London Free Press

Recently it was announced that Toronto's Mill Street Brewery will be expanding into the Ottawa market with a brew pub in the LeBreton Flats. The 160-year-old property, a former grist mill, was previously the site of The Mill restaurant, a fact which certainly fits conceptually with the new occupants. The creation of the new brew pub is the result of two years of negotiations with the National Capital Commission. The expansion into the Ottawa market heralds a new era for Mill Street, which is also currently looking at locations in Alberta, according to owner Steve Abrams.

It's an ambitious move, especially when you consider the size of the location, which will produce 40 kegs of beer a week on site and seat nearly 400, including 120 on a patio with a view of the river.

While Canadian brew pub chains exist, they have traditionally operated on relatively small scales. Ottawa's Clocktower has three locations under the same brand featuring a core lineup of beers. British Columbia has the Mark James Group Brewery Restaurants, with a model that differs slightly in that each of their four brew pubs has a distinct identity and their own brands.

In the United States, however, the brew pub chain business model has had more success. Craftworks Restaurants and Breweries is the result of the merger of two separate franchises; Rock Bottom and Gordon Biersch. As a result of their merger in 2010, the chain now has more than 70 locations brewing on site under a number of different brands.

The Rock Bottom model seems to be fairly straightforward. Develop a core lineup of beers that are reproducible at a consistent quality at all of your locations. Since that takes a relatively specialized skill set, there's also built-in room for customization at each of the locations. The brewmaster on site is given some license to see what works for that market.

This is the model towards which Mill Street has been looking. It makes a great deal of sense when you consider the effort that has been put into creating individual brands like the Organic Lager and Tankhouse Pale Ale. Brewmaster Joel Manning has developed a number of recipes, but ultimately, the Ottawa location will employ two brewmasters on site to create seasonal beers and small batch recipes. According to Abrams, they will be given a certain amount of autonomy.

While the move could be seen as something of a challenge to the Clocktower franchises within Ottawa, Abrams sees the new location as more of a destination and event space, citing the fact that a city with a population of over a million is certainly capable of supporting both properties. In fact, it's the expanding beer culture in Ottawa that attracted Mill Street in the first place.

While it remains to be seen what degree of success the new location will enjoy upon opening, the data will be invaluable for people looking at this type of enterprise in Canada. Should the Ottawa location prosper, it will provide a blueprint for expansion into urban centres across the country, allowing not only expansion of Mill Street's established brands, but also a boost to the craft beer scene in whatever city receives a franchise. There is already a search underway for a location in Calgary

Will the Rock Bottom model work in Canada? It's hard to say, but it will definitely be interesting to watch.

Jordan St.John writes about beer in all of its many guises on his blog at http://saintjohnswort.ca/.