from Left Field Brewery is a Vermont-style IPA that is offered year round at the brewery. It is also one of the few beers that Left Field have produced that is not named with baseball in mind. Rather than baseball, the beer’s name is a nod to the Left Field neighbourhood, the brewery only a stone’s throw from Greenwood Avenue.
With baseball nonetheless on the mind of all of us this week with the opening of the MLB season, the beer is more than just a sensible pairing with Greenwood Park. Like a brewery, parks, especially good ones like this one, are places that bring the surrounding community together, so I pair here with a staple of the community that the beer’s name is a nod to. Admittedly, I did have to stand in puddles on home plate, with the thaw of spring at its height when we went for the photo shoot, but it’s definitely the thought that counts, right?
The beer is a delicious IPA. A beautifully hazy number that is vibrantly yellow-orange coloured, it’s like sunshine that can light up the park (and it did on this day for me!). With a citrus aroma and grapefruit and tropical fruit flavours, the beer comes to an excellent medium bitter finish that is clean with little lingering effect. This is a well-balanced offering that can play well in most, if not all, occasions.
So take it to the park with you. Indeed, whether you’re heading down to Greenwood Park for a game of softball or a swim; whether it’s to take the kids to the playground or the dog to the off-leash dog park; whether you’re tossing frisbees or planting in the community garden, this beer is excellent for all of those. If you’re a spectator at the game, then you’re the winner with this beer in hand.
A beer that hits a “new skool” style right on the head, this beer is as exciting as any game you’re at Greenwood Park to play or watch. To be sure, it’ll be easier to step up to the plate and smash one out of the park the way Left Field has with this beer if you’ve got one waiting on the bench for you: “Batter up!!”
Greenwood Park
On the north-west corner of Dundas St East and Greenwood Ave resides the 6.2 hectare Greenwood Park. It’s a large area made for housing public sporting activities.
With two lit baseball diamonds, an outdoor swimming pool, a multipurpose sports field, an off-leash dog area, a splash pad and a children’s playground, the park is full of things to do for all ages and sporting preferences. And that’s before we mention the community garden and Toronto’s first covered outdoor artificial ice rink.
The artificial rink opened in 2013, and is used as a ball hockey area during the summer. Add a ice skating trail beside the rink in the winter, and this park is good for activities the full year round. A beautiful, large park with good facilities, Greenwood Park is one of the best of its kind on the east side of Toronto.
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