Bold, new flavours…
“A ‘craft beer lifestyle’ is one that searches for bold, new, innovative flavours,” Arjun Uppal, the general manager of The Six Brewing Company, began, as we sat at a high-top table in the middle of the main floor bar area of the brewpub.
“As far as the lifestyle in this industry, while I loved working at restaurants and bars, the environment here, based on competition, it’s almost like it doesn’t exist. Where I could be making a better lager than the next guy, and they don’t care; they’re just happy that another craft beer ‘competitor’ is also succeeding, because if we succeed, then they succeed too…
“I think the lifestyle is that we’re all fighting together to make great craft beer – it’s not just one guy – it’s really a big happy family. It’s like there’s no ego involved: ‘We just really like your beer, and we just want to have a beer,’ we’re all saying to each other. It always comes down to a love of beer.”
…and a big, happy family
Opening on February 26, 2018, The Six Brewing Company is one of the newest breweries in Toronto. It’s brewpub features two floors, a large patio, a bottle shop, and a full kitchen.
Entering the front door, you are met with gorgeous, white tiles covering the floor and walls. Walking past the brewhouse into the dining area and bar, brings you to a wider space with loads of natural light coming from the large windows to the east. An few choice televisions hang from walls and ceilings, providing all a view of the game, without being too distracting.
A door by the windows opens up to a large patio on the corner lot on which the brewery resides. Before you choose whether to sit inside or out though, you may want to head downstairs to the basement bar to take a peak there first. Hanging out adjacent to fermentation tanks and a more sports-forward vibe, may be the right move, depending on whether you want the game or the sun – the main floor provides a perfect compromise though. (View The Six Brewing Company’s full photo gallery here.)
Fitting in with the family
The Six Brewing Company, as a more recent addition to the Toronto brewery scene, is positioning itself as more of a gateway brewery to craft beer. They’re not looking to be a ‘one-and-done’ sort of place; they want to provide sessionable brews that can easily be drank and enjoyed repeatedly.
It’s unpretentious, The Six Brewing Company. It’s a spot that all are welcome, and the staff here are keen to get to know their guests. The brewpub has a fun and relaxed vibe, where you can enjoy a chat about beer or sports or whatever topic happens to be floating in your pint glass at the time. It’s a people place.
The Six Brewing community
With a name like “The Six,” this brewery is certainly aiming to be Toronto’s beer spot, and they’re branding follows suit. With names like “Streetcar Delay,” “Don Valley Parking Lot,” and “Pothole Damage,” the brewery has some fun with the city it loves so much.
Yet, the brewery knows full-well that they are a part of a community, near Dundas and Bathurst, that includes many businesses who have been in the area for a while. The Six Brewing was thrilled to have a good number of them come out for the grand opening last year, all curious to see who their new neighbours really were and what they offered.
This welcoming was exactly the sort of first step the brewery wanted on their own journey to joining the community’s family. A good second step was then hosting the Dundas West BIA for community meetings, which the brewery intends to continue.
In a gesture to their community, The Six Brewing Company began what they call, “Give Back Fridays.” Every Friday, the brewery chooses a local business nearby and hooks them up with a 4-pack of their brews for a “job well done.” This is precisely the sort of community-building behaviour a new business needs to enact to become a part of the community; and it is exactly the sort of gesture craft breweries are good at.
Giving back
While the “Give Back Friday” program is a popular one with the local businesses, The Six Brewing Company has worked to raise money for the Toronto Humane Society as well. Taking their spent grain, the brewery was able to repurpose the grain to produce chocolate chip cookies that were sold for $2 each, with 50 cents of every cookie sold donated to the Toronto Humane Society. Plans to do more of these fundraisers are currently in the works.
With a full kitchen, The Six Brewing Company repurposes as much of their spent grain as they can: cookies were one thing, but they also turn the spent grain into batter for fried chicken and calamari dishes on a regular basis. When they say “beer battered,” The Six Brewing has really taken this concept to the next level.
The people of The Six Brewing Company
The Six Brewing Company is a place for the community to enjoy a pint, a chat and watch the game, and the staff here makes being personable their mantra.
