There's another option in Windsor's blossoming craft beer market.
Chapter Two Brewing Company is celebrating the grand opening of its new brew pub off Walker Rd this weekend. It's the latest in craft brewery options for a city that has seen the industry take off.
Co-owner Chris Holt, a home-brewer himself, tells BlackburnNewsWindsor.com that it began as a hobby with some friends.
"We're all geeks, kind of the engineers, on the technical side so we kept on making it bigger and better, and we ended up what is basically a large-scale production brewery," says Holt, also a Windsor city councillor. "We decided 'Why not?', and we decided to go forth and commercialize it."
Holt and the three other co-owners have been working to build the business to its current state for a year, taking into consideration the age of the building and the heritage of two of Windsor's most historic neighbourhoods. The brewery sits on what many consider the border between Walkerville and Ford City.
It's an ideal location, says Holt, given his estimation that there are over half-a-dozen craft breweries within the Windsor city limits. Yet he says Windsorites can never have enough beer.
"We're an extension of Walkerville going into Ford City," says Holt. "A lot of people say we're Walkerville, a lot of people say we're Ford City. We're within walking distance of thousands of people. It's a nice neighbourhood pub type of thing."
The business has been open limited hours for several weeks already, but Holt says the brewery is already creating some buzz in the area. The owners of Chapter Two are hoping to evolve their business into a place where everybody knows everyone's name, as the classic TV theme song goes, standing it apart from the other popular brew pubs in the city.
"You're going to see a lot of people that you know, it's quickly building a family in here," says Holt. "It's just a really neat space. It's kind of an industrial-chic-meets-English-pub type of thing."
The business will have space for an outdoor patio once the weather warms up.
Friday was the official grand opening of Chapter Two Brewing Company and hours will soon expand. For complete information on location, products and hours, visit their official Facebook page.
