Today I'm talking with Eric Robert and we are
talking about the upcoming Fine and Dandy charity
beer festival. I had to look that one up because
that's a mouthful. And we're also talking about
his new brewery that's coming up and Brew Talk,
Eric's own podcast. How you doing? Great. Thanks
for having me on Tracy. I really appreciate being
here. Thank you. Now tell me about finding Dandy.
So every year, it started back in 2016. Actually,
I'll start right from the top. In 2016, there
was a brewer in Windsor Essex County by the name
of Jeffrey Craig. Unfortunately, Jeffrey was
diagnosed with cancer. And he spent that time
after his diagnosis deciding what he wanted to
do He tried to quit the industry and all the
guys banded together and they said you're not
going anywhere. Let's let's work together So
Jeffrey he created a beer that actually had dandelion
in it, which is great for Cancer it has cancer
healing properties. So Jeffrey created this this
beer He actually tried to do it with daffodil
at first and then learned that daffodil is actually
not good for humans So because cancer awareness
Daffodil month, right? So, but that's why he,
so he ended up with the dandelion because dandelion
does have cancer assisting properties cure. I
don't want to say curing properties, but it.
It's good for you. It helps. So he started the
Fine and Dandy. He created a beer with the guys
over at Craft Heads. He was a brewer at Walkerville
at the time. He had quit his job at Walkerville.
But the guys at Craft Heads, Brian and them,
teamed up with Jeffrey and they created the original
Fine and Dandy, which was a Saison style beer
created with Dandelion. And Walkerville teamed
up with them and they sold out, I think they
raised like $14 ,000 that year. wrong on the
numbers but they did they did very well. Now
what is a Saison? A Saison is a farmhouse, like
a Belgian farmhouse style beer. You're gonna
get a lot of like banana notes out of it, a lot
of clove. And with that dandelion, it really
just kind of creates a fun flavor. The dandelion
itself actually gives like an earthiness. So
it's not a very common flavored beer. Now, the
recipe that I make is actually Jeffrey's original
recipe. So I recreate the Saison, which is available
at Jake's Windsor Brew currently. And then it
will be available at Eerie Street. Street Brewery,
which we'll get to. But the Saison itself is
the style that I do. But all of the other breweries
that are involved now, everyone's doing new style
beers. It's not just the Saison. We've got guys
doing a basic Pilsner, where they add Dandelion.
The Rose City Brewery guys, they're joining in.
They joined in last year. They're doing a Groot,
which is a beer that doesn't use hops. They're
using Himalayan sea salt. Orange orange peel
Rose hips and then dandelions So just all kinds
of like fun beers that everyone's just teaming
together to really just take this thing that
Jeffrey created and we're just Pushing it to
the next level and that's awesome because I know
dandelions is very versatile Like a lot of people
use it in salads and that but I know like I'd
love to try the dandelion beer So when Jeffrey
was diagnosed with cancer and he made the fine
and dandy brew. Yeah How did that turn into this
festival? So, Walkerville really, really took
a hold of it those first couple of years. It
was 2016, 2017 when it originally happened and
Jeffrey created this beer in Walkerville every
year afterwards. So, Jeffrey unfortunately only
ever saw the first one. and then he passed away
shortly thereafter. The following year, Walkerville
and Kraftheads, again, they put it together.
Walkerville every year has done their own event,
so it has been carrying on year after year. I
was actually there tonight before I came here.
So Walkerville has always kept up this tradition
of the fine and dandy, where they donate a certain
amount of their proceeds sold tonight to the
Windsor Cancer Society. So it has always is kept
up but unfortunately back in 2021 I lost my wife
Victoria to cancer and Dave Smith the owner of
Jake's Windsor Brew he approached me and said
hey do you wanna join in with the Fine and Dandy
group? Like we can do our own version of Fine
and Dandy. And so we did it that year as kind
of our own little thing in at Jake's. And then
after that, the next year we did it again and
we sold more. And then last year, I just started
making phone calls. I started talking to the
guys at Walkerville and I said, hey. Let's all
do this together. Let's make this more. And last
year we did the event at Erie Street Gastropub
and we had six breweries there and it's just
grown. And now this year we're doing the event
at GL and we've got 10 plus breweries that are
coming for that. And GL Heritage Brewery is in
Amersburg, Ontario and that's a wonderful place.
