Today I umpired a vintage Base Ball match between my team the Port Huron Welkins and the London (Ontario) Tecumseh's on their home field at the Fanshawe Pioneer Village (The Welkins got creamed 18-2, unfortunately.)
It turns out that London is the home to founder and master brewer John Kinder Labatt, who started making the famous-branded beer in London in 1847.
And the Pioneer village has a re-creation of the brewery on the grounds. After the game I took a walk through, climbed all the ladders and took a ton of pics of the place.
From Labatt's website;
I shall endeavor to take you through the brewery step by step, as best as I can, to take you through the brewing process photographically.
We'll start in the Brewmaster's office, where that portrait of John Labatt hangs.
The best that I could tell, this is the transfer of sale deed filed with the English Government, transferring ownership of the brewery to John Labatt.
Here's me at the desk, contemplating firing up the ole brewery. Or trying to figure out how to make off with a barrel or two.....
Here's the sign on the desk;
It turns out that London is the home to founder and master brewer John Kinder Labatt, who started making the famous-branded beer in London in 1847.
And the Pioneer village has a re-creation of the brewery on the grounds. After the game I took a walk through, climbed all the ladders and took a ton of pics of the place.
From Labatt's website;
Today on the bank of the Thames River in London, Ontario, there is a log and plank structure that is an exact replica of a pioneer brewery buiIt there 139 years ago. A bronze placque by the front door reads: "ON THIS SITE IN 1828 A BREWERY WAS BUILT BY MR. JOHN BALKWILL, INNKEEPER. IT WAS THE BEGINNING OF A COMPANY THAT NOW SPANS CANADA AND WHICH HAS REACHED FROM THIS PLACE TO THE FARTHEST POINTS OF THE WORLD IN ITS ALLIANCES AND INFLUENCE. A FARMER NAMED JOHN KINDER LABATT SUPPLIED THIS PIONEER BREWERY WITH MALT BARLEY AND IN 1847 TOOK OVER ITS OPERATION. HIS SONS AND GRANDSONS BUILT THE COMPANY ON A SOUND FOUNDATION OF REGARD FOR QUALITY AND FOR PEOPLE. TO THOSE WHO FOUNDED THIS ENTERPRISE AND THROUGH THEM ALL THOSE WHO SEEK A BETTER WAY OF DOING AND LIVING, THIS PIONEER BREWERY IS DEDICATED."
Labatt Breweries of Canada Limited traces its origins to this small enterprise. John Balkwill turned over the operation of the brewery to his brother-in-law, George Snell, who was assisted by his brother William Snell. The brewery was destroyed by fire in 1840 but was rebuilt in the same year with a capacity of 8,000 barrels. In 1847, John K. Labatt who had returned to Britain to learn "business" rejoined his family in London and A took over the London brewery in partnership with Samuel Eccles, a brewmaster.
The Labatt-Eccles team continued in partnership until 1853, when John Labatt became sole owner and renamed the Company after his own family - Labatt's Brewery. There were then six men on the payroll, but from that point growth speeded up, spurred largely by the coming of the railway. The first train into London in 1853 made it possible for Labatt's to ship their brews to Hamilton, Toronto and Montreal, and by 1856 such rail shipments were regular.
The founder's son, John Labatt II, was for much of this period, both at home and abroad, a keen student of brewing in all its aspects. In 1865 he returned to London after a course in West Virginia with the recipe for India Pale AIe, a name ever since synonymous with Labatt. John II assumed command of the company just a year later, at the age of 28, on his father's death.
Fire, in those years the greatest single scourge of property, burned out a major portion of the brewery in March of 1874, but by December a rebuilt, larger brewery was open for business.
I shall endeavor to take you through the brewery step by step, as best as I can, to take you through the brewing process photographically.
We'll start in the Brewmaster's office, where that portrait of John Labatt hangs.
The best that I could tell, this is the transfer of sale deed filed with the English Government, transferring ownership of the brewery to John Labatt.
Here's me at the desk, contemplating firing up the ole brewery. Or trying to figure out how to make off with a barrel or two.....
Here's the sign on the desk;
Here the clerical work connected with the operation of the brewery is carried out. Apart from controlling the quality of the brew, the brewmaster is responsible for keeping track of purchases, inventories, wages, sales, taxes and correspondences with other brewers. A step by step explanation of the brewing process begins well out of the main room. The is the logical place to begin, as a truly good brew begins with pure water.