At Steam Whistle Brewing, they live by their motto: Do one thing really, really well. Since 1998, Steam Whistle has grown from a dream hatched by three friends around a campfire into one of Canada’s largest and most beloved independent breweries. Greg Taylor, Cam Heaps and Greg Cromwell had previously been colleagues at a Canadian premier microbrewery in the 1980’s and 90’s before it was bought out by a national brewer and closed down, as the fate of many of Ontario’s independent breweries at that time. Sitting around the fire, the self-named “Three Fired Guys” dreamed about their own brewery one day, making a Pilsner that would compete with the best in the world.
Not only has their only product, the Steam Whistle Pilsner, received countless awards and recognition worldwide, but the brewery is also an exemplary model of the green revolution, “combining our love of cool cars, green technology, and good beer into a neat and tidy package.”
Steam Whistle Pilsner is one of the few pilsners in the world that still adheres to the strict standards of the Bavarian Purity Act of 1516. There are no shortcuts and only four ingredients to greatness. They brew using only pure spring water, malted barley, hops and yeast for this naturally carbonated, non-pasteurized pilsner. The high-purity spring water, which requires no filtering, is brought in from the Caledon Hills. There is no corn syrup, no foam enhancers, or artificial preservatives on site. Steam Whistle follows the same decoction brewing methods that made pilsner distinctive hundreds of years ago, which involves boiling part of the mash at higher temperatures to caramelize the barley sugars and deliver a rich, malty flavor and a creamier head on the poured beer.
Let’s be sure to highlight the uniqueness of four ingredients. Food Canada allows over 100 ingredients in beer and does not require they be listed on alcohol packaging. Most ingredient lists would look like a scary science project. Steam Whistle is proud of their all-natural, GMO-free ingredients, all four of them, and they list them because they believe that the consumer deserves to be informed.
Steam Whistle Brewing has put forth the sincere effort to be eco-friendly at every step, from the brewing process, the facility, the packaging and even getting its employees to the factory and delivering its brews to the store, or even your front door.
Steam Whistle’s new facilities, built in 2008, reduced wastewater by two-thirds, and phosphate-free cleaning products help reduce contamination of the remaining third. The brewery is located in the historic John Street Roundhouse, a former Canadian Pacific Rail steam locomotive repair facility located at the base of the CN Tower in Toronto. Despite the historic location, 100 percent of the power used in Steam Whistle Brewery is produced from wind turbines and low-impact hydro generators. The facilities are cooled by using Enwave’s Deep Lake Water Cooling, which means that icy cold water drawn through intake pipes from deep in Lake Ontario moves through the facilities, giving off a chill and providing a comfortable working environment each summer. The beer also benefits from deep lake cooling during the refrigerated three to four-week ‘lagering’ process. Steam Whistle draws 60 tons of water for deep lake cooling annually, avoiding 79 tons of carbon dioxide per year generated from air conditioning (equivalent to 16 cars). Deep lake cooling also reduces the brewery’s power bill by the equivalent of seven homes.
Heating is provided by Enwave’s district steam plant, as well as by capturing excess steam during the brewing process, rather than having a natural gas boiler running 24/7. The steam is used to heat the air during the cold Canadian winters and also to heat water for brewing. It is also used to sound off the operational steam whistle every hour from 9 am to 5 pm, and when visitors tour the brewery, they can sound off the whistle as well.
Steam Whistle offers tours of their facility every hour, seven days a week. The Roundhouse, the brewery’s on-site event space, hosts several hundred parties and events, annually, with accommodations for up to 750 people. To reduce waste generated on site, they send leftover edibles to Good Shepherd, Toronto’s largest street mission which serves more than 1300 meals a day.
The brewery is open seven days per week, except when former President Obama comes to town. When the G20 summit was held in Toronto, the brewery was closed for three days because the brewery lawn became the US president’s landing pad in the Marine One helicopter.
Steam Whistle does its own recycling and encourages consumers to return bottles to the brewery for reuse. Since the first batch of Steam Whistle Pilsner rolled off the line in March of 2000, they have been proudly using their unique green glass bottle, made with 30 percent more glass than traditional brown bottles. This means the same bottle can potentially be washed, inspected, washed and refilled more than 45 times. The bottles last nearly three times as long as standard industry bottles and their painted label eliminates glue and paper waste associated with refilling and any paper, glue, varnish or ink contamination during the washing process. Every bottle has a “3FG symbol” embossed into it, which represents the company’s original name “Three Fired Guys.”