I love that place. They're great. So it's gonna
be fun. It's gonna be a lot of fun. Now, when
is this festival? So, it's the last Sunday of
April. I know we're at the beginning of April
right now. The last Sunday of April, it's at
GL Heritage. It's from noon to four, and I think
right now we've got 10 breweries signed up for
it, and they're all creating, like I said, their
own rendition of A Fine and Dandy. I would hate
to leave someone out off the top of my head,
but, you know, everyone's going to have it on
their social medias. Walkerville's going to be
part of Craft Heads. Fat Lou, Top Dog, Bearded
Dog, Jake's Brew, Eerie Street, Rose City. Oh,
I'm sorry to whoever it is else that didn't make
the cut there. We will make sure that it's listed.
and where do the proceeds go to? So for that
event, we are doing 100 % of proceeds. All of
the beer has been donated. We've got musicians,
Paul Longdon Acoustic Music, he'll be there.
Greg Gnip and Brian or BT Booker, DJ BT will
be there as well. They're the 519 Radio guys.
and they're volunteering their time. And then
all the proceeds that day, everything that we
sell is going to go, we're gonna split it between
the hospice of Windsor Essex County and the Windsor
Cancer Society, Windsor Essex Cancer Society.
That's really nice. Yes. It is very nice. So
I am gonna have all that information on it. the
description and on social media, make sure that
we get out there. And you on Brew Talk had the
family. I did. I just recorded an episode on
Friday with you lovely folks here. I did. I sat
down with the Craig family. So I sat down with
Mike Craig, who is Jeffrey's dad, and he gave
their own heartwarming rendition, their heartwarming
tale of what they went through during Jeffrey's
diagnosis up to his passing. Then I sat down
with Jeffrey's brother, Michael, and his wife,
Melissa. And they told some fun stories of Jeff.
And then at the end of the episode, I sat down
with Dave Smith, the owner of Jake's Windsor
Brew, who owns the home brewer shop in Windsor,
Essex. And Jeffrey actually worked there for
a short period of time. So it was kind of his
origin story. It was this tale from him being
a kid with his brother, to the unfortunate diagnosis,
to his history and how he has affected brewers
in Essex County. I unfortunately never met him.
I got into the industry a little bit after he
did, but I'm honored that the family has given
me that freedom to kind of continue this tradition.
alongside Walkerville's tradition. Now does the
Craig family help out with the Fine and Dandy
Festival? Every year, absolutely. They are a
huge part of it. I was spent earlier this evening,
I was at Walkerville Brewery and they were there
and I spoke with them for a little while again
and they're gonna be at our festival on the Sunday
and they've offered, do you need us to sell tickets?
Do you need us to do... Anything what can we
do so they have a hundred percent? Every year
been a part of the the fine and dandy tradition
and they will continue to do so it's grown Beyond
anything any of us could have imagined Wow It's
nice to have have Everybody come together. I
really like the brewery community that we have
in Windsor They all come together when needed,
whether it's for the Fine and Dandy Festival,
Masters of the Bruniverse, it's always a nice
little camaraderie between them. Absolutely.
Oh, the Windsor Essex County brewing community
is is fantastic. You know, we're all we're all
friends. We all hang out. We all try to get together
and just go out for beers. You know, I love going
to certain breweries and I'm tasting beer and,
you know, hey, there's there's something is diacetyl
in this and having the guys come to us. But we
can we can joke about that. And, you know, you
mentioned of the brewniverse like that, that
fun competition. None of us are. I preach community.