I was given a fantastic tour of the brewing facilities by head brewer, Chris Tower. Chris hails from Saskatchewan, and is a newer member of the team at The Six Brewing. Joining the team at the end of this past February, Chris seems to have a better grasp on the brewery’s philosophy than his predecessor, ready to produce approachable brews with a slight twist.
Chris’ tour was one where he took extra time to get as detailed as possible on the entire process, which was awesome to listen to. I did my best to follow along, but there was a lot of information Chris was explaining. What was easiest for me was the response to his repeated question, “Do you want to try this one too?” Yes, Chris; yes, I do…
Fun with the bartender
Molly Darling was on hand, tending the bar during my visit, and I got to have some fun picking her brain in the usual PairingwithBeer sort of way. Her favourite The Six Brewing beer is the “Streetcar Delay” IPA. I asked her what she might pair that beer with.
“The movie, Hocus Pocus, because the beer is a strong, mysterious and magical potion… Also, Toronto itself! Toronto is a lot sometimes, and this beer definitely slows things down,” she responded. I forgot about that movie, Molly: very nice pairings.
She had a quick and clever response to my question about a craft beer lifestyle: “It involves a dangerous but satisfying ride.”
I will happily announce that I don’t think either of us are going to jump off that train anytime soon.
Fun at the top
The attitude of the staff though is bread from the top down, and owner, Jeff Falco, is the sort of owner that allows his staff to be themselves and have fun while at work. He understands that that’s how you create a great team and environment. The environment he appears to be building is one that mirrors his own constant smile and demeanour: friendly, welcoming, relaxed and engaged. Hanging out at The Six Brewing provides you with that comfortable atmosphere and friendly service, thanks first to its owner Jeff.
I spent most of my time though with Arjun Uppal, the general manager. His experience comes from running large, corporate bars and restaurants in downtown Toronto, but it was the unique flavours he started to find in new craft beer that really got him interested in the beer scene.
The two of us seem to share a similar trajectory to get to where we both are now, as I myself was managing large corporate bars and restaurants in downtown Toronto before I got into the beer scene. And both Arjun and I had our first tastes of craft beer with Hop City’s “Barking Squirrel” amber lager.
Things, for both of us, have moved well beyond that first love affair with Barking Squirrel, but that early-to-the-Canadian craft beer scene brew holds a special spot in both of our histories.
But we’ve both moved on, and with Arjun now hooking me up three of The Six Brewing Company’s beers, it was time for me to run off and have some fun pairing them.
Pairingwith… The Six Brewing – “Line 1” Helles Lager
The “Line 1” lager from The Six Brewing Company is a German Helles offered year round from the brewery. With the brewery located on Dundas, it is of course an obvious pairing with Dundas Station on Line 1 of the TTC.
With bread, light grass and subtle, leafy hop flavours, this Bavarian-style lager is crisp and slightly dry. Both refreshing and substantial, this is an everyday sort of beer that is very approachable. A clear, deep yellow, near gold colour with a frothy head that dissipates at a medium pace, the Line 1 lager is on point for the style.
It’s also on point for enjoying at Dundas station: the busy platform, in a sweaty, often over-crowded, humid cavern, is wonderfully contrasted by the more earthy, near-floral aroma and flavours of the refreshing beer. Indeed, while you may start feeling a bit salty waiting for the train in the heat, the Line 1 offers a pleasant sweetness that should make the time move a little faster.
As the train finally approaches, the Line 1 will have quelled your need to force your way through the crowds. A little more patient, certainly more relaxed, and definitely more excited, the Line 1 will have prepared you for wherever your journey is taking you.
We all need to get to where we’re going, so get out of the bloody way, would you?!?! Pay your fare; crack a bottle of the Line 1 from The Six; and watch the crowds part like the red sea: you’re floating through them with this beer in hand.
Dundas Station
Dundas Station is the fifth busiest subway station in Toronto, servicing over 80,000 commuters on any given weekday (as of 2015). Planning for the Line 1 subway line on Yonge Street began in 1942, and Dundas Station was in the plans from day one, as it is centred right in the middle of downtown Toronto. The Line 1 subway line, and Dundas Station with it, opened on March 30, 1954.
