Will Ottawa have its own Society of Beer Drinking Ladies?
The Society of Beer Drinking Ladies held its first Ottawa “bevy” — think of a mini beer festival — on Saturday, April 14, at the All Saints Event Centre. Flora Hall Brewing was there with three of our beers, and the entire event was a tremendous success. Tickets sold out quickly. The SOBDL began in 2014 when Erica Campbell, who was working at Black Oak Brewery at the time, approached four lady pals with an idea “to host a sort of secret society with only women in one of our apartments of mostly beer industry women, do a bottle share and hang out, network without guys around.” We spoke...
Our kind of Valentine’s Day
Let's be clear right away: we love love and we love romance, we can just do without the tackier parts of Valentine's Day. So we made a short video that gets our feelings across, while still making people feel welcome at Flora Hall on Feb. 14. At Flora Hall, Valentine's is all about love, and fun, and beer.
Lemmy, charity, and the first Proust Beer Questionnaire!
Welcome to the inaugural edition of the Flora Hall Proust Beer Questionnaire, where interesting people give fascinating answers to stimulating questions, and where adjectives abound (apparently)! We kick off this new feature with guest answerer Chris Wizzerd, who is organizing, and will also perform in, the “Lemmy re-revisited” fundraising show on Jan. 27 at the House of Targ. A half-dozen local bands will rawk out to Motorhead songs (and a couple from Hawkwind) in memory of the late, incomparable Lemmy. Funds raised go to the Phoebe Rose Rocks Foundation for research in childhood cancer....
Christmas sweaters for a great cause
Jasmine Bégin suffered severe burns when she was a child, so she started a business that gives back to those who helped her. Jasmine’s company, Wear It Forward, sells clothing and donates $5 from every item sold to CHEO, the children’s hospital. Jasmine was in Flora Hall for a night and sold many sweaters, and find where else she’ll be at wearitforward.ca.
A radio tour of Flora Hall
Radio might not seem the ideal medium to tour a new building, but it’s very effective when done right. CBC Ottawa’s Jessa Runciman did an excellent job when she popped in to hang out with Dave the boss! Click on the link below to hear Jessa’s tour.
Let the canning begin!
Like many new and smaller breweries, Flora Hall Brewing uses a mobile canning service, which comes in every couple of weeks (thereby leaving that valuable space free for other uses the rest of the time). We were excited on the day of the canners’ first visit. (BTW, cans are available in our fridge to take home from 11 am to 11 pm, seven days a week!)
A thousand (or more) tiny welds
Bob Trinh spent hundreds of hours in Flora Hall Brewing, building those stairways that are as beautiful as they are sturdy. Bob welded every single joint of the “banker mesh” that gives a distinctive surface to our railings — which Bob also built! He’s also a bit camera shy . . .
Rocker modern making tables
Ian Manhire has been a fixture on the Ottawa indie rock scene for more than a decade, but when he’s not on stage he’s in the woodworking shop. Ian made all of our tables, including the large communal tables and benches on our ground floor. He’s at home with band, and band saw!
The leather maker
Out in the woods, near Chelsea on the Quebec side of the river, there’s a rustic workshop overseen by James Michael Brooks. Inside, with his staff (one of them is, in his free time, a 78 RPM DJ), Brooks made the leather holders for our menus, and he makes a lot of beautiful bags, wallets and other fine leather goods!
The beer tanks arrive with the sun!
The early morning sun broke over Centretown, and out of the dawn drove several large, flatbed trucks, loaded with shiny, silver brew tanks. It was a beautiful site to behold, as was the organization of the crew that had to get those giant tanks off of those trucks and into the brewery, which was still under construction. It was like choreography on an industrial scale, and it was the first day when we felt like a real brewery!