That's my big thing in the area. I preach community
and I want to keep that community alive and it's
not hard because everyone is so happy to be a
part of it as well you know and I'm not saying
that I'm keeping the community alive like we
all keep the community alive everyone everyone
is is so involved with everything you know whether
it be the guys from craft heads saying hey Do
you need a keg or whatever? An empty keg. You
need some kegs? Here's some kegs. Or, you know,
oh, I'm short on hops. You can call any of the
guys. And it's happened before. And I say, guys,
there's girls out there, too. We've got, you
know... Ellie. Ellie, exactly. We've got a very
mixed bag of brewers out there. Yeah, I've had
the women on. Lovely. I need to have some of
the men brewers on and have a little roundtable
with them, as well. We would love sitting around.
And I'm sorry I didn't bring beer. That's okay.
I should have sat down with a beer here for you,
so we'll just have to... to do another episode
with some, a tastings episode. Well, because
Eric is starting a brewery. And now, would that
be classified as a microbrewery? Yes. Okay. Yeah,
yeah, we're very small batch, one barrel. And
the biggest thing that we're gonna do is we're
focusing on our tap house. So it's gonna be opening
up out of Erie Street Gastropub. Located on the
corner of Erie and Ellesmere, right in Little
Italy. Erie Street Gastropub's been around for
a few years now. The owner there, Graham, him
and I have created a relationship over the last
few years and I kept bringing him in. some of
my homebrew staff, and he's, damn, Eric, I really
wish we could have some of your beer on tap here,
and, you know, enough poking, and some time later,
and now we're, yeah, we're right around the corner
from opening our doors to the public and having
my beer available on tap, strictly at Erie Street
Brewery. So, Erie Street Brewery inside of Erie
Street Castro Pub. And when do you guys contemplate
that starting? I'm hoping... by the time this
episode airs. If not very soon after. Exactly.
I feel like I've been saying any day now for
the last few weeks. And that's the problem with
government paperwork. Sometimes it can take a
little longer, but hopefully within the next
couple of weeks, we're looking to have our doors
open and beer available on tap. Now, how many
different types of beers are you guys going to
have? So, Ear Street Gastropub does have 24 taps
available. And they're supporters of local. Of
local. Of Ontario, of Canada. Yes. Mostly Ontario.
Yes, mostly. Everything Graham gets, 95 % of
it is Ontario, local ciders. You know, he's a
great supporter of Thornberry Cidery and all
of the local. You know, everywhere from Ottawa
to Toronto, he's got contacts and he brings in
great beer. And we're going to continue to...
to do that. You know, Eerie Street Gastropub
is separate from the brewery, and they will continue
to keep their own beers, all the local, especially
local Windsor beers. You know, we share taps,
that's never gonna go away. I'm hoping to keep
between four and six taps for the brewery alone.
So we will have a good rotation. Our house beer
is gonna be a Rice Lager, and I'm gonna have
a nice Light Lager that's available. And then
the other four to six are gonna be seasonal.
Whatever we're feeling. Why not? No, rice beer.
I've never heard of that. So a rice lager is,
believe it or not, like Bud Light is a rice beer.
Most people don't know that. It is made with
rice syrup, I think. No, maybe don't put that
in. Bud Light is fine. It's delicious. But rice
is a common starch that's used in a starch, I
guess. It's got sugar in it. And at the end of
the day, anything with sugar. But rice is a common
grain used in beer brewing. And a rice lager
is Sapporo. That's a rice lager. And that's actually
probably one of the more popular ones would be
Sapporo. I like Sapporo. I had no idea. Well,
come on down and try a rice lager. It's all right,
I guess. Hey, you learn something new every day
of the year. I'm really excited about that and
I'm excited that he finally started his brew
talk back You've had that podcast before and
it just kind of fell by you were you're busy.
That's it You know what? I started it as a passion
project and uh, and that's what it was I I interviewed
I don't think I think I went through about 10
of the local brewers and we chatted about beer.