Recycled cartons, unsalvageable glass, bottle caps and shrink wrap are recycled in-house to produce new packaging materials. Currently, 98 percent of waste from Steam Whistle Brewing’s facilities is diverted away from landfills. All agricultural products are GMO-free, and Steam Whistle’s spent grain after brewing is either composted or reused as farmer’s feed.
In addition to the iconic green bottles, the re-design of the 1950s Steam Whistle’s Suitcase 12-pack, with its sturdy box construction and pop-up handle received so much attention that in 2007 it was named as one of Canada’s 50 most significant inventions by cbc.ca. More recently, heads were turning with the release of the CAN VAN 10-pack, a sturdy carton modelled after one of the company’s vintage delivery vehicles, a 1967 Ford Econoline.
An entire article could be written about the impeccably restored 12 vintage vehicles that make up Steam Whistle’s fleet for events and the previously mentioned home delivery. The classic beer fleet includes a cast of named characters. There is Lumpy, a 1949 International stake truck. He runs on bio-diesel, has a manual transmission, and was one of the first vehicles added to Steam Whistle’s vintage fleet—not as a show truck, but as an actual beer delivery vehicle. Grumpy, a 1957 Chevrolet Side-Step Pickup, formerly a fish-hauling truck from the East Coast. The Steam Machine, a 1967 Ford Econoline Heavy-Duty van that has become somewhat of an icon for Steam Whistle, thanks to its blue-on-green flames, hot rod wheels and its Scooby-Doo Mystery Machine-like profile. It also happens to feature built-in beer taps on its side. Possibly the most notable vehicle in the fleet is Retro Electro, a fully-electric ’58 Chevy pickup that runs on wind power.
“Since the vehicles are good at making impressions everywhere,” Greg Taylor said, “it was important to send them all over Canada to spread what the Steam Whistle brand is all about. We’re going for a retro image encompassing an age of innocence, of quality, something that appeals to a broader demographic and age. To older folks, it’s relative, because they used to drive these things, and even little kids like them because they are just so different than anything else on the road.”
A company’s distribution fleet is often the largest contributor to carbon count, so they’ve taken other measures to lessen the impact. For more than a decade, Steam Whistle has been using biodiesel in their delivery trucks, a renewable fuel made from soy and recycled restaurant oil. The fleet also includes other notably efficient vehicles, like a fully automatic Mac truck trailer, Canada’s first SMART Car, energy-awarded Minis and several hybrids. The entire fleet is well maintained to improve fuel efficiency, and a number of their engines have been updated to improve fuel efficiency and with sustainability in mind.
A clean air commute to the brewery is also encouraged for all Steam Whistle team members, with their proximity to local bike paths, transit, and commuter trains. They also provide showers, towel service and covered bike racks for all staff.
Water is the single highest volume input used at any brewery. Steam Whistle sources their brewing water from the Caledon Hills because of its purity; no need to de-chlorinate, filter or de-mineralize the spring water as it arrives directly from an aquifer, deep below a layer of granite rock, protecting it from urban, industrial and agricultural run-off. Municipal tap water is used in operations to wash bottles, cans, kegs, tanks and floors of the packaging line, as well as water in the office, admin and hospitality areas. They’ve launched a program to conserve as much water as possible through the installation of water-saving equipment like a new bottle washer, keg filling line and shower heads on the packaging line. They have also eliminated all phosphates from cleaning agents so as not to contaminate waste water.
Steam Whistle always keeps energy savings and efficiencies at the top of their mind. They strive to improve continually by sourcing new energy-efficient technology in their production facilities. The brewery has been recognized numerous times and received many awards for their environmental initiatives.
Earlier this year, Steam Whistle announced the opening of a new manufacturing plant in Etobicoke, Ontario. They plan to add several new products to their lineup that for nearly two decades has consisted solely of its signature pilsner. The company plans to invest $22.8 million in the facility and expects to create 100 new jobs.
“This investment will not only help Steam Whistle increase production and efficiency but enable us to build our capacity to enter new markets,” said Cam Heaps. “The craft brewing sector in Ontario has seen tremendous growth. We want to continue to lead the sector and remain competitive through our innovative brewing techniques and our novel approaches to producing great tasting, quality products.”
Visit steamwhistle.ca to learn more about all the green initiatives, the world-class pilsner and the spectacular fleet of vintage delivery vehicles.