Since founding Steel Wheel Brewery in 2018, Cindy Blair and Harold Kuret have been successful in not only developing innovative craft beers but also creating a unique guest experience that encompasses multi-faceted dining options, offering educational courses, and providing them a chance to become immersed in farming and agricultural history.
Originally purchasing their Brant County property in 2005 and getting into hop farming in 2015, the couple would eventually change gears. Blair, who worked for the Region of Waterloo for 30 years doing health and safety and emergency preparedness, before retiring, explains.
“We wanted to be busy in retirement and decided that we were going to be hop farmers. [but after some time] we didn’t want to do this so we asked ourselves ’What’s plan B?’ We were home brewers and craft beer drinkers [and now had experience] as hop farmers. We thought that it was a natural segue to opening a craft brewery in retirement,” explained Blair. “We approached the county with the idea of [opening] an on-farm brewery. We had to jump through a lot of hoops to get there, including a zoning change and lots of permits to change the building…It was almost two and a half years for us to get everything together before we opened.”
Kuret, who owned a manufacturing company that made equipment for the metalworking industry for recycling fluids, before retiring, wanted to create something unique with Blair.
“We’re one of a handful of on-farm breweries in Ontario. People are quite surprised that this setting is in the environment that we have to offer. We have so much space to allow people to spread out and enjoy themselves in an outdoor environment that is not a patio that faces onto a major thoroughfare or blacktop pavement. It’s a natural farm setting,” Kuret said.
However, both Kuret and Blair, along with the expertise of their head brewer Mitchell Tuckey, have created a rich portfolio of beers throughout the years.
“Mitch has been with us since the day we opened and about every second week Harold, Mitch, and I sit down and have a production meeting. We talk about what we’re going to brew and what grains we need to order. We always have one beer that we have on tap which is the Station Pale Ale. Every other of the nine beers on tap changes around,” Blair said. “We pitch in our ideas and Mitch runs with [them] and builds the recipes for the respective beers.”
“We also do a fair number of fruited beers, particularly sour beers. And those are seasonal, depending on what we’re growing on the farm or growing close by that we can get a hold of. Sometimes we do Spruce Camp Ale. One of our customers was kind enough to go out into the forest and pick the Spruce tips for us. We do Rhubarb as well. And sometimes we’ll freeze it and [use] at a different time or we’ll do [use] more when the Rhubarbs are in season,” said Kuret.
Along with growing some of their ingredients on their farm, Kuret and Blair have been active in sourcing from other local farms and businesses while helping others.
“We have lots of local relationships. We purchase fruits from local fruit stands, [and] we have a farmer that takes our spent grain. When you brew beer, you have grain that you’ve soaked in, and you need to get rid of…We have a farmer who takes away our spent grain and gives it to his beef cattle,” said Blair. “We have [another] farmer who takes our spent yeast and gives it to his dairy cattle. We not only support local businesses or have relationships with local businesses for purchasing, but we also have relationships for providing things as well.”
However, Kuret and Blair, who captured the ‘Good Times in Brant’ Award in 2023 from the County of Brant, have been keen on bringing much more to the table to truly complement their guests’ overall experience.
“Our top three values are quality. community and education. So, when we were looking at how we embrace education when it comes to the community, we decided [during] COVID to put on courses on Friday evenings. It’s only a couple hours of people’s time [and] it allows them to grow their knowledge on a lot of different topics. It brings people into the brewery that maybe otherwise wouldn’t have come,” said Blair.
Kuret added, “We change our courses from year to year. The butchering is always very popular. This year, the cooking courses are selling out very quickly or have sold out. Other courses we’ve done in the past have included Introduction to Cannabis [as well as one on] foraging, which was about going out and finding ingredients or things in the woods and identifying things. The presenter did a slideshow on edible plants and mushroom toxin identification…which was extremely interesting.”
Nevertheless, the brewery continues to resonate with guests because Kuret and Blair are focused on being adaptable and catering to new tastes.
“The trend towards alcohol is changing. We see a lot more low-alcohol and non-alcoholic beverages being produced. We also see a lot of dietary restrictions as well,” Kuret explained. “We offer some non-alcoholic beer [and] gluten-free beer. We also have non-dairy cheeses for our customers who are dairy intolerant. It seems to be trying to be a full service so that everybody in the group can come here and enjoy something to drink and something to eat.”
As well, the couple have had an opportunity to further expand on what the brewery has to offer including opening a beer garden and a pizza kitchen as well as adding a personal touch by sharing their unique hobby with their guests.
“So, this is parallel to the Steel Wheel name [which] comes from a lifelong hobby of collecting antique farm machinery and tractors. We have two operating steam engines, various…steel, wheeled tractors, and stationary engines and equipment,” continued Kuret. “One of the things that we do is we’ll have two or three occasions throughout the year where we drag this stuff out and have it operating. We steam corn with the steam engines and children can blow the whistle. [We] give people a chance to experience what the history of agriculture is all about. And that’s a real highlight for us.”