They told me their story and then Exactly, I
got busy, you know, between brewing and trying
to, working the wine harvests at Coleo because
Allison doesn't let me go anywhere during that
time of year. So yeah, it just kind of fell to
the wayside. But yeah, I just fired up a new
episode and I'm really hoping to get that going
more. So I've filmed actually a little bit more
of my own stuff to try and... keep the social
media algorithm with my name in it, I suppose,
right? Yes. So we've got to get the social media
back up and running. Yes, yes. Yeah. Eric at
Brew Talk for anyone that wants to say hi. Shoot
me an email. Tell me what you have for dinner,
I don't care. Do you have any new episodes planned
out in your head of who you're gonna have? You
know what, I would like to sit down with Dave
Smith from Jake's Winsor Brew again. At the end
of the Fine and Dandy podcast, I felt like I
could've talked to him for another half an hour,
but I wanted to wrap it up. So he's probably
next on my target list. But all of the brewers
in Essex County that I've talked to that haven't
been on yet have all given me the, yeah, I'd
like to be on it, except for Scott over at Sandwich.
I'm looking at you, Scott, I'm coming for you.
He said maybe, maybe not, but I'll get him. I
know I'll get him. You have to. Scott, you gotta
go. You gotta go, Scott. You've been called out.
There you go, Scott. Scott's my next episode.
Brew Talk, is that just on YouTube? It is on
YouTube. It's on Spotify. I'm the one running
all of the media pages for it. Same here. I'm
awful for it. People say YouTube is probably
the one that I'm focusing on I did run it through
all of the other But that's who knows who knows
I'm awful for it. I'm a brewer man. Get me out.
Get me off the computer I'm gonna have to help
him out. That's it. I'm gonna have to pay someone
So are you going to be recording your episodes
out of Erie Street? Yeah, actually, you know,
they've got a wonderful setup at the gastropub
and I I think my my goal after filming my last
episode, which was there, and big thanks to Graham
for sharing that space at Erie Street. But yeah,
I probably, I enjoyed the way that that worked
out, so it would be cool, but I also, you know.
with the Clear Rock Studios. Clear Rock Studios,
you guys are wonderful and have no problem being
on scene. I'll chase the podcasts as I can find
them. If I gotta do them on scene, I'll do them
on scene. But I would like to kind of use the
brewery, Erie Street Brewery and the Gastropub
as a home base, for sure. Just to let you guys
know the room we're talking about is an event
room that I didn't know that they had at Erie
Street Gastropub that is for rent if you want
to go take a look at it for any small events,
work events. It's a great little room just off
to the side and I love it there and I know we're
going to be doing a podcast with you and Graham
and some people at Erie Street once. The brewery
is up and running and we could talk a little
bit more and drink a little bit more. Sooner
than later, hopefully, yeah. Yeah, because I
mean, spring at Erie Street, it's all about change
and... menus, and it's my favorite patio to go
to in the summertime. Little corner spot. Well,
we've got a lot of tricks up our sleeve. We're
trying to keep them on the down -low. I don't
want to let anything go yet, but stay tuned.
I know a little bit. There's some fun things
that are going to be happening this year on the
patio, for sure. So I guess follow our socials
to stay in the loop. That is true. Oh, I want
to thank you so much for being on here and gracing
me with your presence. Hey, I appreciate you
having me on. It's been wonderful. And make sure
that you follow me and check out my social media
and Brew Talk because we're going to get that
one back up and going. But we'll have all the
information about the Fine and Dandy Festival
that is coming up at the end of April. And that's
going to be at GL Heritage Brewing Company out
in Amersberg. And then we have have to check
out Erie Street Brewery at Erie Street Gastropub,
which will be coming soon. Very, very soon. Sooner
than, yeah, that's right. Now, it should be out
now. It's out now. Go there now. And follow Brew
Talk on YouTube and check out the old episodes
and get caught up with the newer ones. Yeah,
great. Thank you so much. Of course. Thank you.
And again, my name is Tracy. Thank you so much
for joining me for another episode of YQG in
Blue. Yeah, have a good day. you