Back then, there was no Yonge-Dundas Square, no Eaton Centre, no Ryerson University, and Dundas streetcars were dropping passengers off by city hall, a good 5-10 minute walk from the actual station. Things have changed since then, but not as much as one may think.
While the area itself has developed substantially, becoming a centre for tourism, entertainment and shopping, Dundas Station itself retains the majority of its original design. While plans have repeatedly been discussed to renovate the station since the 1980s, none have been put into effect.
One of the biggest pains with the station is the separated north- and southbound platforms: one cannot enter one entrance and then get to the other side. part of the issue here is the ground itself, which would take a huge risk to blast lower into the ground. Blasting lower would allow for more space to create a concourse, allowing a connection to both platforms. The risk involved here has so far proven too difficult to accommodate such renovations.
In 1982, the tiles of interior walls of the station were replaced, and the choice of tile was highly criticized by the public who noted clearly their “pukey,” green-yellow colour. A proposal by local artist, Charles Pachter, who had already been commissioned to paint a mural at College Station (the images of the Toronto Maple Leafs and Montreal Canadiens hockey teams that remain today) was well-received by the TTC. The plan for this was to wait for funding from the Ontario government to the tune of $98,000, but the funding never came, and the project was eventually forfeited.
While it is one of the busiest stations in the centre of town, Dundas Station is in fact a bit of an anachronism, a station behind the times. Yet, it continues to successfully serve the busy and growing population of Toronto.
(All historical information used above was taken from the Dundas Station entry on the Toronto Transit website.)
Pairingwith… The Six Brewing Co. – “Skyline Sour”
The “Skyline Sour” from The Six Brewing Company is a new offering that looks to becoming a regular product in the brewery’s lineup. As the brewery’s branding typically alludes to Toronto, this one shouts out to Toronto’s skyline, and is therefore an acute pairing with this trucker hat from the Toronto by Nadia Lloyd clothing line.
This medium tart, fruity sour is a refreshing beverage, ready to be drank by the lake with the Toronto skyline behind you. A clear, straw-golden colour, light and crisp mouthfeel, and pleasant flavours of lemon, blueberry, melon, subtle pear and a grainy malt backbone bring this beer happily into the May sunlight.
Thank god I brought my Nadia Lloyd hat! Not only is it helping to shade my eyes from the sun, but it’s also protecting my precious hair from the wind – without the hat, I’d have a mop on my head and be looking to head home in embarrassment. Instead, I’m ready for my next Skyline Sour.
The cleverly inverted silhouette of Toronto’s skyline printed across the trendy hat is in fact exactly like the Skyline Sour: fruity beers today typically supply an incredible amount of haze in the beer, this sour inverts that expectation with its mostly crystal clear appearance. Moreover, rather than the typical “juicy” descriptor we love to use for beer these days, this one is more berry and melon.
Repping my city’s skyline on a stylish hat while repping a brewery that takes my city’s nickname – the Six – as its name is a perfect complement to drinking delicious sours in the Toronto sun. Take a big gulp of the Skyline Sour; tilt your Toronto by Nadia Lloyd trucker hat over your face; and enjoy the summer season us Torontonians spend the rest of the year waiting for.
Toronto by Nadia Lloyd
“Toronto by Nadia Lloyd” is an art and design project from artist Nadia Lloyd. A love affair between Nadia and the city of Toronto, Toronto by Nadia Lloyd is a stylish clothing, accessories, decor and art line featuring silhouette images of Toronto’s skyline.
First getting into painting in 2010, and quickly making it an obsession, Nadia considers the CN Tower her muse. In 2016, she launched her Toronto by Nadia Lloyd line. Using her muse, the CN Tower, as the focal point for her images of the Toronto skyline, Nadia prints her skylines on everything from t-shirts, hoodies, dresses, hats, leggings, and underwear through bed sheets, phone cases, handbags, pillows, scarves, kimonos, and more.
While known for her Toronto skyline images, Nadia also paints abstract and graffiti works, prints works of Toronto-themed photography, and is commissioned for brand design and print work. She has been commissioned to create corporate gift bags and/or team uniforms by Tourism Toronto, the City of Toronto, Pearson International Airport and the AGO, among others.
Fascinated by the incredible city of Toronto, it’s hustle and bustle and cosmopolitan make up, Nadia’s line is meant for any Torontonian to wear, carry or decorate with pride. Like Nadia’s work, the CN Tower is a fixed image whenever any one of us looks up; iconic and representative of the city of Toronto itself: we should wear it, like the maple leaf, with pride.
The Toronto by Nadia Lloyd line can be found at the AGO Gift Shop, the CN Tower Gift Shop, Made By Madrigal, the McMichael Canadian Art Collection, The Beverly Hotel, and, of course, Nadia’s website.
Pairingwith… The Six Brewing Co. – “Streetcar Delay” IPA
The “Streetcar Delay” IPA from The Six Brewing Company is a year round offering from the brewery. It (seemingly) paired itself here, of course, but rather than than the obvious of me drinking the beer while waiting for a streetcar delay to clear, I chose, instead, to delay the streetcar in order to enjoy my beer. I’ve waited enough for streetcar delays in my life: it’s my turn to flip the coordinates on this relationship – you’re waiting for me! This is my streetcar delay!
The traditional IPA, with a very faint haze, citrus aromas, grapefruit and caramel flavours, and balanced sweet-bitter finish, is an excellent complement to the traditional Toronto mode of transportation. Of course, streetcars have come a long way since their inception as horse-drawn vehicles, and we have entered the future with the new Bombardier cars that are fully accessible and twice as long as their ancestors.
Like the new streetcars, the Streetcar Delay IPA from The Six Brewing is a happily updated version of a traditional IPA. While it’s medium body and mostly clear look speaks to tradition, its more fruit-forward flavours speak to recent trends. It’s comfortable compromise here is just like the new streetcars’ rejuvenation of an old technology.
As I stand in the middle of the road, blocking traffic to enjoy my beer, I am surrounded by shouting commuters who cannot stand my delay. I don’t blame them, nor do I encourage any of you to actually try this pairing verbatim. Return to the outset and the obvious: you’re waiting for the streetcar delay to clear, so enjoy a Streetcar Delay from The Six Brewing while you wait – that’s less illegal, anyways…
Today though, for me, shut down the street: I’m hanging in the road, pounding a Streetcar Delay IPA, while the traffic builds around me. Oh, what a glorious moment this is, I tells you.
Toronto Streetcars
Before there was the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC), there were streetcars. C’est vrai! Even before the TTC existed, horse-drawn streetcars roamed the streets of Toronto, originally appearing in 1861.
With the first electric-powered streetcars arriving in 1892, Toronto was full-fledged streetcar friendly. To be sure, the Toronto Railway Company (TRC) took over the operations from the Toronto government (they lasted a mere 8 months before they handed that over) in 1891. By 1894, horse-drawn streetcars were made obsolete to fit the new electric standard set by the TRC.
With the growth of the city, the TRC was overwhelmed with the need to expand, and could not keep up with the demand. The city of Toronto itself began creating its own streetcar line, the Toronto Civic Railways, to service the farther reaches of the city. In 1921, the TRC ended its operations, giving birth to the TTC who immediately combined the two distinct streetcar systems.
The original “Red Rocket” arrived in 1938, and ran the roads until they were all replaced in 1995. Taking the Red Rocket’s place were the CLRV and the ALRV, who had been sharing the tracks with Red Rocket for a number of years. 20 years later, in 2014, the TTC introduced the future: the Bombardier “Flexity” streetcar. The Flexity cars are slowly replacing all the older streetcar models. Their extra length, size, and accessibility make them a pinnacle of streetcar or tram design in the world.
(Information cited from the TTC website and the Wikipedia entry on Toronto streetcars.)
See you next week when I’m Pairingwith… Blood Brothers Brewing!
Quick Links
- FULL THE SIX BREWING PHOTO GALLERY
- PAIRING OUTTAKES
- The Six Brewing Company WEBSITE
- Toronto by Nadia Lloyd
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